The night before he turned 50 last week, Spike Lee was fêted with a blowout birthday party at Daniel, but despite the festivities, being a half-century old didn’t sit too comfortably with the filmmaker. “Fifty is the new 30! Jay-Z said that,” he said. Lee’s Summer of Sam star John Leguizamo rebutted, “Nah, Jay-Z said 30 is the new 20. You don’t get twenty years. Give them back!” Spike replied, “Okay, 50 is the new 40. I only need ten years.” So, how did he plan to spend his birthday? “I’m going to treat myself. I’m going to the Mandarin Oriental hotel and getting a deep-tissue massage for two hours, and then I’m getting a pedicure and just relaxing and going to the game. The Knicks are playing the Dallas Mavericks.” Does Lee get to go into the locker room and tell them to win for his birthday? “No. No. Ain’t got nothing to do with me. Coach Isiah knows they’ve got to win to make the playoffs. It has nothing to do with my birthday, but that would be a great present.” The scoreboard flashed happy 50th birthday wishes for Lee after the first quarter, and the Knicks lost, 92-77.

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• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Jada Yuan
• Table of Contents: Apr 2, 2007 issue of New York | Subscribe!