Remember last month at Cannes when Spike Lee promoting his African-American WWII movie Miracle at St Anna made some characteristically aggressive remarks about the dearth of black characters in Clint Eastwoods Flags of Our Fathers Well the man who once played Dirty Harry has a few choice words for LeeA guy like him should shut his face Eastwood told the UKs Guardian newspaper apparently thinking that calling Lee a dummy head might sound childish Despite his obvious anger Eastwood gave a straightforward response to why there werent more black roles in his film The story is Flags of Our Fathers the famous flag-raising picture and they didnt do that If I go ahead and put an African-American actor in there peopled go This guys lost his mind I mean its not accurate Eastwood also claimed that Lee had once griped about Eastwood directing Bird the biopic about African-American jazzman Charlie Parker a story Lee thought should be told b
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Spike Lee has called out Clint Eastwood over two of his World War II-era films because they do not include any African-Americans cast as soldiersLee specifically cited Flags of our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima He made the comments in Cannes while promoting his own WWII film Miracle at St Anna which tells the story of an all-black US division based in Tuscany ItalyMany veterans African-Americans who survived that war are upset at Clint Eastwood Lee said In his vision of Iwo Jima Negro soldiers did not exist Simple as that I have a different versionWhen Eastwood also in Cannes promoting his upcoming movie Changeling was asked to respond to Lees comments a moderator instructed reporters to limit questions to Eastwoods movie JR Whalen
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ESPN held its upfront presentation Tuesday morning at the Nokia Theater in New York. Anchors Scott Van Pelt and Steve Levy hosted the event as a mock SportsCenter episode. The 80-minute presentation was light on programming announcements, but the biggest news was the addition of a block of live SportsCenters from 6 am to 3 pm/ET, beginning Monday, Aug. 11. A new web site, SportsCenter.com, will also debut in August. It was also confirmed that The Early Show's Hannah Storm will be one of the new anchors for this block. In other SportsCenter news, a 1 am/ET edition produced live in Los Angeles, will premiere on April 9, 2009.Other new programming includes ESPN Homecoming, an profile/interview show with Rick Reilly, who the network poached from Sports Illustrated last fall.Features reporter, deadpan "comedian" and Dancing With the Stars vet Kenny Mayne will host a new humor show for espn.com called Mayne Street.ESPN will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2009 with "30 For 30," a series...
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Spike Lee on Tuesday announced his plan to make a World War II film based on the novel Miracle at St. Anna, which focuses on the contribution of African-American soldiers who fought and died to liberate Europe.... A Dog's Breakfast, a comedy directed by David Hewlett and featuring fellow Stargate players Christopher Judge and Rachel Lutrell among its cast, will premiere on iTunes and Amazon's Unbox this Tuesday, before arriving on DVD in mid-September.
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Although he initially didn't sign up for Dancing with the Stars' live tour, Season 4 champ Apolo Anton Ohno is proving he's a real winner by joining the show for five East Coast performances. Also, fellow hoofer John Ratzenberger will do a single turn when the tour hits his hometown of Bridgeport, Connecticut.... Spike Lee will make his Broadway directorial debut with a spring 2008 remounting of the World War II dramedy Stalag 17, says the New York Times. Though no casting has been announced, Lee wants "a name" for the lead, and vows that no rappers are on his shortlist.... Per Playbill.com, Duke of Hazzard Tom Wopat is joining Faith Prince and Harvey Fierstein in A Catered Affair, an upcoming B'way musical based on the 1956 movie of the same name. — Reporting by Raven Snook
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