Saturday, June 21, 2008

A Spike Lee Jaunt at Silverdocs

Despite the noisy rush-hour traffic, Spike Lee's quick sidewalk/red carpet appearance outside the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring Thursday night caused a commotion among those heading to the ticket line.

"That's Spike Lee!" one young woman squealed, nearly tripping off the curb as she reached for her camera.

Likewise, a scrum of reporters jockeyed for space as the bespectacled director, this year's Guggenheim honoree at the Silverdocs film festival, posed for photos in khakis, Yankees cap and a long-sleeve royal blue polo shirt. Then it was inside for the standing-room-only symposium, where Lee accepted an award for documentary excellence from Grace Guggenheim and sat down with Denver Post film critic Lisa Kennedy for a Q&A about his work.

"A lot of people got tricked into thinking it was a hurricane, but it was the destruction of the levee system," Lee, 51, said of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, the subject of his HBO miniseries, "When the Levees Broke." "The same thing is happening right now . . . in Cedar Rapids."

On politics, Lee said "there's no if" about Barack Obama being the next president: "It will put us back to how people thought about America after World War II. There's going to be 'Before Obama' -- B.B. -- and 'After Obama' -- A.B."

Lifestyle guru Martha Stewart, convicted of obstructing justice in 2004, has been denied a visa to England because of her criminal record, London's Daily Telegraph reported yesterday.

Stewart, 66, had planned to travel to London in the next few days for meetings and to speak at the Royal Academy of Arts. A British government official told the Telegraph the decision was "a bit silly given some of the other people allowed into the country."

According to British Embassy spokesman Nick Allan, immigration rules automatically refuse entry to individuals "when it's believed their presence is not conducive to the public good, and when they have been found guilty of serious criminal offenses."

The second part is what impacts Stewart, but Allan says she can appeal the decision.

Supermodel Naomi Campbell avoided the slammer in London yesterday and instead was sentenced to 200 hours of community service and ordered to pay hefty fines after pleading guilty to assaulting two police officers at Heathrow Airport in April.

Campbell, 38, was ordered to pay 200 pounds ($400) to each of the police officers she attacked and 150 pounds ($300) to the captain of the British Airways plane she disrupted, as well as a 2,300 pound ($4,600) fine, the Associated Press reports. She could have received six months' jail time.

Prosecutors said Campbell used foul language, kicked and spat at police, accused airline personnel of racism and threatened to sue them after she was told that one of her bags had not been placed on a flight to Los Angeles.

In the past, Campbell has been charged with throwing objects at members of her staff; outside the court, her rep said she regrets the incident and looks forward to telling her side of the story.

"Give him some color. I'd give him better-fitting suits -- Hugo Boss, John Varvatos. I mean, I will say, he's a man of a certain age, so at least he's cleaned up and polished." -- Washington native and "Project Runway" personality Tim Gunn, 54, telling New York magazine how he would boost Republican presidential candidate John McCain's style profile. As for which seasonal color palette would best suit the Arizona senator, Gunn knew right away: "Oh, he's a fall."

-- Marissa Newhall, from staff and wire reports