Lisa Live: Truce Called in 'Clerks II' Spat

You may have heard about the public tiff between filmmaker Kevin Smith and “Good Morning America” critic Joel Siegel.

Siegel bolted from a screening of Smith’s new movie "Clerks II," but not before loudly announcing, “Time to go! First movie I’ve walked out of in 30 …years.”

A newspaper reporter tipped off Smith to the incident, and the writer/director fired back at Siegel on his Web log, calling his behavior unprofessional.

The two finally had it out voice-to-voice when Siegel called in to the "Opie and Anthony" radio show while Smith was a guest. In the end, they finally came to some sort of peace.

In the meantime “Clerks II” opened in theaters last weekend, taking in roughly 10 million bucks. That sounds modest, but it’s actually a decent showing considering the film was made for only $5 million.

Smith said he’d like to see the movie make at least $20 million — which would be $17 million more than his 1994 breakthrough, the original "Clerks."

And “Clerks II” is certainly NOT for the whole family: its niche audience consists of those who enjoy the inane and geekish musings of potty-mouthed slackers.

New Jersey-bred Smith, whose other credits include "Chasing Amy," and "Jersey Girl," stopped in to FOX News this week to put the Smith/Siegel spat in its final resting place.

“I grew up watching Joel Siegel [on local New York news]," he said. "He would review the movies at night, and was kind of the ‘base’ of film criticism for me. As I sat there going back and forth with him on 'Opie and Anthony,' I felt like I was arguing with my father in some weird way — if my father looked like the gay biker from the Village People.”

As for Siegel, he told FOX: “I have apologized. Some of Kevin Smith’s movies I like, some I don’t. I think it is time to give this thing up. There is no way I could review this film on morning television, so I decided not to stay and watch.”

By the way, I couldn’t resist asking Smith what he thought of the new "Superman Returns,"as he was one of the many screenwriters who took a crack at the script along the film’s torturous route to the big screen.

“I always think it’s great to have a director see his vision realized, and Bryan Singer’s vision of Superman as Jesus was definitely achieved,” he told me.

Yes, this Superman may have the mildest manners of all who donned the “S” before him.

But forget about viewing it as a filmmaker, I said. What did Smith think as a fan?

“Well,” he answered wryly, “I would have liked to see Superman punch someone.”