Spike Lee, who knows a thing or two about bashing movies for historical inaccuracy, is facing a backlash of his own from Italian partisans over Miracle at St. Anna.  It seems the film incorrectly implies that an antifascist Italian partisan gave information to the Nazis which led to the 1944 massacre of 560 Italians. The writer was apologetic:

“This is a fictional story,” [James] McBride said. “The real question for me was how to make ‘St. Anna’ a reveal, because that is the craft of fiction.  I am very sorry if I have offended the partisans. I have enormous respect for them. As a black American, we understand what it’s like for someone to tell your history, and they are not you.  But unfortunately, the history of World War II here in Italy is ours as well, and this was the best I could do,” McBride added.

Yeah so settle down, people who risked death to fight fascism.  As a black guy, James McBride knows your struggle.  But wait, I’m sure Spike will clarify things!

“I am not apologizing for anything. I think these questions are evidence that there is still a lot about your history during the war that you (Italians) have got to come to grips with.
“This film is no clear picture of what happened. It is our interpretation, and I stand behind it.” [Variety]

You know, sometimes I feel bad for bashing Spike Lee as much as I do when his movies are important to so many people.  And it’s true, he tries to tell the stories that need to be told when not a lot of people are telling them.  The problem is, he’s such an arrogant little douchebag that the only side of the story he ever sees is his own.  Complain about racism all you want, Spike, and every once in a while you’re even right. But be honest with yourself, under different circumstances you would’ve made a great nazi.

According to Spike Lee, Spike Lee isn’t feuding with Clint Eastwood anymore.  Reports DeadlineHollywoodDaily:

Lee tells The New Yorker [though I can't find the New Yorker story -Ed.] that he ended the feud during a Lakers game during the recent basketball season. He saw Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg, and Eddie Murphy sitting together, so he went up to Spielberg and said, ” ‘Steven, it’s over with Clint Eastwood.’ Steven laughed and said, ‘I’ll call Clint and tell him in the morning.’ I said, ‘It’s over.’ He said, ‘Good.’

Hmm.  I’m not sure how feuds work, but I don’t think you can end them just by telling random people it’s over.  But then, things work differently when Spike Lee is involved, because as Spike Lee knows, Spike Lee is a great man. Oh yeah, and he kind of maybe sorta dissed Judd Apatow too.

During a break from scoring his new film with Terence Blanchard, a Sony Pictures Studio employee approached carrying a cardboard tube that contained a poster of Miracle at St. Anna and asking the men to sign it so it could be mounted in the hallway next to posters for other movies whose scores had been recorded there. ” ‘Yeah, O.K.,’ Lee said, brusquely. He added, ” ‘Don’t put us next to Judd Apapoe [sic], whatever that guy is,” Lee interrupted. ’We gotta be next to Spielberg and Williams!’ “

Good one, Spike.  It always hurts more when you pretend to not know the other guy’s name.  Though I think Judd Apapoo, or Pud Crapatow, or Mud Flapatow, or Johnny Appleplow would’ve zinged him way harder.

^{American Indians were incensed by Lee’s continued, racially insensitive tomahawk chopping}

Spike Lee recently told King magazine that his fight with Clint Eastwood may cost him an Oscar for Miracle at St. Anna.  Personally, I think it might be the shitty reviews that do it.  Of course, Spike’s not one to let his Oscar dreams stand in the way of continuing to say stupid things.

“My wife Tonya told me I may have hurt my chances with the Clint Eastwood stuff… They (Oscar voters and Academy bosses) take everything into account with me. They take into account that I like the Knicks or that I’m in New York.”
Lee is adamant the fact he’s a Big Apple guy has cost him an Oscar Best Director nomination in the past: “If you did a survey, the bulk of the people who vote in the Academy are in Los Angeles. There’s definite bias, considering that my films are typically New York-based.”

That’s true, Spike, the Academy hates New York.  I mean, look at poor Woody Allen, he’s only won three Oscars.  In fact, I bet Reggie Miller is somehow behind all this.

He’s still upset that his Do The Right Thing movie wasn’t even considered for an Oscar the year Driving Miss Daisy claimed Best Film.
He adds, “Nobody is watching motherf-cking Driving Miss Daisy today. Do The Right Thing is being taught in classes at major universities and high schools all over the world. That’s how you’re supposed to test art. Does the work stand up?” [Source]

Spike may have a point there, but think the English Patient over Fargo, Forrest Gump over Pulp Fiction, Titanic, Crash, A Beautiful Mind – look, a lot of shitty movies have won Best Picture Oscars.  They nominated The Hours, for Christ’s sake. No one saw that movie.   I’m not sure where I was going with this, but Spike Lee is a dick.

In an interview with MTV recently, Miracle at St. Anna actor Derek Luke claimed Will Smith had been offered the part of Captain America.

“I heard they offered Will Smith ‘Captain America,’” said Luke, adding that the intriguing casting rumor “just shows you how times have changed.”

As I learned when my neighbor’s dog told me to kill those kids, just because you overhear something doesn’t make it true.  But when you think about it, it makes total sense.  Will Smith is the most bankable star in Hollywood, so clearly he’s already been accepted by even the most shitkickinest rednecks.  Plus, the move gets all sorts of press, even though a black dude playing Captain America isn’t really a big deal.  A black dude playing waterpolo, now there’s a story.

Oh, and as far as anyone being able to verify the original rumor, Marvel denies it. Probably just that f*cking dog talking his shit again.

Variety today reports that Spike Lee’s next project after Miracle at St. Anna will be directing and co-writing Time Traveler, an adaptation of a memoir by Ronald Mallet, one of the nation’s first black Ph.Ds in Theoretical Physics, whom I imagine grabbing his crotch and yelling, “Ph DEEZ NUTS!’ upon being handed his diploma.  What?

Mallett, who wrote the book [full title: Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality] with Bruce Henderson, recounts his rise from poverty to a distinguished academic and scientific career, and it lays out the technical specs for what Mallett envisions as a workable time machine. Developing a time machine became an obsession for Mallett from the age of 10 after his father’s death. His goal was to travel back in time to save his father.

Lee plans to use Mallet’s work to lay out his theory that the space-time continuum is just a conspiracy to keep the black man from going back in time and partying with dinosaurs.  Suck on that, whitey, you no rhythm having ass motherfuckers.