Spike Lee’s Visit With the Pope Has Gone Viral For These Two Unexpected Reasons

It’s not unusual for legendary film director Spike Lee to shake hands and mingle with other famous faces. But his latest meetup has got folks online cracking jokes for a few reasons and when we explain why, you’ll more than understand.

Over the weekend, the “Highest 2 Lowest” director traveled overseas to the Vatican City to finally meet the first American-born pope, Pope Leo XIV. His attendance, alongside a handful of other Hollywood greats, came as part of a celebration of cinema. Per ABC7, the event was organized by the Vatican’s culture ministry and is a part of the department’s efforts “to reach out beyond the Catholic Church to engage with the secular world.”

And while that all seems fine on the surface, the moment that Lee and Pope Leo XIV met is garnering a lot of online chatter for two totally different reasons. The first is because Lee decided to gift the pope a signed, custom New York Knicks jersey as a gift. If you know anything about Lee, then you know how much a diehard Knicks fan he is, so his gift is just hilariously on brand for him.

When asked why he decided to bring that to the pope, Lee later explained to CNN: “I gave the Pope a New York Knick jersey. He’s XIV pope so number 14, and the back said Pope Leo…The Pope went to Villanova…and the Knicks have 3 players that went to Villanova.” (For what it’s worth, Pope Leo is a Chicago native, but I digress.)

And if that wasn’t enough on its own, the second reason why people couldn’t stop talking is because Lee ditched his usual colorful fashion sense and opted not to wear a hat for his first visit with the pope.

@cnn

Hollywood stars met Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, where the pontiff called cinema a “workshop of hope” and lamented declining audiences.

♬ original sound – CNN

Upon seeing him with no headgear coupled with the fact that he brought a Knicks jersey all the way to the Vatican, naturally people had some hilarious reactions.

“[Spike Lee’s jersey gift] made less sense after the explanation,” wrote one user on TikTok.

“Pope knows he can’t even help The Knicks,” said another.

“I haven’t seen spike without a hat in a minute lol,” said one user on X/Twitter.

Added another, “So weird seeing Spike with no hat and wearing a full suit lol.”

“This has to be one of the few times Spike Lee has been photographed in public w/o a hat or cap on,” one other user noted.

Added another: “Spike doing everything he can to get the knicks a championship.”