MEDIA : Spike Lee Press Conference: Another Trip to the Dentist

Spike Lee, who has made three critically acclaimed films exploring the nuances of black culture in America, opened up and laughed out loud really only once during Friday’s press conference at UC San Diego.

“Are there going to be more white people in your next film?” a young woman in a leather skirt asked, taping Lee’s reply with what appeared to be a home video camera. “There are some great white jazz musicians.”

“Name one,” said Lee, whose next film will explore the life of a young black jazz trumpeter, portrayed by recent Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington.

“Who were you thinking of? Kenny G?”

Wearing a Brooklyn Dodgers cap and a multicolored vest over a white T-shirt, Lee threw back his head and laughed at the thought. Throughout the majority of the press conference, which preceded his lecture Friday night on the campus, Lee remained stoic and calm, politely answering questions.

For celebrities, these press conferences must be the equivalent of a trip to the dentist. For almost an hour, Lee sat alone behind a table in front of 30 print, TV and radio journalists answering questions on subjects ranging from camera angles in his films to his definition of Afro-centric . As often is the case, there was no specific reason for the press conference, beyond promoting the lecture that evening. Lee was not doing interviews for the show, according to a UCSD spokeswoman, and the press conference was a compromise to satisfy the avalanche of requests to talk to the hot young filmmaker.

The public simply gets to see 30-second video or audio snippets and catchy quotes from these sessions. They miss the truly inane quality of the process, the futility of trying to sum up an artist’s career and life in a 50-minute session, when 29 other reporters are working 29 different story angles.

Among the questions, Lee was asked Friday:

“How did you preserve your innate self while pursuing your film-making career?”

“Was film making always a baby of yours . . . that you always wanted to see grow?”

“What do you think about Steve Sabol (of NFL Films) as a filmmaker?”

“What are your favorite films this year?”

“How do you direct yourself?”

“What did you think of David Dinkins getting elected” mayor of New York?

For the record, he makes films he would like to see, he likes NFL Films, he liked “House Party,” was happy about Dinkins getting elected, and someone else takes over the directing duties when he is in front of the camera. And going to college helped him preserve his “innate self.”

In an article for the April issue of California Lawyer, Robert Alton Harris buddy Michael Kroll, a writer for the Pacific News Service, describes an interview with a San Diego television reporter, “who has done as much as anyone over the past 11 years to whip up hysteria” against Harris.

“I can save your friend,” Kroll quotes the reporter as saying. “I can turn public opinion in San Diego against the execution if you give me good reasons why he shouldn’t die.”

According to Kroll, the reporter was “trying to wheedle an interview out of Bobby by promising me his life. What incredible arrogance.”

The interview was “as confrontational as any I’ve ever done,” Kroll wrote. The reporter interrupted answers with sudden questions like, “Does your friend cry?”

The reporter closed with, “Noting that the people of San Diego are watching, I want you to write your friend’s epitaph.”

Kroll, who has jumped into the role of Harris’ unofficial spokesman, clearly was not thrilled with the reporter’s tactics.

“He is perfectly blow-dried and completely packaged, but he questions the sincerity of Harris’ ‘alleged maturity,’ ” he wrote in the magazine.

Kroll did not name the reporter with the “plastic smile.” But those familiar with San Diego television news can guess his identity.

Sure enough, it was KNSD-TV’s (Channel 39) Paul Bloom, the Geraldo Rivera of San Diego.

Bloom acknowledges the interview but denies saying “I can save your friend,” claiming he was misquoted. He does admit saying something to the effect that public opinion might save Harris if he agreed to an interview.

“It sounds to me like Kroll is using anything he can to sway public opinion,” Bloom said. “I never portrayed myself as the savior of Robert Harris.”

Bloom said he found Kroll to be “fascinating” and that the interview was “fun” and “electric.”

“I plead guilty to being perfectly blow-dried,” Bloom said.

Meanwhile, Kroll referred to the episode of Channel 39’s “Third Thursday” on the death penalty, on which he appeared, as “amazingly evenhanded.” . . .

The Internal Revenue Service wouldn’t send a representative to appear on last month’s edition of “Third Thursday,” but host Marty Levin will be able to obtain a measure of revenge today. He will be one of the first to participate in KGB-FM’s “Dunk the IRS” promotion, in which people will pay for a chance to splash an IRS rep in a dunk tank. . . .

Former KFMB-FM (B100) disc jockey Ellen Thomas has landed a prime-time gig. Going by the name Ellen K., she is the new news reader and co-host for Rick Dees’ KIIS-FM morning show in Los Angeles. . . .

It has become something of a running gag in the local film community. The San Diego premiere of the Academy Award-winning “Cinema Paradiso” has been pushed back again. Landmark Theaters announced the film would open locally April 6, and then sent out a press release saying it would open April 13. Now it is scheduled to open at the Cove Theatre in La Jolla on April 27 or “around there,” according to a Landmark spokeswoman. Landmark, which prides itself on presenting the films no one else shows in San Diego, is sticking with “My Left Foot” at the Cove.