It feels almost like we’re seeing the whole movie but edited for the duration of an elevator ride. You’ve been warned.

American Apparel wants you to buy this....

There is no mistaking American Apparel advertising with anyone else. (Unless of course impersonation is the goal). It  creates and prints its own advertisements with an obvious provocative edge.  Their image  is inspired by the company CEO Dov Charney.

Their print campaign is  considered to be some of the best in the retail industry and also the most  sexually charged.  The models often go without make-up and a minimal amount of clothes except for the item being sold. …like panties or a workout leotard.  Their blemishes, imperfections and often waife-like body types are what distinguish American Apparels ads from the rest.  Concern that the company is “sexualizing” under age models have led to a few bans.

Many of the models in American Apparel’s overtly sexual advertising are recruited by Charney and his marketing department.  Plucked from the street, the adult film industry or literally working in the company’s stores, the models are immortalized in grainy, poorly lit photo spreads  Some critics have labeled their models as “cocaine-chic”, and “pre-pubescent” (though Charney and American Apparel confirm that all their models are consenting adults just looking to sell a few tee-shirts).

The Daily Helping would like to provide a closer look at American Apparel’s ad style and offer two venues. One is the year old compilation put together by the website StyleCrave.com. They offer up what was at that point, the 50 Sluttiest American Apparel ads to have graced magazine, billboards or bus kiosks.

American Apparel has also provided an online archive for their models, both male and female and so if you’re a true fan of the company, you may have found yourself a personal favorite.  Valaria, for example may have wowed you with her “printed tank thong bodysuit” but her photo spread with the “Oversized Raglan cycle shorts” may come as a wonderful surprise.

It would have been a shame to have to throw the shirt away!

A pitch for a horror movie may be something like…”Part Omen, part Jaws, part Bull Durham.”  The producer and studio will then sit back and digest the combination and see if it sounds marketable.

“It’s part Rambo, part The Sting!” A combination that sounds like money.

The Daily Helping loves a good pitch as much as the next blog, but there are certain pitches that sound too good to be true.  We think we found one that sounds pretty darn good.

“Middle Men” is an independent film that just found a home at Paramount following  lots of buzz at the recent Santa Barbara Film Festival.  What’s the pitch on “Middle Men”?  According to Variety’s Todd McCarthy, it’s “Boogie Nights” meets “Goodfellas”.

That sounds pretty good.

It has a fantastic cast.  Luke Wilson (“Royal Tenenbaums”, “Old School”), James Caan, Giovanni Ribisi and Gabriel Macht. In what is called the “true story” of  Jack Harris, a husband and father who helps re-organize struggling but potentially lucrative businesses. He goes to work on a company that launches one of the very first view for pay porn sites.  His clients (Ribisi and Macht) are geniuses who are suddenly flush with money, and up to their eyes in  women and drugs.  Harris (Wilson) must try to keep the business on the rails (not those kind of rails) and in doing so, becomes entangled with the Russian mob, a porn star, and the FBI.

Now that the movie has a distributor, a trailer has finally emerged. Take a look and see if this excites you as much as it does us.  It’s an extended trailer and we’re pleased to say, Not Safe For Work. (Look for great cameos by Kelsey Grammer (Frazier) and the great Kevin Pollack (Usual Suspects, A Few Good Men). Don’t ask when it’s going to be released because you won’t like the answer: Fall of next year.

Director Kevin Smith prior to being de-planed.

Director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Zack and Miri Make a Porno) has made some news recently, and it has nothing to do with the upcoming realease of his cop/buddy picture, “Cop Out“.

Over the weekend, Smith started Live-Twittering his removal from an Oakland to Burbank Southwest Airlines flight for being too fat.  He was told to leave the plane because he didn’t fit properly in the seat and thus considered a “safety risk”. Southwest’s “Customer of Size” policy requires larger passengers to purchase two seats if they cannot be comfortably accommodated in a single seat. It’s a policy that has been in place for the past 25 years.  Both Smith and the airline have acknowledged that he had bought two seats for his original flight from Oakland, where he had spoken at the recent Macworld Expo conference, but was flying standby in order to catch an earlier flight. There was only one seat available and the flight crew felt that one was not enough.

This embarrassing little escapade became a PR nightmare for Southwest because more people read Kevin Smith’s tweet account than see his movies. His Twitter account boasts over a million and a half followers and Smith was quick to report to his readers about his humiliation as soon as it was happening.

Dear @SouthwestAir – I know I’m fat, but was Captain Leysath really justified in throwing me off a flight for which I was already seated?

Shortly afterward, Smith kept his barrage flying.

Dear @SouthwestAir, I flew out in one seat, but right after issuing me a standby ticket, Oakland Southwest attendant Suzanne (wouldn’t give..last name) told me Captain Leysath deemed me a “safety risk”. Again: I’m way fat… But I’m not THERE just yet. But if I am, why wait til my..bag is up, and I’m seated WITH ARM RESTS DOWN. In front of a packed plane with a bunch of folks who’d already I.d.ed me as “Silent Bob.”

And this….

So, @SouthwestAir, go fuck yourself. I broke no regulation, offered no “safety risk” (what, was I gonna roll on a fellow passenger?). I was..wrongly ejected from the flight (even Suzanne eventually agreed). And fuck your apologetic $100 voucher, @SouthwestAir. Thank God I don’t..embarrass easily (bless you, JERSEY GIRL training). But I don’t sulk off either: so everyday, some new fuck-you Tweets for @SouthwestAir.

The Tweets from Smith kept up well into his inevitable flight home. His anger was fuel for a growing fire, as other people of girth voiced their own frustration at such treatment.

(1/2) @pigz “I know several people bigger then u who have flown on other airlines” I saw someone bigger than me on THAT flight! But I wasn’t (2/2) about to throw a fellow Fatty under the plane as I’m being profiled. But he & I made eye contact, & he was like “Please don’t tell…”

On arrival in Burbank, Smith fires off a few more rounds.

Hey @SouthwestAir! I’ve landed in Burbank. Don’t worry: wall of the plane was opened & I was airlifted out while Richard Simmons supervised.

(1/2) Hey @SouthwestAir? Fuck making it right for me just ’cause I have a platform. I sat next to a big girl who was chastised for not buy-(2/2) ing an extra ticket because “all passengers deserve their space.” Fucking flight wasn’t even full! Fuck your size-ist policy. Rude…

A Southwest employee who had a Twitter account associated with Southwest was flooded with hate tweets.  The airline would find it necessary to responded with a full blog post of their own they entitled cleverly ” Not So Silent Bob” (a character played by Smith in his string of slacker movies.  It was in this blog that Southwest apologizes for the inconvenience, but also discloses what seems like confidential information about their passenger’s original two-seat purchase was disclosed.

It’s doubtful this is over.

Click on this picture of Carmen for more of her Winter Games.

The rants are in their original German, but the subtitles are in English and absolutely brilliant.  Here’s one that’s a favorite of DailyHelping.  Hitler responds to Apple’s recently released, iPad.