Tyler Perry appeared on 60 Minutes last night, and any chance of revelatory fireworks was considerably muted by correspondent Byron Pitts, whose impassive reactions and not-exactly-penetrating follow-ups left Perry twisting in the wind. However, there were two good moments. One of them involved Oprah declaring of Perry, "Do not play him small, because he is not just some lucky, rich Negro turned black man." OK! The other?
That'd be when Pitts finally decided to introduce a semi-controversial subject: Spike Lee's comments that the Perry empire promoted "coonery and buffonery."
"I would love to read that to my fan base," Perry told Pitts. "All these characters of mine are bait -- disarming, charming, make-you-laugh bait so I can slap Medea in something and talk about God, love, faith, forgiveness, family, any of those things. That pisses me off, it really does. It's so insulting. It's attitudes like that that make Hollywood think these [black audiences] don't exist, and that's why there's no material speaking to them, speaking to us."
Translation: "Spike, I'm eleven feet tall and I wield a mean handbag. Keep bugging me and I'll exile you to the holding cell on Tyler Perry Island with nary a Knicks ticket in sight." Here's the clip.