And in this corner….Two of the most successful Black filmmakers in Hollywood history are at one another’s throats again. It seems Tyler Perry never quite got over a 2009 interview in which legendary lensman Spike Lee quipped that Perry’s films “harken back to Amos n’ Andy.”

“Each artist should be allowed to pursue their artistic endeavors, but I still think there is a lot of stuff out today that is coonery and buffoonery,” Lee told 60 Minutes at the time. “I know it’s making a lot of money and breaking records, but we can do better. … I am a huge basketball fan, and when I watch the games on TNT, I see these two ads for these two shows (Tyler Perry’s ‘Meet the Browns’ and ‘House of Payne’), and I am scratching my head. We got a black president, and we going back to Mantan Moreland and Sleep ‘n’ Eat?”

After nearly two years of keeping his silence, Tyler unleashed the beast on Spike during a press conference for his latest comedy, Madea’s Big Happy Family, opening in theaters this weekend.

“I’m so sick of hearing about damn Spike Lee,” Perry fumed. “Spike can go straight to hell! You can print that. I am sick of him talking about me, I am sick of him saying, ‘this is a coon, this is a buffoon.’ I am sick of him talking about black people going to see movies. This is what he said: ‘you vote by what you see,’ as if black people don’t know what they want to see.”

Oh, but he isn’t done yet. Tyler followed up with: “I am sick of him – he talked about Whoopi, he talked about Oprah, he talked about me, he talked about Clint Eastwood. Spike needs to shut the hell up!”

Perry furthered lit into Spike in an email to EUR’s Lee Bailey. The For Colored Girls director simply can’t understand why he finds his biggest critics among other African-Americans.

“I’ve never seen Jewish people attack Seinfeld and say ‘this is a stereotype,’ I’ve never seen Italian people attack ‘The Sopranos,’ I’ve never seen Jewish people complaining about ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ or Dustin Hoffman in ‘Tootsie.’ I never saw it. It’s always black people, and this is something that I cannot undo,” he wrote.

“Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois went through the exact same thing; Langston Hughes said that Zora Neale Hurston, the woman who wrote ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God,’ was a new version of the ‘darkie’ because she spoke in a southern dialect and a Southern tone. And I’m sick of it from us; we don’t have to worry about anybody else trying to destroy us and take shots because we do it to ourselves.”

We were with Tyler until he compared his Madea parodies to the plight of Zora Neale Hurston. Perry, sitcho ass down!

Even though he lives on the ritzy Upper West Side of Manhattan these days, Oscar-less lensman Spike Lee will continue to rep Brooklyn until the day he dies.

That’s why we’re not surprised to see him team up with Absolut to endorse their latest limited edition of vodka — adeptly-titled Brooklyn. The bottle of apple & ginger flavored yumminess was designed in collaboration with the brainchild behind hit flicks like Do The Right Thing and Jungle Fever. The uniquely-designed bottle pays homage to Spike’s home borough and its signature brownstone –specifically the one in which Spike grew up in the NYC borough’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.

Absolut is donating $50,000 of the proceeds from the sale of Absolut Brooklyn to Habitat for Humanity, which will build affordable green housing in Bed-Stuy.

Directed by Academy Award nominated lensman Spike Lee, the video is a montage of Michael’s hometown of Gary, Indiana, as well as footage of the King of Pop throughout the years.

Michael Jackson – This Is It – Directed by Spike Lee from 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks on Vimeo.

Watch CBS Videos Online

“It’s going to just be how we do it, Brooklyn-style, I’ll leave it at that,” the acclaimed director told The Washington Post on Monday.

“It’s going to be a joyous, festive, celebratory party.”

Lee added, “At the end, we’ll all sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Michael. We’re going to make sure he hears us, too. All over the world, people are going to be celebrating his birthday. But he’s going to hear Brooklyn; Brooklyn is going to be in the house. Deep.”

DJ Spinna will be spinning all MJ tracks, while Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is expected to proclaim Aug. 29 “Michael Jackson Day” at the celebration.

Lee, a Brooklyn native, and Jackson collaborated on the music video for “They Don’t Care About Us.”

NBA legend Magic Johnson and his wife Cookie are urging Americans to get tested for the HIV-virus is pair of new public service announcement (entitled “Stand” and “Talk”) directed by veteran lensman Spike Lee. Magic, former star of the Los Angeles Lakers, tested positive for HIV in 1991.

Mariah Carey has teamed up with Spike Lee to create a video that makes fun of those who make fun of her. “Lovers and Haters,” which will be on the songbird’s new concert DVD, “The Adventures of Mimi” — features paid actors saying unkind things about Mariah. One young woman says, “I heard that ain’t even her real voice. She keeps this great singer in the dungeon. She only gives her bread and water and takes her out when it’s time to record.”

Spike Lee has been tapped to direct the Broadway revival of the 1951 comedy-drama “Stalag 17.” The play is about American prisoners of war written by two former P.O.W.’s, Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski. The play wiil debut in the Spring of 2008.