Spike Lee Apologizes For Retweeting Wrong Address For Zimmerman

SANFORD, Fla. — Spike Lee has apologized to a Florida couple who say they were forced to leave their home when a Twitter posting that the director helped spread listed their address as that of a man who shot an unarmed teenager.

Elaine and David McClain are in their 70s and say they have a son named William George Zimmerman who lived in their Sanford-area home in the mid-1990s. They say he is no relation to 28-year-old George Zimmerman who killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26.

The killing has touched off widespread public outrage and protests across the country, including from Lee and other celebrities, because Zimmerman was not arrested. He says he acted in self-defense.

Lee tweeted late Wednesday: "I Deeply Apologize To The McClain Family For Retweeting Their Address. It Was A Mistake. Please Leave The McClain's In Peace."

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Comments

[TwainsGhost]

08:35 PM on 05/22/2012

What is he doing tweeting anybody's address??

[Sion Abramov]

05:21 PM on 04/07/2012

This guy is a JOKE. and this is coming from a Knicks fan

[Farmer Fred]

09:47 PM on 04/01/2012

Question is -- just how MANY millions is this going to cost him? I understand they already have a lawyer planning to sue the irresponsible creep.

[Conservativepolicysucks]

12:35 AM on 04/01/2012

Roseanne Barr did the same thing, but apparently she got the right address. I notice that's not getting as much attention in the media.

[bonashdav]

10:25 PM on 03/31/2012

Well there you go, Spike Lee should be arrested and charged with giving false information in the media that caused pain and suffering to the people living there. Let the police in Florida handle this and quit inciting more violence to add to the tragic death of this young man. It is a tragedy no matter what race he was. Quit all the race baiting.

[Roger of Arabia]

12:56 PM on 04/01/2012

Spike Lee made a mistake. When he became aware of the mistake, he admitted his mistake, took action to ameliorate the damage, and he offered monetary compensation to the couple which they accepted. You see, this is how adults handle mistakes. He did not deny his error or rationalize it, but instead, he did everything in his power to correct the error and make the victims of his error whole. What more do you want him to do to make up for this?

[bonashdav]

11:04 PM on 04/01/2012

Admit it... he (Spike Lee) is a race baiter trying to enrage people in issues such as this to provoke race issues.I may not think Zimmerman used good judgement in his actions and went overboard in his fears of this young man. I think there should be an investigation and under no circumstances do I believe that celebrities should be encouraging violence against Zimmerman. I guess you know that a group of radicals offered $10,000. for the death of Zimmerman. Race baiting has no place in this tragedy. This young man's death is not made right by another act of violence. You can't pay your way out of wrong. He should apoligize and admit he should have kept his voice out of it. Another example of someone acting without giving their actions forethought.

[robsreports]

10:30 AM on 04/03/2012

What was Spike's original intent in tweeting the address? He was inciting violence. Throwing out the address to the world and saying, "Here they are. Do what you want to them."

[silverado4wd]

07:00 PM on 03/31/2012

First Spike Lee presumes Zimmerman is guilty until proven innocent. Then he posts an incorrect address on the net so his bros can lynch somebody. Then this millionaire offers to pay their utilities and apologizes for posting the wrong address. Boycott the ahole's movies.

[Farmer Fred]

09:45 PM on 04/01/2012

This will cost him AT LEAST $1,000,000. He might learn something from that. Poor boy! :)

[Delasierradh]

06:24 PM on 03/31/2012

Dumb liberals have a tendency to rush to judgements. Smart liberals... Well... there's no such thing.

[RedDonnaAnn]

06:01 PM on 03/31/2012

Lee has apologized and offered to pay their utilities. Geez, the man's a millionaire. How about giving Mr. and Mrs. Terrorized By Your Stupidity a couple hundred thousand? That would make sure neither Mr. nor Mrs. McClain ever has to worry about anything ever again.

How many years do you think his and others' irresponsible tweeting actions shaved off their lives? Shame on you, Spike Lee. Shame, shame, shame.

[paulsca138]

05:03 PM on 03/31/2012

The New York Knicks have just announced that they have fired Spike Lee as their mascot.
They decided they wanted to go in another direction with someone that was at least 5' tall.

[paulsca138]

04:56 PM on 03/31/2012

Spike please apologize to anyone that actually paid to go see one of your movies.
All 8,000 are due a refund.

[paulsca138]

04:55 PM on 03/31/2012

Lee apologies for giving out the wrong address.It never crossed his pee brain he should not be giving out anyone's address. What a mental midget!!!

[gfolee69]

02:45 PM on 03/31/2012

So let me get this right, Millionaire (I guess) Spike Lee thought it was appropriate to tweet an address he thought was Zimmerman's? Wow, what a presumptuous idiot! I thought Spike was a proponent of innocent until proven guilty, oh and if guilty does this ignoramus still have a right to tweet his address? Oh no I forgot, this clown has already been accused of antisemitism by the Anti-Defamation League, has accused Senator Trent Lot of being card-carrying member of the Ku Klux Klan" on ABC's Good Morning America. He also suggested the shooting of Charlton Heston, Dr. Lee also accused the government of ignoring the plight of African Americans during Hurricane Katrina, when in fact it was the most costly natural disaster this country has ever paid for, a total of 125 BILLION by August 2007! This guy is totally irrelevant and obviously not qualified to be a spokes person of any group.

[tunderwo1]

09:24 PM on 03/30/2012

Who died and made him the Chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigations? He had no right tweeting anyones address anyway, whether ir was Zimmerman's real address or not. He's lucky that nobody got hurt, or these folks would be suing him for insighting a riot. Maybe he should focus less on being private detective and more on making movies.

[gonro2]

02:26 PM on 03/31/2012

They can still sue. And he should be arrested for inciting violence

[lapet]

03:39 PM on 03/31/2012

A. Have you seen his movies? He probably should stay "less focused".

B. The people he targeted should sue. They clearly suffered harrassment at his hand.

[magellaner]

07:57 PM on 03/30/2012

Thank you Spike for owning up. Now do we attack all the sponsers of spikes endeavors? Now we have rosanne in the mix. This is not helping.

[Torn Pec]

05:16 PM on 03/30/2012

We should Boycott all Spike Lee movies and efforts after his last movie, White Men Cant Jump.

Good Job, Mission Accomplished!

tee hee hee

[ProgressMakesSense]

06:49 PM on 03/30/2012

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't a Spike Lee movie.

What Spike did was wrong, but he apologized. That's something. The media is fanning the flames of this incident. I saw Mike Tyson on Piers Morgan (I think that's the guy's name) last night, and Mike kept calmly telling the guy, "I wasn't there, so I don't know what happened." Piers kept badgering him, but Mike stayed with his answer. Piers was obviously trying to bait Mike into saying something incendiary. I turned it off after Mike answered the question for the fourth time.

Maybe it's time the media apologized -- including, ahem, a certain political webite.

[paulsca138]

04:51 PM on 03/31/2012

It seems Lee's movies have been boycotted since he started making movies.