NAMES IN THE NEWS : Lee Cites Academy ‘Old People’

Spike Lee may have been wearing a Georgetown University cap and sweat shirt, but he got a far warmer reception from Syracuse University students than he did from Academy Award voters.

In a lecture and question-and-answer session Monday, Lee shrugged off the academy’s icy treatment of his latest movie, “Do the Right Thing,” and blamed it on generational politics.

The 1989 film, widely hailed by critics, received only two Academy Award nominations and is not being considered for best picture or best director.

The academy’s membership consists mainly of “old people,” the 32-year-old Lee said. He said they were “a lot more comfortable with the black chauffeur in ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ ” than with the angry characters in his film.

“I still feel we made the best film of the year,” he said. Asked if racism might have been involved in the academy nominations, Lee replied, “Racism’s involved in everything.”