You Know What They Say About Pots And Kettles

Samuel L. Jackson has come to Quentin Tarantino’s defense in the debate with fellow director Spike Lee over the “N word.”

Lee, noting that the racially charged term was used 38 times in Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown,” recently asked: “What does he want to be made - an honorary black man?”

Jackson, who stars in “Jackie Brown,” said at the Berlin Film Festival this week that the word “is not offensive in the context of this film … Spike Lee has a problem with it, we all agree with that. He should just move on. He uses the word himself in all his films.

“Black artists think they are the only ones allowed to use the word. Well, that’s bull. (“Jackie Brown”) is a wonderful homage to black exploitation films (of the 1970s). This is a good film. And Spike hasn’t made one of those in a few years.”

Loose talk

Helena Bonham Carter, on being named Best Actress by the National Board of Review: “I don’t actually think I’m very good. But I don’t have very good judgment, and it’s nice to think I might be wrong.”

Suppose Spike and Quentin are coming to dinner?

Sidney Poitier turns 71 today.

Swallow a live fish? He just didn’t wanta

Kevin Kline, wearing a curly red wig and a bra resembling a fish, accepted the Man of the Year award from Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Club on Tuesday. However, he declined to reprise his role from “A Fish Named Wanda” by swallowing a finny creature from an onstage tank.

Guess we’ll see if he can carry a film

Screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (“Basic Instinct,” “Showgirls”) hopes to recruit comedian turned sitcom star Drew Carey, a fellow Clevelander, to star in his newest flick, “Male Pattern Baldness,” about a man trying to cope with a failing marriage.

So, we’ll be looking for a few, Goodman

John Goodman has been keeping busy with big-screen projects since the demise of “Roseanne,” including “Fallen,” “Blues Brothers 2000,” “The Borrowers” and the forthcoming “The Big Lebowski.” Says Goodman of the multiple releases: “I don’t know if it’s going to be good or bad, but they’re all pretty different.”

Hey, maybe he could get a part for Monica

Close presidential pal Vernon Jordan not only appears as a lawyer in the new movie “The Gingerbread Man,” reports People magazine, he’ll also play a judge in an upcoming Matt Damon flick, “Rounders.”

Forget Vernon Jordan, get me Janet Reno!

Catherine Deneuve, honored for lifetime achievement at the Berlin Film Festival, on how women’s movie roles - formerly “ravishing or flirtatious” - have changed: “Now, the roles are of working women having more responsibility. Superficially, it may appear that the women are stronger, but they are not stronger, only more masculine.”

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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Rick Bonino