Wow. Spike Lee is a real stand-up guy (sarcasm).
Even if Spike Lee never met him or “had any contact” with him it wouldn’t make the artist’s claims automatically bogus. Since Lee’s tweet didn’t actually shoot down the accusation of the artist, and was pretty crass, I’m inclined to believe the artist.
I’m not surprised that this movie is tanking as, if nothing else (and there’s a lot of “else” in this case), the movie seems like a knockoff of The Count of Monte Cristo.