Outspoken Avatar director James Cameron has sparked a war of words with Fox News' resident firebrand Glenn Beck. Speaking at a press junket, Cameron called Beck a "f---ing asshole," while Beck hit back at the director on his TV show, dismissing Avatar as a "smurf-murdering movie." What's behind the mouthy pair's enmity? A brief battle guide:
What exactly did Cameron say about Beck?
When asked for his opinion on Beck during a press junket for Avatar's DVD release, Cameron was concise: "Glenn Beck is a f---ing asshole. I've met him. He called me the Antichrist."
Did Beck actually call him the Antichrist?
Yes. In 2007, Beck, then working for CNN, said that Cameron was "officially running for AntiChrist." Beck admitted as much on his show this week. "I did call James Cameron the Antichrist," he said, but added: "Only because of the Celine Dion song [in Titanic] — horrific, really."
So Cameron is upset about a harmless joke?
Not exactly. Beck failed to mention the context of his Antichrist remarks, a Beck TV segment about a 2007 Cameron documentary called "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," which the host found offensive. The movie, says Alex Ben Block at THR.com, "casts doubt on the resurrection of Jesus Christ."
Is that the only reason Cameron dislikes Beck?
No. Cameron — who's promoting Avatar as an environmental parable — deplores Beck's scepticism about man-made climate change. "I want to call those deniers out into the street at high noon," Cameron said in the same interview, "and shoot it out with those boneheads."
What did Beck make of that?
"Since [Cameron] took my Antichrist joke so seriously," Beck said on his show, "I guess I have to ask James...stop threatening to shoot people in the street!"
Sources: Fox News, THR.com, The LA Times
