The Westboro Baptist Church has been all over the news lately (just as they’d hoped) for picking a fight with the hackers at Anonymous. Now the famously racist, homophobic, and just generally insane ministry has a new enemy: Kevin Smith. The filmmaker is currently on tour with Red State, a thriller that’s based in large part on — and obviously highly critical of — the church. And, because the folks at Westboro are always on the lookout for a promotional opportunity, Megan Phelps (granddaughter of founder Fred Phelps) and her cousin Jael agreed to watch the film and give their “review” after it was over. According to Smith, he and Megan, who he refers to as “the ‘Marilyn’ of the Phelps’ family,” met on Twitter.
But the pair didn’t last long at Saturday’s Kansas City screening. After leading a relatively mild protest outside the theater, the Phelps cousins made it through about 15 minutes of Red State before marching right out. Megan tweeted, “Well, finally met @thatkevinsmith(briefly) as we left the Midland! One word review of the first few minutes: filth! Thanked him kindly…”
Interestingly, two young members of the Phelps clan who have extricated themselves from their family’s reprehensible church did stay to do a Q&A with Smith after the film. Watch a video of that conversation and read more about the Smith vs. Phelps showdown at Slashfilm.