SHORT TAKES : Black Activists ‘Hamper Good Art,’ James Earl Jones Declares

James Earl Jones says black director Spike Lee and others are letting race interfere with movie making.

The 59-year-old star of ABC’s “Gabriel’s Fire” lashed out in an interview in the Oct. 27 issue of TV Guide at “so-called activists who let race get in the way of so much. They hamper good art.”

Jones said such was the problem in recent discussions about a movie planned on Malcolm X. Denzel Washington was to play the black leader.

“The talk had been that there might be a white director, and that infuriated some people, like Spike Lee. Spike said the director ought to be black, which was Spike’s way of saying it should be Spike,” Jones said.

“When an important project comes along and a Spike Lee suggests he must be involved, I think that’s destructive.”