Slate‘s Kim Masters is commenting that the Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu–Guillermo Arriaga feud is still happening because of a statement by joint statement by Babel collaborators (Inarritu among them) in Mexico’s Chilanga magazine that attacks Arriaga, to wit: “It’s a shame that in your unjustified obsession to claim sole responsibility for the film, you seem not to recognize that movies are an art of deep collaboration.” But magazines sometimes take a while to come to press, and for all we know this letter may be several weeks old.

I’m saying this because roughly 30 days ago in Santa Barbara I observed what looked like “a reapprochement between formerly feuding collaborators Inarritu and Arriaga. Inarritu went up to the sitting Arriaga and gave him a hug; Arriaga reciprocated with a couple of comradely slaps on the back. Then they left the room together and stood alone out on the brick patio, shooting the shit for nearly ten minutes, no evident tensions whatsover. I thought to myself, ‘This would make a historic photo…the duelling amigos back together again’…but a voice told me to stay away.”