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Johnny Knoxville is making his namesake hometown sick to its stomach.

"jackass the movie," the box office hit in which the South Knoxville native stars, is reportedly causing audience members to become queasy.

There were three confirmed reports of vomiting during a showing a week ago at the Wynnsong 16 theater, off North Peters Road. The first incident involved a young female who was eating chocolate ice cream while watching the movie.

"Some of the scenes in there are kind of graphic," said Wynnsong employee Jonathan Bentley, who has cleaned up after the movie. "If you are eating something during the movie, it might tend to upset your stomach."

At Oak Ridge's Tinseltown, a few stomachs have reportedly been turning, and at least one woman walked out of the theater.

There are other reports around town, all unconfirmed, of other people getting sick while watching the movie.

"jackass the movie" is based on the MTV series of stunts and pranks. In the R-rated movie, a man uses a toilet in the middle of a hardware store. Another man does a taste test on, shall we say, yellow snow in an ice cream cone.

Such reactions to seeing this were not unexpected. During early screenings, a few preview audience members got sick, said Knoxville .

At the premiere screening of the film in Hollywood, bags were attached to the back of every seat in anticipation.

"We had people puke in the previews, and it's good to see that it is carrying over to the general audience," Knoxville quipped on Wednesday. "There hasn't been this much puking in theaters since the premiere of 'Deuces Wild,' " a reference to one of his recent box-office bombs.

He considers the reactions to "jackass" to be a compliment.

"Just come, and please stay hydrated," he joked.

Many ticket buyers are going, well aware of what the TV series contained.

"We are here to see how outrageous it can be," said Tim Munsey of Knoxville , who caught the movie on a Wednesday afternoon. "That's the whole reason you go see it, because it is so outrageous."

The rest of the country seems to agree. Opening weekend, "jackass" made $22.7 million and has a shot of being the top-grossing movie again this weekend.

"The film exceeded our expectations," Regal Cinemas spokesman Dick Westerling said earlier this week. "There was a lot of local interest with the connection of Johnny Knoxville being a former Knoxvillian.

"The film did well for us, as it did across the country. We expected it to do well, but we didn't expect for it to do this well."

Westerling said Knoxville did an excellent job of tapping into his core audience of 18- to 22-year olds.

At Reel Theaters in Sevierville, manager Steve Haney said "jackass" is bringing a different kind of clientele to his theater. "It's bringing out the holler monsters," Haney said.

The parents of Johnny Knoxville , whose real name is P.J. Clapp , saw the movie on opening night at Knoxville Center, as did several members of the University of Tennessee football team, including quarterback Casey Clausen. Dad's favorite moment: When a dwarf kicked himself in the head.

The football players cornered Knoxville 's parents afterward and asked if they could get them his autograph.

On Tuesday night, close to two dozen of Knoxville 's local posse caught the film. Later, they posed for a photo next to the movie's poster.

"He's still funny and still a good guy. He's a down-to-Earth guy," said high school buddy Rich Nichols, who recalls Knoxville always having acting ambitions.

"I figured he'd do it. He went (to Los Angeles) and put his time in."

Terry Morrow may be reached at 865-342-6445 or Morrow2@knews.com

© 2002, Knoxville News Sentinel
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