Spike Lee Goes H.A.M. On Bloomberg TV Host

When a Bloomberg television host opened her segment with Spike Lee on his Kickstarter campaign, saying that the famed directed was under fire over his financing approach, he didn’t take it too well.

Trish Regan of “Street Smart” started off the segment by saying, “Do the right thing. That’s what many are saying to Spike Lee as they call on the famed director to end his new Kickstarter campaign. Now, if you don’t know, Kickstarter is a website that…”

At this point, Lee cuts Regan off and criticizes her opening. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,” he said. “Why you open like that? Why would you open like that?”

Laughing off Lee’s interruption, Regan touched Lee on the shoulder and said, “We’re all about controversy here. We’ll let you answer here in a second. I just have to tell the people here what the Kickstarter thing is.”

Lee clearly wasn’t comforted by Regan’s reply and the conversation took a deep dive from there.  And saying this didn’t help, either: “(Kickstarter is) mostly for up-and-coming novices so what is an Oscar-nominated director like Spike Lee doing on this set so we thought we’d ask him in person.”

Here is a rundown of the opening exchange:

Lee: “Well, I would like to refute your opening,” he said, looking directly into the TV host’s eyes.

Regan: Why don’t you just tell me. You have a lot of money. You don’t need to do this. Why would you go to Kickstarter?

Lee: First of all. First of all. First of all. You don’t know how much money I have. You’ve never seen me before in my life. So, for you to assume what my financial state is, that’s wrong. Second of all, “I’ve been doing Kickstarting before there was Kickstarter.

Regan: But you know how…

Lee: I’m not finished. Can I finish, please? (Lee says some inaudible then says) I’ve been doing Kickstarer before there was Kickstarter. That’s how I raised the money for my first film, “She’s Gotta Have It.”

Regan: So why are you doing Kickstarter then?

Lee: Because, because crowdfunding is the new wave to get financing. Crowdfunding, where you go directly to your base, directly to the people who love “She’s Gotta Have It,” “Skool Daze,” “Do The Right Thing,” “Malcolm X,” “He Got Game,” Summer Of Sam,” “25th Hour,” “Inside Man,” “Kings Of Comedy,” “Kobe Doing Work.” That’s a body of work that’s been amazed over three decades. And I’m going directly to the people…

The conversation gets intense again, so we’ll let you watch the rest of the exchange for yourself. Let’s just say Lee goes H.A.M. on her and rightfully so. Oh, we have to tell you that Lee called Regan a “hater” and said that “haters like this,” pointing at the TV host, will not stop his campaign for being successful.

Watch Spike Lee and Trish Regan go at it below: