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Michael Rapaport Goes in on Spike Lee Over Gentrification Comments

Actor calls his Bamboozled director a "s*** stain."


Michael Rapaport seems to be looking to get Spike Lee into a street fight. The actor continued his ongoing gentrification battle with the celebrated director, calling Lee a "s***- stain" during a HuffPost Live interview on Tuesday. The pair's public spat over the whitewashing of the NYC borough began this past spring when Rapaport slammed Lee's now-infamous rant.

"Spike lives on the Upper East Side [in Manhattan]," Rapaport, who starred in Lee's 2000 film, Bamboozled, said dismissively. "The majority of those neighborhoods that have been gentrified have been abandoned… It's good that it gets better."
Lee, Brooklyn's most famous prodigal son, retaliated against Rapaport's comments with a sharp tongue.

"Rapaport doesn't know what the f*** he's talking about," he told HuffPost Live. "What Michael Rapaport left out… because he's stupid… [are] the people who could no longer afford to live in Williamsburg. Who could no longer afford to live in Fort Greene. Who could no longer afford to live in Clinton Hill."

The Do the Right Thing director added, "People are being displaced, and they never talk about the people who are forced to live outside of their neighborhoods because of gentrification!"

Rapaport continued his digs against his former friend — this time, getting personal. "When's the last Spike Lee film you saw?" Rapaport remarked. "Nobody goes to see them s***s." 

"I'm going to see him sooner or later," Rapaport said, before addressing Lee directly: "I wanna see you say 'You're stupid and your movie sucks' right to my face."
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(Photo: Larry Busacca/Getty Images for the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)

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