Hard to say whether Spike Lee was just hustling Viacom or whether he really is a self-absorbed jerk. Neither of those two explanations is very flattering to him. All's well that ends well, I guess.
Came upon this reaction this morning.
Posted on Thu, Jul. 10, 2003
<<Spike gets a pie in the face
By Andy Borowitz
HUMOR
Pie maker Sara Lee today slapped filmmaker Spike Lee with a $90 million trademark infringement suit, claiming that the director was unfairly benefiting from a positive association with the company's mouthwatering array of pies, pastries and assorted breakfast treats.
Geoffrey Stimpson, a company spokesman, said that Spike Lee's attempt to piggyback on Sara Lee's good name was doomed to fail.
"Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee, but plenty of people don't like Spike Lee," Stimpson said.
The Sara Lee spokesman said that Spike Lee first attempted to trick the public into thinking he had some association with Sara Lee in his 1989 film "Do the Right Thing," in which the word "pie" was used no fewer than 50 times.
An official statement by Spike Lee, however, disputed that point, arguing that the word "pie" was used as an abbreviation for "pizza pie," adding, "Sara Lee does not own the word 'pie.'" In a terse reply, lawyers for Sara Lee responded that the company does, in fact, own the word "pie" and demanded that Spike Lee remove the letters P, I, and E from his first name "immediately.">>
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