Spike Lee called New York’s WOR radio Friday to promote the release of Da 5 Bloods on Netflix. He spoke with morning show hosts Len Berman, a longtime sports broadcaster, and Michael Riedel, one of the city’s better-known theater critics, and the interview gives the impression the three men have yapped on-air many times before.
The conversation started with some yuks, with Lee shocked to learn that the film received a good review in the New York Post. (Back in the day, Post columnist Steve Dunleavy was highly critical of Lee’s films, particularly Summer of Sam).
After pitching the movie, Lee and Berman discussed the George Floyd demonstrations, with Berman admitting “some naïveté” thinking “we had made some progress in civil rights, but I guess I was wrong.” Lee was understanding of his perspective, before explaining how uplifting the current protests are to him.
Riedel then changed the subject, asking if Lee had any thoughts about Woody Allen, whose successful-in-other-countries recent film, A Rainy Day In New York, was never released in the United States (unless you count airplanes) and whose memoir switched publishers after protests. And Lee didn’t hold his tongue.
“I’d just like to say Woody Allen is a great, great filmmaker and this cancel thing is not just Woody,” he said. “When we look back on it, we are going to see that, short of killing somebody, I don’t know that you can just erase someone like they never existed. Woody’s a friend of mine, a fellow Knick fan, and I know he’s going through it right now.”
Riedel tried for a follow-up, but Berman spoke over him to zing Lee about his zeal for the perennially troubled Knicks and the director’s courtside seats.
Allen has long denied sexual assault allegations made against him, which Connecticut prosecutors declined to prosecute in 1993. His 50th film as a director, Rifkin’s Festival, set in Spain, is already completed, and stars Gina Gershon, Christoph Waltz, Wallace Shawn, and Louis Garrel.
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