MOVIE JUNKETS ARE ABOUT GENERATING publicity for the film, be it information on the making of it or profiles of the actors and filmmakers. We usually just stick to the movie, and consequently, there are often great quotes that don't fit into our actual movie coverage. Such is the case with my New York trip for the Mystery Men junket, so I would like to use this space to share some of those quotes.

Paul Reubens plays the Spleen, a tag-along superhero whose power is his noxious farts. "I felt like I was playing the character as kind of slow," he said, "but when I saw the movie it didn't seem like that at all. I'm not sure what that says." He just finished playing a murderer/bank robber/rapist in a Western written by Dwight Yoakam. Most interesting is the fact that he hasn't put Pee-Wee Herman behind him. In fact, he's just begun writing a new movie, The Pee-Wee Herman Story, which deals with the downside of fame.

"I'm not a fan of independent films," William H. Macy admitted during his interview. "I like big films. I like big paychecks rather than little paychecks. But the truth of the matter is that the studios can only make so many films, and there's an insatiable appetite, apparently, for American films, so what are you going to do?" The only difference between an $8 million film and an $80 million one, he said, is the size of the paycheck -- but the rest of it looks the same, down to the size of the trailer.

He also said, "Janeane Garofalo is the one who just steals my heart in this thing," and I can easily apply that same sentiment to her interview. She was as smart and sassy and just plain good-lookin' as you would imagine. Asked if she wishes she had a love interest in the film, she responded, "Nah. I don't find that particularly interesting. I find romances kind of surgically attached. It's as boring to me as a great-looking lead. Know what I mean? It doesn't mean anything to me as a movie-goer, like when the guy's super-handsome. It doesn't make me like him more, and it doesn't make me root for him more." God bless Janeane Garofalo, and God bless the rest of the Mystery Men.