This really isn’t film news related, but as a man of sizable size and girth, I think it bears repeating.
Kevin Smith was kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight on Saturday. Why? For being fat.
The airline used its long-standing “Customers of Size” policy, stating that the comfort of their customers is paramount and they believed Smith needed an extra seat due to his fatness.
This didn’t sit well with Smith, and since he’s is regularly on Twitter, he let the world know. Robot 6 has the best details about the dust-up, including Smith’s NSFW tweets (which, I say as a fan, is some of his best work as a writer), including his resonse to Southwest Air’s trying to get in front of the story.
Kudos for Smith to sticking up for people of a certain size. From one fatty to another, I salute you.
To cut off the naysayers at the pass, I doubt Smith is doing this for publicity for his new film COP OUT opening next weekend. None of the other publicity for the film has used his name as a selling point for the flick, so how would getting his name in the press over this help the film?
If you listen to Kevin’s Smodcast, he did it because of the flight he actually made it on. He had two seats and was at the window. A larger girl was seated in the aisle seat. A flight attendant pulled her off the plane and gave her crap about not buying another seat. She was seated next to an empty seat so it didn’t manner. They did let her back on the flight after the embarrassment. Kevin is upset because the airline did almost the same thing to her two hours after they did it to him.