Well, my respect for Spike Lee just dropped to a new low. As many of you who listened to last nights racially charged episode of A Couple of Cold Ones with Korey and Carlyle already know (or maybe you don't as Korey has yet to post it still, cough cough), we broached the topic of Spike, Clint Eastwood and race. And we got under each other's skins so to speak. But either way you slice it, we both agreed on one thing. Spike was being a bit of a douche.

Well, I just came home to find out that Spike is actually something of a TURBO DOUCHE. The guy is king douchebag supremo in my book today for the bull$#*% he just pulled. So what did he do wrong? In this interview right here he does three things:

1) Invokes slavery to trash Clint. Eastwood said "A guy like that should shut his face." Lee responded "First of all, the man is not my father and we're not on a plantation either." Nice. A guy telling you to shut up MUST mean he's being racist when he says that. Classy.

2) Did what he should have done - argued the history. And while I still feel his argument is kind of weak (he argues that HUNDREDS of African Americans participated in a battle with 70,000 American soldiers present and should have gotten screentime, if even token. But hey, at least he talked history here and this is a matter of opinion. I can respect that.

3) Claimed he was taking the high road after taking the low. In a cheap ploy, and following an interview tearing Clint a new one, he signs off with the incredibly lame "Even though he's trying to have a Dirty Harry flashback, I'm going to take the Obama high road and end it right here. Peace and love."

Ummm...yeah. I have friends that do this. It's the lamest, $#*%iest way to bail out of an argument there is. He's essentially getting in his last jabs, then trying to claim he's gonna take the high road and end the argument there. But that ain't what he's doing. He's invoking racism, making his argument THEN ending the argument. That's what we call BULL$#*%. The high road would have been saying "You know, I'm really sorry for attacking another filmmaker when promoting my own film. That was a little sleazy. While I disagree with Mr. Eastwood's take on history I would like to take this chance to apologize for insinuating anything negative about someone else for my own benefit."

But that ain't what he did. He insulted the guy, then tried to glom onto the success of another incredibly popular person while taking a golden parachute out so he wouldn't have to answer a single response from Eastwood, no matter how eloquent. All he has to say now is "I already said I was taking the highroad. This argument is beneath me...now." It is easily one of the most disgusting displays of public self promotion I have ever seen. Call a fellow artist a racist to get your name in the paper, do it again, then claim you're gonna take some sort of high horse on a high road out.

This stinks. It stinks bad. I like Lee, I like several of his films. But this was uncalled for. Even if he had done this to someone who deserved it, he would have done it in all the wrong ways. Today Spike Lee is on my $#*%list and I'll say one thing: his new movie Miracle at Santa Anna BETTER be badass and heads and shoulders above Letters From Iwo Jima or Flags of Our Fathers, or else this will end up going down in history as one of Hollywood's sleazier stunts.

Seriously? Calling someone else out on racism while being the only person talking about race? At my most polite I would call that tacky. If Spike wasn't promoting a film, that would be one thing. But he is.

Don't forget to also check out Leon's musings on the subject here.