You can't fight in here, this is the war room

By Gregg Kilday

They're what old-time columnists used to call a don't-invite-'em -- as in don't invite them to the same party, because these two just don't get along.

Earlier this week, FOX News' Bill O'Reilly (pictured at left) -- he of the school-yard name-calling -- was lambasting Dallas Maverick owner Mark Cuban as "a pinhead." O'Reilly, along with a number of his other Fox colleagues, have been having a field day for several weeks attacking Brian De Palma's "Redacted," which examines an atrocity commited by American soldiers in Iraq. Now, "Redacted" was produced by HDNet Films and distributed by Magnolia Pictures, both companies under the umbrella of 2029 Entertainment, headed by Cuban and Todd Wagner.

"Redacted" (pictured at top), like a lot of this fall's Iraq-set films, hasn't caused a stampede at the boxoffice. In fact, it's grossed just $44,651 in two weekends in a handful of theaters. (For the record, the film has also been available as a cable TV, day-and-date video-on-demand offering, so may well have picked up a few more home viewers, whose numbers aren't reflected in the boxoffice returns.) In any event, the Fox commentariat has taken particular delight in the commerical failure of "Redacted." And O'Reilly has used the movie to lob attacks at Cuban.

Today, on his web site, billoreilly.com, O'Reilly posted his video "tribute" to Cuban, which aired earlier in the week and which intercuts Iraq war footage with Cuban's recent appearance on "Dancing With the Stars." (For the further record, Cuban lasted just five weeks on the ABC dance-a-thon.)

Of course, in addition to being a billionaire, Cuban (right) is also a blogger. And on his blogmaverick.com, he's taken O'Reilly to task himself. While he hasn't yet responded to Big Bill's latest salvo, on Nov. 16, he posted an item headlined "Bill O'Reilly -- Principle vs Money?" After enduring weeks' worth of O'Reilly attacks, Cuban devised a little test of his own: He bought air time for a "Readacted" commercial on O'Reilly's own show, "The O'Reilly Factor," and posted his ad, as it appeared on "The Factor," on google video. Wrote Cuban, " So Mr. O'Reilly , the king of the O'Reilly Factor, the man who called this movie Anti-American and said erroneously it could cause harm to American Troops, was willing to overlook those points and take our money to promote the movie."

The ironic part of the dust-up: O'Reilly and the rest of the Fox guys have probably spent more time talking about "Redacted," even if only to inveigh against it, than almost anyone else around.