Sat, Nov 21, 2009
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Name:
khufu
Comment: right on SPike write on...one of the most dangerous kind of while folk is the liberal white one...
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Name:
TAZBABY
Comment: I'm with Spike on this one, when George said that my mouth dropped. He was so wrong and I know spike will let him know personally.
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Name:
archcookies
Comment: I have to agree with Spike Lee on this issue. I used to really enjoy watching Gone With The Wind until I read the prelogue one day and he is exactly right. The makers of the movie glorified pre-civil war as an age of refinement it was told from the southern white man's point of view and that trash Halle Berry won the award for was shameful.
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Name:
Renetta
Comment: I LOVE SPIKE. As a black woman I agree and I'm sick and tired of there being no roles written for black actresses. It's like black women are invisible now. They keep pairing brothers on the screen with everything but us. Clooney was way off the mark - but hey to him we're probably invisible too and he probably feels we should be grateful for the little we've gotten. I'm never content with scraps. We need more roles for black women. Period. And we need movies that show black women in love with BLACK MEN. PERIOD.
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Name:
Debonair
Comment: Renetta, i agree with you...that Something new movie only promotes certain fears and only encourages further wedges between sisters and brothers.I have always loved sisters and will never date Europeans.Spike was right to correct Clooney because maybe dude had good intentions but it was not very well thought out.Here's a funny thought:some of us say that we complain too much...those are the very same people who will defend Clooney's comments because"At least we were mentioned." F*CK YOU.
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Name:
star
Comment: I don't think Clooney thought it out as well or his whole speech for that matter. I think that the Academy has been racist I mean let's just think back to the year of The Color Purple, Angela B%*$ett playing Tina Turner and many others that have been passed up. However, there is a lack of quality roles and QUALITY writing. So I say to the writers and filmmakers make the independent films of QUALITY and F the Academy Awards.
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Name:
SpelmanRho
Comment: The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
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Name:
alexander1906
Comment: I just want to make a correction! Spike forgot to mention that Whoppi Goldberg won an Academy Award for Ghost!
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Name:
beboyz
Comment: It was ironic that Clooney mentioned the academy awarding Hattie and then they awarded 3 6 Mafia for their coonery that same night. I wonder if Clooney had a tip off LOL. I think Clooney's heart was in the right place but his statement was so whack. They gave Hattie best supporting actress and that was the only award ever allowed for a black man or women until the trinity of Denzel, Halle, Jaime. I bet you a fat man it will be a long time before the best actor/actreess is given to one of us again. The academy aint progressive George get a clue.
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Name:
beboyz
Comment: alexander1906 - That award to whoopie was for best supporting actress not best actress. What do you know about 1906 by the way?
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Name:
GQ_Boo
Comment: I agree with Spike. I think George's remark was way off base. Initially when I heard him say it I felt like his heart was really in the right place, but he cannot speak for an entire Academy. Although those may be his sentiments everyone voting doesn't feel as progressive and foreward thinking as he does. Yes, McDaniel and Goldberg with both supporting, Berry is the only Best Actress and she's mixed so a 100% full fledge sister still hasn't one if you want to be technical about it. And with Halle dating on the flip side of things now she is really about to lose her sister card as have so many "brothers"
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Name:
wyld1
Comment: Hattie McDaniels won for Best Supporting Actress too. I think that was an oversight by Spike not to mention Whoopi. She doesn't get the respect she deserves.
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Name:
bigchassie
Comment: BEBOYZ> I too agree with you. this is the very same reason why i keep writing movie scripts.
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Name:
coesmo
Comment: I like George Clooney but he really made himself look ignorant..While I did agree with his comment about the spineless Democrats, he's off the mark on this one...
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Name:
ChakaTee
Comment: Wyld1 - not sure if Spike and Whoopi have made up yet. Those two were seriously beefing, maybe that's why he omitted her name.
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Name:
Gurlfrand
Comment: George's intentions were good, but, not thought out clearly. Spike - take a chill - you are no authority on race relations and don't know everything. Guess now whenever anyone in glollywood say's anything, Spike will unfortunately open his trap.
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Name:
DMaxx
Comment: Renetta, you are so right. Black actresses are practically invisible in Hollywood, they aren't even getting the traditional roles for black women (i.e. the love interest of the black male). George Clooney has directed and produced several movies. How many black actresses has he employed? Until he does, he needs to shut up.
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Name:
blackman
Comment: I'm with you Spike! Most Hollywood liberals are just as backwards thinking as the neocons. Clooney's remarks were self gratifying and that is it. I do undersand that on the stage you speak strictly out of emotion, but Georgie should not have said shitz about "Hollywood progression" when it comes to black folks. Oh and black females need to be given proper respect on film!!!!!!
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Name:
MOTHERSHIP
Comment: Renetta, for real. Spike is dead on and Hattie wasn't even allowed to attend the awards because she was Black. She went through hell during those times and especially that evening.
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Name:
Exmun
Comment: And if you mention Whoppi, you've got to mention Cuba Gooding, Jr. for his best supporting actor role in 'Jerry Maguire.' And if you mention Cuba you have to mention Sidney Poitier for his best actor win in the 1960s. It isn't much... and Denzel should have won for his role in "X" and a lot of us were passed up in numerous other roles. But if Spike wants to start dropping names, he owes it to those who have won to tell the whole truth and at the very least share in their glory.
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Name:
DMaxx
Comment: Mothership, Hattie did attend the awards and gave an eloquent acceptance speech. It was the movie's premiere in Atlanta that she and her fellow black castmates were not allowed to attend.
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Name:
MOTHERSHIP
Comment: DMaxx, they finally let her attend the Awards?? It was big todo about letting her attend. I know they didn't let her attend the premiere and that's why I don't watch "Gone With The Wind" to this very day.
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Name:
MzTee
Comment: If GC did state what Spike said, then George is clearly wrong. Bigchassie keep writing those screenplays. Hollywood doesn't care about black folks and if we want quality films with quality actors, we have to start writing, producing and distributing them ourselves. We have to stop standing in the cheese line waiting for the MAN to give us a handout. We've got to do it for ourselves.
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Name:
Powerchic
Comment: Hattie McDaniels was not allowed to sit in the same room with the white actors at the Academy Awards ceremony. The Academy placed a small table and chair off to the side, (actually it was an adjacent room with a partition, where Ms. Daniels could hear and some what see the award ceremony. And, yes she did make a speech, (Black folks are always allowed to perform) but she was not allowed to sit at the same table with the white actors. She won the Oscar in 1939 and... she went on to play maids for the rest of her life. Hattie McDaniels died in 1952 of breast cancer. The last role she played on television in 1951 was Beulah on The Beulah Show. That's progressive Hollywood.
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Name:
Stephanie
Comment: Why should this surprise anyone? Its just another cracker saying what a bunch of crackers think but don't have the balls to do so. What his punk azz failed to mention was Ms. McDaniel was not even allowed to attend the awards but I guess ni@@as should be grateful we are now...Wouldn't it be nice if one year all african americans boycotted the Academies? I've always thought the Academy Awards is a bunch of BS. Lets look at the roles the black women played to get the Oscar. A slave, a baffoon and a whore. I never, ever watch the Academy Awards because they don't give brothas and sistas their fair shake and in my opinion its still racist. Angela B%*$ett and Lawrence Fishbourne should have won for their portrayal of Ike and Tina Turner. Don't even get me started about how the Color Purple got passed over for Out of Africa!!! Oprah, Whoopie and Danny should have won hands down. They make it a point to give one Negra an award or nominate a few knowing damn well they're not going to win but yet it will calm the masses. I think the only black man that won for a role that didn't stereotype us was Jamie Foxx in his portrayal of Ray.
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Name:
MOTHERSHIP
Comment: Stephanie, preach! And don't get me started about how they passed over a "Soldier's Story" and my friend, Adolph Caesar for that Korean in the "Killing Fields." I couldn't stand the Acadamy Awards before then, but after that snub on Adolph, it was a wrap!
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Name:
ricki
Comment: Mothership, I believe McDaniel DID attend the awards. In the documentary "That's Black Entertainment", they show video of her accepting the award and her speech. Louis Gossett, Jr. also won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for "An Officer and a Gentleman". I saw Clooney when he made those statements and he really sounded like an idiot. But I believe he had good intentions and would probably be grateful if someone (not Spike) called that to his attention. And even though I don't recall any sistas in the movies he's produced, both Don Cheadle and Jeffrey Wright were in the movies that were recently nominated, as well as the Ocean movies which had both Cheadle and Bernie Mac. I think that if these liberal white actors are going to call themselves speaking up about the injustice of race relations, they need to put it on paper first. Chances are that when they read it aloud and realize they need to keep their dayum mouths shut, they'll rip it up.
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Name:
Powerchic
Comment: Some more History on progressive Hollywood.
McDaniel died at age fifty-seven in the hospital on the grounds of the Motion Picture House in Woodland Hills. It was her wish to be buried in the Hollywood cemetery on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood, along with her fellow movie stars, but the owner, Jack Roth, refused to allow her to be interred there because she was black. She is interred in Angelus Rosedale Cemetery, Los Angeles. In 1999, the new owner of the Hollywood Cemetery, who had renamed it Hollywood Forever Cemetery, wanted to right the wrong and have Miss McDaniel interred in the cemetery. Her family did not want to disturb her remains after all that time and declined the offer. Hollywood Forever then did the next best thing and built a cenotaph memorial on the lawn overlooking the lake in honor of McDaniel. It is one of the most popular sites for visitors to the cemetery.
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Name:
ricki
Comment: Yeah Mothership, Adoph Ceasar should have won for "A Soldier's Story". That's one of my all-time favorite movies!
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Name:
NYC1
Comment: >>>Powerchic: Thanks for saying it! You beat me to it. I had a debate with some stupid white guy a couple weeks ago who couldn't understand that Hattie McDaniel wasn't allowed to sit with her peers at the Oscars. He thought it was more important that she won but failed to see the hypocrisy on part of the Academy who treated her like a second-class citizen.
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Name:
Stephanie
Comment: Wow Powerchic really? Its like why should we support something that started off racist and its very obvious it still is. Its like the segregated south. I guess we should be grateful times aren't like that now, but they are. Racism hasn't changed it just modernizes with time.
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Name:
MistaO
Comment: You know, I was going to comment but Renetta and Stephanie just about said it all. Holler for real!
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Name:
MzTee
Comment: ====>Stephanie don't forget Sidney Poitier for Lillies of the Field. He didn't play a stereotypical role and definitely needs to receive credit. Louis Gossett Jr. also didn't play a stereotypical role either, so we definitely need to give credit where its due.
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Name:
Stephanie
Comment: I wasn't saying all are sterotypical the majority are. How many years had it been since Sidney won to Lou winning? I boycott the AA every year.
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Name:
Harriet
Comment: Hey Renetta and MOTHERSHIP! (*he he*) I just love me some Spike Lee. Once more and again, white folks, with their good intentions, still have it focked up. Are they truly that disconnected from us after almost 600 years? So, according to Clooney, Hollywood was breaking down racial barriers when they awarded a character in a supporting role which was a shuffling, enemy loving maid, with blind loyalty to her owners? Please know that I mean no disrespect to Sister McDaniels. Speaking truthfully about the character she portrayed does not diminish her nor her accomplishments. Somebody mentioned Whoopi not getting her due credit. Whoopi used to get big props from the Black community. But that was before she made an %*$ out of herself with Ted Dansen. That was before she publicly stated that it pizzes her off to be referenced as an African American instead of just an American for she'd never been to Africa and didn't plan to go. This was before we knew that as black and lock clad and ethnic as Whoopi may be on the outside, that on the inside she thinks so little of herself that she'd stand next to a white man in blackface whom she claimed to love and sit idly by as he wrote a book telling all the secrets of his affair with his Black "mammy." Whoops needs to check herself.
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Name:
MOTHERSHIP
Comment: HARRIET!!! Waddup girl! I was about to e-mail you. One's a comin!
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Name:
oldschoolbrother
Comment: Denzel Malcolm X, Adolph Ceaser, Howard Rollins, Soldier Story, Don Cheadle, Devil in a Blue Dress, A Color Purple, several sisters in that movie alone, Diana Ross, Lady Sings the Blues, Sharon Warren Ray, and many more. With the technology available now, we can write, produce and distribute our own films. Look at the Indian in Bollywood. We do not need the Academy to give us their blessing. Anyway most of the movies today are straight up trash.
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Name:
MOTHERSHIP
Comment: OSB, I feel you on that. I don't know why we don't. Ice Cube, Denzel, Spike, we all can band together and do us. What are we waiting for?
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Name:
GodsChild
Comment: alexander1906,
have you ever been to odd fellows hall?
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Name:
beboyz
Comment: Isn't it Ironic that the academy has never awarded Spike Lee with anything and he has produced many stellar films. They have also snubbed Martin Scorchese and for the longest they snubbed Steven Spielburg who was like the Erica Kane of the Oscars.
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Name:
BlackScribe
Comment: Hey ya'll,at first I wasn't going to say anything, but I can't
hold back. I'm sure George Clooney somewhere in that
white liberal heart of his truly, honestly believes that he
was saying something thoughtful and progressive. If
Hollywood was so equal minded then why was Hattie
Mcdaniel seated way in the boondocks during the ceremony. Why did the powers that be write her acceptance speech for her? Were they afraid of what she
might have said if left to her own devices? Please don't try
to dazzle me with B.S. I see right through it. The first
black Oscar winner for acting was for playing a slave??!!?
The academy has never had the balls to let Black performer win an Oscar for a role that is truly progreesive,
heroic,and challenging. And as far as my man Spike goes,
it should've been Do The Right Thing to win as the first
Best Picture to deal realistically with race relations.
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Name:
Debonair
Comment: I don't understand why the Oprah's Denzels, Bill Cosby's etc, just don't ban together(like they did to make Malcom X) and just start producing quality movies....that show some diveristy in our lives and cultures...it's either one extreme or the other...thug out street movies or chiltlin circuit church joints.There is more to us than either(no homo).I want to see quality family movies and down to earth professionals (much like many of us who post on the board).
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Name:
VickiE
Comment: I can only say that I'm not proud of Hattie McDaniels or Hallie Berry. Both roles were rather demeaning but do you want them to give the awards back??? I blame Spike and the rest of the few directors with ANY clout in Hollywood. Instead of his mouthing out why not write some better roles for US. No one listens to him anyway because he always seems to be on a tear about something anyway. It's gotten to a point that I don't even watch black movies or tv programs anymore. They are worst them Amos and Andy and have less quality.
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Name:
thechocolate10
Comment: Hey Mothership, Harriet and everyone else!! I like this powerful discussion today.
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Name:
MOTHERSHIP
Comment: Yo, Chocolate10! What's poppin' lil' sista? I love talking about substantive discussion, caucsin' by which we can find a means to an end, instead of a buncha cocaine babble and nonsensical bullshyt. When I see it goin' in that direction, I keep it movin!
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Name:
MOTHERSHIP
Comment: discussions
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Name:
MOTHERSHIP
Comment: Debonair, don't worry, I'm going to write one, cause a sista gots a story to tell BELIEVE you me!!!! VickiE, I loved "Amos and Andy," Kingfish and 'em threw down with regard to their diversity and artistry, even for those times. I can take all aspects of Black life, can relate to it, but diversification is the key. Don't just ram the same trite shyt down folks throats just because they're gettin' paid, flip the script, and write a film about another experience we've had. I believe we haven't begun to touch the surface. Also, we don't lend a hand to each other. I've seen it time and time again where an up and coming sister or brother needs a break in the business and they are either given the run around or are ignored. We need to assist each other better.
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Name:
VickiE
Comment: Mothership: I refuse to see color when the programming is trash. I will not support anyone that is producing and supporting anything that hurts anyone. Most Black movies are produced on a string, granted, but the paucity of quality from our directors/producers is appalling. Spike needs to shutup and get back behind the camera. Give us something to be proud of. I will give it to him, he is one hell of a talented director but I have yet to see anything new from him that's worth my $10.00.
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Name:
McNasty
Comment: It's a given that we've come a long way baby but it's for real that we still have a long way to go. The Black Industry would do well rather than to continue to wait on roles written for black women to begin to blacken some of these roles made for white women! We have to stop waiting; we do have filmmakers and production companies that are black owned and operated. We need to relieve ourselves of that role we've taken on to be content to be beggars at the back door!
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Name:
reflection
Comment: I think that George had good intentions but he misspoke. It's too soon to be congratulating Hollywood on being truly progressive. Speaking on the Hattie McDaniel situation in particular, even though she won the Oscar, she couldn't sit with her fellow actors during the ceremony so how progressive was that? and even now,the awards that are given to blacks in particular are for the most stereotypical roles,for the most part. Even now, you have actors and actresses that can come from Australia,Britain anywhere and get role after role for years but black actors that are born right here are lucky to have 1-2 jobs lined up at any time (unless you are Halle,Denzel and for the moment,Terrence)
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Name:
ricki
Comment: Spike has that movie The Insider with Denzel coming out this Friday. My question is this: As much as I like Jodie Foster, what is it about her role that made it so impossible to cast a sista in it? Jodie is over 40, and so is Lela Rochon, Vivica Fox, Angela B%*$ett, Tyra Ferrell, Robin Givens. There are PLENTY of sistas out there that could have played that role, and Spike knows it!
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Name:
MOTHERSHIP
Comment: Ricki, Jodie Foster wanted to work with Spike and asked for the role. He said it himself on the "Insider" or "ET" one of them shows last night. I saw them when they blocked up Wall Street to make that movie. A straight pain in the azz.
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Name:
Southernbelle
Comment: Hey Mothership, How's it going? I'm enjoying this discussion today. Recently, the news has been overwhelmed with Busta, R.Kelly and Michael. It feels good to read some constructive posts. I don't know much about the movie business, so I'll sit this one out and continue reading.
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Name:
MOTHERSHIP
Comment: Hey, Southernbelle! How have you been? Glad to see you're on da board!
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Name:
thechocolate10
Comment: mothership aint that the truth. Keep the dscussion positive today. I go up and down with Spike but I aint mad at him.
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Name:
Winn30344
Comment: Wow, Spike sit down and shut up..until I can see your name as producer or director of anything close to what Spike has produced take your own advice.
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Name:
jsnj
Comment: "As much as I like Jodie Foster, what is it about her role that made it so impossible to cast a sista in it? Jodie is over 40, and so is Lela Rochon, Vivica Fox, Angela B%*$ett, Tyra Ferrell, Robin Givens. There are PLENTY of sistas out there that could have played that role, and Spike knows it!"
2 black leads makes it "black movie". Studios want to reach the largest audience. Can't do that if it's considered a black movie. Right or wrong, thats just the way it is.
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Name:
Beezyuu
Comment: Some of you talk badly about Spike Lee but he's always made quality movies, and never failed to speak out for african americans. Spike is soo worthy of an Oscar it's rediculous.
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Name:
Marlin
Comment: yup....and halle played a what? a white man's "hot black *itch" fantasy. i had to turn the movie off....mid scene...pretty degrading stuff...she could have won for losing isaih....but noooooooo....she had to win being an broke down, babby-daddy on death row retarded child having (god bless the babies, not making fun of them in any way) it was just the wrong part hands down.....
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