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Spike Lee, to get honorary Oscar, often Academy critic

As one of the most iconic images of rock, Algie, the inflatable pig which famously flew over London's Battersea power station for Pink Floyd's "Animals" album cover, was set to be a star lot at an upcoming auction.
 
But days after British auctioneers Durrants listed it as part of a catalogue of inflatable props its maker was selling, Algie is no longer on offer — going back to the band instead.
 
The inflatable, which broke free during the 1976 cover shoot, grounding flights at Heathrow airport, has been withdrawn from sale after props builder Air Artists offered it to Pink Floyd.
 
"The pig is going back to Pink Floyd. They want it home again," Rob Harries, owner of Air Artists, told Reuters.
 
Durrants had listed Algie among Air Artists' works, used in music concerts and promotions but now being cleared out, for its Sept. 5-15 sale drawing coverage from numerous media outlets.
 
"We made a list of all the inflatables that we weren't going to store anymore … and the auctioneers jumped the gun a bit and started publicizing the most iconic one," Harries said.
 
"I felt I'd better talk to Pink Floyd, which I duly did and they duly wanted it back, unsurprisingly."
 
Harries said Algie, which has a "big split" but could be repaired and displayed, would be returned to the group's management company. "There's often lots of talk of a Pink Floyd exhibition maybe this will be a spur for it to happen," he said.
 
Inflatables still in auction include Herman, the pig's head from Roger Walter's 1990 "The Wall" concert in Berlin, and Freddie Mercury and Brian May caricatures for Queen's 1986 "The Magic Tour". Dominic Parravani of Durrants said the auctioneers had "no idea" how much the items would fetch.
 
Air Artists, whose work has been used by AC/DC and Rolling Stones, is selling the items as Harries, after some 40 years of inflatable-making, now focuses clay and wax sculpture.
 
In 2011, Lee, still stung by that experience, told Charlie Rose, "In 1989, 'Do the Right Thing' was not even nominated [for best picture]. What film won best picture in 1989? 'Driving Miss motherf—ing Daisy'! That's why [Oscars] don't matter. Because 20 years later, who's watching 'Driving Miss Daisy'?" He added in 2015, "Are they going to choose a film where you have the relatively passive black servant, or are they going to choose a film with a menacing 'Radio Raheem'? A lot of times, people are going to vote for what they're comfortable with, and anything that's threatening to them they won't."
 
Lee's frustrations with the Academy undoubtedly were compounded by the recognition — or lack thereof — that his subsequent "Spike Lee Joints" have received from the organization. "Mo' Better Blues" (1990), "Jungle Fever" (1991), "Malcolm X" (1992) and "25th Hour" (2002) all premiered at major international film festivals and were up for or received honors from other major awards groups, but only "Malcolm X" received any acknowledgement from the Academy: a best actor nom for Denzel Washington, plus a best costume design nom, ultimately losing both.
 
Meanwhile, Lee himself has been a contender only one other time: "4 Little Girls" (1997), his film about the young victims of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963, was nominated for best documentary feature, losing to "The Long Way Home," a film about the birth of Israel that was produced by Rabbi Marvin Hier and Richard Trank. Lee attended the ceremony but said afterward, "I didn't have a chance. I knew that. Against a rabbi? Put the Jewish vote in the academy against the one or two black members and what do you think?"
 
In 2014, Lee, by now the artistic director of the graduate film program at NYU, and the Academy, under new management that had a stated goal of increasing the diversity of its membership, seemed to reach a detente. That spring, he returned to the Oscars hoping to see "12 Years a Slave" become the first film directed by a black man to win best picture — and it did. ("I was very happy for Steve McQueen," he said later. "I wanted to be there because I knew it was going to be historic.") And that summer, the same Academy that had once turned a cold shoulder towards "Do the Right Thing" celebrated its 25th anniversary with bicoastal screenings and Q&As with key people associated with the film, including Lee.
 
But when, in January of this year, "Selma," a critically-acclaimed biopic about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was denied Oscar noms for best director (Ava DuVernay could have become the first black woman ever nominated) and best actor (David Oyelowo was widely expected to make the cut but neither he nor any other black people actually did), it clearly reopened some old wounds for Lee. Hours after the announcement, he vented: "If I saw Ava today I'd say, 'You know what? F— 'em.' "
 
He continued, "Anyone who thinks this year was gonna be like last year is retarded. There were a lot of black folks up there with '12 Years a Slave,' Steve, Lupita [Nyong'o], Pharrell [Williams]. It's in cycles of every 10 years. Once every 10 years or so I get calls from journalists about how people are finally accepting black films. Before last year, it was the year [2002] with Halle Berry, Denzel and Sidney Poitier. It's a 10-year cycle. So I don't start doing backflips when it happens."
 
"The Academy is trying to be more diverse," he added. "[Academy president] Cheryl [Boone Isaacs] is trying to open it up and have more diversity amongst the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. But with 'Selma,' it's not the first time it's happened, and every time it does I say, 'You can't go to awards like the Oscars… for validation. The validation is if your work still stands 25 years later.'"
 
Now the question is: what will Lee have to say on the one night in his life on which he is guaranteed to receive an Oscar?
 

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