Well-known director and actor Kevin Smith, better known by his character Silent Bob, was kicked off an airline Sunday for being too fat and, thanks to Twitter, the whole world read about it as it was happening.
Smith, who directed the likes of Clerks (unfortunately), Jersey Girl and the upcoming comedy Cop Out, live-tweeted as the events were unraveling.
He was far from amused.
At least he didn’t seem to be, until he uploaded a picture of himself sitting on the plane, puffing his cheeks up to look as large as possible.
Later, on his blog, Smith admitted that he was stressed because he hadn’t “laid the pipe” to his wife in two days. Still, he tried to make light of the situation while proving a point.
Southwest Airlines apologized in a blog of its own, wittily entitled “Not So Silent Bob,” but rather than simply apologizing, the company defended its actions (to an extent) and took a bit of a stab at Smith.
“Mr. Smith originally purchased two Southwest seats on a flight from Oakland to Burbank — as he’s been known to do when traveling on Southwest.”
In his blog, Smith admits to usually buying two tickets for himself — because yes, he knows he is a larger man and because he can afford it. But isn’t that personal information that Southwest shouldn’t release?
Although companies, both large and small, can get benefit greatly from social networking Web sites, they should be wary of whom they put in charge of their Twitter and Facebook accounts. They might accidentally release private information that the companies could be sued for.
Sure, Smith talks about it openly in his blog and via Twitter, but it still seems like confidential customer information that Southwest Airlines isn’t supposed to publicly release, especially on its Web site that attracts thousands of visitors every day.
