Friday I lunched, separately, with two of my favorite cult figures: Joel Hodgson, the creator and original host of “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” and James Gunn, the former St. Louisan who wrote the “Scooby-Doo” movies and directed “Slither.” Both fellas have new projects they want you to know about, and I’m here to help.

First I met Hodgson and MST3K alum Mary Jo Pehl at the Woofie’s hot dog stand in Overland. I figured they’d appreciate the autographed photos of legends like Fred “Rerun” Berry. Hodgson and Pehl were in town to promote their new talk-back-to-the-movie-screen project, which is called Cinematic Titanic.  Several CT episodes are now available for download at EZTakes. I’ve got the first two installments–”The Oozing Skull” and “Doomsday Machine”–and I can attest to the wisenheimer yucks contained therein. But don’t take my word for it. The Cinematic Titanic Crew, which also includes MST3K veterans Trace Beaulieu, J. Elvis Weinstein and Frank Conniff, will do their “riffing” live at the St. Charles Family Arena on Sat., Nov. 1.

Hodgson wouldn’t reveal the top-secret movie that the crew will be cutting to pieces, but I would expect it to have something to do with aliens, cavemen or beatniks. Tickets for the Nov. 1 show are still available through Metrotix.

Hodgson lives in Los Angeles now, but he’s a Midwesterner by birth and temperament, so he was too polite to tell a reporter why he surrendered the MST3K hosting duties to Mike Nelson while the show was becoming a cult phenomenon. (It won a Peabody Award in 1993, the year he left.) But Hodgson did acknowledge that there had been an internal rift and that he walked away rather than see his baby get cut in half.  (Yes, he did make a King Solomon reference.)

Babies getting cut in half might be more of interest to James Gunn. The horror aficionado is a judge on a new reality show called “Scream Queens” that debuts Oct. 20 on VH-1. The attractive young woman who wins the contest will be terrorized in a high-profile new horror flick.

Although Gunn’s criminally neglected horror film “Slither” was a comedy, he said over veggie burgers at Bluebery Hill that his favorite recent horror franchises are pretty gruesome: The “Saw,” “Hostel” and  Rob Zombie flicks.

But Gunn also has a sensitive side. His other new project is “James Gunn’s PG Porn,” a series of short films for Spike.com that debut on Oct. 8. The shorts pair Hollywood starslike his friend Nathan Fillion with porn stars like Aria Giovanni for sex-free stories about the adventures of pizza-delivery men, cable-TV installers, cabana boys, etc.

More proof of Gunn’s sensitive side is that he brought his new gal-pal to St. Louis to meet his folks. She’s singer Terra Naomi, whose 2006 video for “Say It’s Possible” made her a YouTube sensation. Gunn pulled some strings to get her a last-minute gig at the fabulous Way Out Club. Think that’s impressive? Naomi was one of the singers at last year’s Live Earth concert in London, performing at Wembley Stadium for 70,000 people. Surely it’s only a matter of time before she gets her photo on the wall at Woofie’s.