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KATRINA BITS: Spike looking for lady who called out Leezzy; Domino’s pianos recovered; Kem donates to Katrina charity; Discovery preps documentary.
*Spike Lee used his recent interview with the New York Observer to try and track down a shopper who confronted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in New York as she was shoe shopping during Hurricane Katrina.
The filmmaker, currently working on his documentary “When the Levees Broke,” picked up the Observer reporter’s tape recorder and said: “To the lady that got in Ms. Rice’s face in the store before you got pulled off by Secret Service, if you read this article, please contact the New York Observer because we’re trying to find you for the documentary we’re doing on Hurricane Katrina. If you are still alive, that is.”
Lee also said he was looking for the person who said to the Vice President, “Go f*** yourself, Mr. Cheney.”
“If you are still alive, we’d like to contact you, too,” Lee said. “If you are still on our planet, if you are still walking amongst us, if you get this down in Guantánamo with the other jailed peace activists and suspected Al Qaeda agents who have been jailed for five years and not charged with anything, please get a message to me. We want to know what prompted you to tell Mr. Cheney to go f*** himself. Thank you.”
*The remains of three pianos belonging to Fats Domino were recovered this week from the singing legend’s Ninth Ward home in New Orleans.
The house was submerged under almost 10 feet of water when Hurricane Katrina’s winds broke the levees near his neighborhood. A recovery crew with the Louisiana State Museum pulled out a black Steinway baby grand used by Domino for writing and practicing. They also recovered a white Steinway grand and electric Wurlitzer keyboard.
Museum officials hope the Domino family will donate the black Steinway baby grand for a planned traveling exhibit about hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The exhibit will include remnants from the storms as well as rescue signs, pictures and oral histories, said Kacey Hill, the museum's spokeswoman.
"We feel that it's so important that whether this is six months from now or four years from now, people need to be reminded of what happened here so they don't forget," she said.
*R&B singer/songwriter Kem, currently performing a three night stand in New Orleans on his “Into You Tour,” was to make a donation Thursday night to the local YMCA to help out with continued recovery efforts from Hurricane Katrina.
The artist said his performances at the House of Blues New Orleans “is less about me and more about this beautiful city's commitment to move forward in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I'm grateful to be a part of the rebirth of New Orleans, a city I love."
The singer had to add tonight’s third show in the city by popular demand. The performance begins at 12:30 a.m.
Remaining tour dates include: Grand Prairie, TX (March 19); San Diego, CA (March 23); Anaheim, CA (March 24); Los Angeles, CA (March 25); Oakland, CA (March 26); and Seattle, WA (March 28).
*The Discovery Channel is preparing to air "The Hurricane That Changed America," a Hurricane Katrina docudrama from the team behind the network’s 9/11 movie event "The Flight That Fought Back."
Like "Flight," the Katrina project will mix dramatic reenactments with survivor interviews, as well as footage shot from inside the Superdome, where tens of thousands of displaced people were trapped after the disaster.
Discovery General Manager Jane Root said production crews began filming footage one week after the hurricane hit New Orleans last summer.
"We knew immediately that there were amazing testimonies and heroic stories to be told," she told Variety. "Stories of frustration and despair, but also stories of hope. …We'll be told what it was like waiting for the storm from several perspectives, and go through what happened between then and the Friday after the hurricane hit."
Discovery is hoping to premiere the special in late August, around the anniversary of the tragedy.
