Men In Black writer Ed Solomon accused of 'mansplaining' his own film

The writer of Men In Black has said he was accused of trying to "mansplain" the film after stepping in to settle an argument between two friends he heard discussing it in a cafe.

Ed Solomon, who also wrote the Bill & Ted films, posted about the encounter on Twitter.

He said he was sitting in a cafe when he heard two women nearby discussing the origins of the 1997 film, starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.

When he offered to "clear that up", he said one of the women told him: "I'm sorry, we do not need an old white male's mansplanation."

Mansplaining, which was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2018, means the "explanation of something by a man, typically to a woman, in a manner regarded as condescending or patronising".

Solomon said the other woman later apologised and that he had never heard the word before, but thought it was "a good word".

In a later post, he said the woman had seen his thread, realised who he was and contacted him - and then asked who had been right about the origins of the film.

"It was her," Solomon said, although he did not give any details about the disagreement.