News

JUNE 4--When we heard recently that the TNN cable channel was renaming itself Spike TV and targeting its programming primarily at male viewers, it never dawned on us that the use of the word spike was anything more than an attempt to rebrand the channel as sharp, punky, phallic, and an electronic harbor for the Maxim crowd. However, Spike Lee sees things differently. The film director yesterday sued Viacom Inc, the cable channel's parent company, claiming that TNN's name change was an attempt to associate the revamped channel with him. Noting that he had never given consent for the use of his name, Spike (whose given name is Shelton Jackson Lee) is seeking an injunction barring the channel's name change, now scheduled for June 16. To buttress his claim, Lee's New York State Supreme Court filing includes affidavits from celebrity friends like actors Ed Norton and Ossie Davis and former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, who claim to have mistakenly believed their pal was affiliated with Spike TV. While we recognize that Lee holds himself in high esteem, he seems an unlikely standard bearer for the "first network for men," a channel whose initial offerings include "Stripperella," a bawdy animated cartoon voiced by Pam Anderson. Spike is a 46-year-old married father of two who lives in a ritzy Upper East Side townhouse (which be bought from artist Jasper Johns for $4.75 million) and, TSG would bet, has probably never watched an episode of "The Man Show" or cracked open a copy of Stuff or Blender. Hey, if Viacom was renaming the channel Jon TV or Stern TV, then somebody might have a legitimate beef.