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Less than 24 hours after a mildly grumpy Clint Eastwood took the race-bait laid for him by Spike Lee over his omission of black characters from his WWII films, Lee's imminent rebuttal appeared online at ABC News. Needless to say, the filmmaker did not exactly follow Eastwood's directions to "shut his face," but rather artfully engaged a few choice metaphors the elder director will no doubt take under advisement as he pursues that reported project about Nelson Mandela:

"First of all, the man is not my father and we're not on a plantation either," he told ABCNEWS.com. "He's a great director. He makes his films, I make my films. The thing about it though, I didn't personally attack him. And a comment like 'a guy like that should shut his face' — come on Clint, come on. He sounds like an angry old man right there."

"If he wishes, I could assemble African-American men who fought at Iwo Jima and I'd like him to tell these guys that what they did was insignificant and they did not exist," he said. "I'm not making this up. I know history. I'm a student of history. And I know the history of Hollywood and its omission of the one million African-American men and women who contributed to World War II."

We're pretty sure this means that two-part primary dramatization idea of ours is dead in the water. Whatever — Bruce Vilanch will get a hold of this before we know it, and they'll be co-presenting an Oscar together by February.