No love lost

US President Donald Trump

Donald Trump may already be the president of the United States, but he’s still poking his finger into his former turf, television, and dissing Arnold Schwarzenegger for the dipping ratings of The Donald’s hit show, “Celebrity Apprentice.”

The program “made” Trump so popular that he was eventually able to parlay the visibility and clout it gave him into a successful run for the White House.

So, it isn’t surprising that he would loudly rue its decline in “replacement” host Schwarzenegger’s hands. He’s done it before, when Martha Stewart took over, with similarly negative results many years ago, and the word war that erupted between them made headlines.

Similarly, Schwarzenegger has refused to be cowed by Trump’s now-presidential displeasure, and has hit back in kind, reminding one and all that he, too, had once been a political leader (governor of California), so he was no pushover who would suffer insults in silence.

Thus, he proposed an impudent “barter” deal: Trump could get his beloved TV show back, and he would run the country!

It was the height of supercilious sarcasm, of course, and The Prez hit back in kind, tit for tweet!

As Schwarzenegger and Trump huffed and puffed, stunned onlookers wondered: Don’t these big political and pop cultural guns have better things to do?

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Controversial ‘King of Pop’

Another biz-related bone of caustic contention that’s getting some people hot under the collar is the decision of the “Urban Myths” TV show to do an episode on Michael Jackson

—with Joseph Fiennes portraying the Prince of Pop!

The episode recalls a cross-country road trip that Jackson reportedly took with Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando after 9/11. Taylor was played by Stockard Channing, while Brando was portrayed by Brian Cox.

The decision to cast a Caucasian actor like Fiennes as Jackson expectedly shocked his fans and family, who dissed the production for misrepresenting the late show biz icon—an act of disrespect that they couldn’t accept!

The episode’s producers feebly tried to explain their abysmal lack of good judgment by saying that the show was meant to be just a lighthearted version of something that may or may not have happened—but, nobody was mollified.

The pricey comeuppance: The MJ episode was “pulled” from the series’ telecasting schedule, and has yet to be publicly screened.

In fact, it may end up “out of sight, out of mind” for keeps—a most expensive lesson learned for insensitive and clueless TV people who can’t feel the public pulse well enough to save their professional lives!

‘Battleship Island’

Viva Communications recently renewed its film distribution contract with South Korean entertainment company, CJ Entertainment. Its biggest film, “Battleship Island,” topbills Song Joong-ki (“Descendants of the Sun”), rapper So Ji-sub and Huwang Jun-min (“Ode to My Father”).

“Battleship Island” will hit cineplex screens this July.