Movie News: Get off the soap box

After Quentin Tarantino's recent restaurant table bust-up with a critical member of the public, the director has again come under fire for the liberal use of the word "nigger" in his film Jackie Brown, this time from Spike Lee. The film-maker, who last week slammed the Academy Awards for their scant recognition of ethnic minorities, took Tarantino to task in an interview with Variety: "Quentin is infatuated with that word. What does he want to be made - an honorary black man?"

At the Berlin Film Festival this week, Pam Grier's co-star in Jackie Brown Samuel L Jackson, defended the film and criticised Lee as a self- appointed spokesman for the black community: "I didn't get a chance to vote in that election," Jackson said, and rejected the notion that only black artists are entitled to use the word.

"This is a good film," he insisted. "And Spike hasn't made one of those in a few years."