“King of the World” director James Cameron is holding a grudge over Glenn Beck making a joke about him when Beck had a show over on the unwatched CNN Headline News network three years ago. Beck said the man who foisted “Titanic” on the world — especially Celine Dion’s awful “My Heart Will Go On” upon the culture — must be at least in the running for election to become the Anti-Christ.

It was a joke. Did I mention it was three years ago?

But, apparently, a mantle full of Oscars and a few billion dollars worth of box office receipts can’t heal the wounds Beck inflicted in jest. Cameron unleashed a profanity-laced tirade Tuesday against Beck, and even The Hollywood Reporter is too dense, biased, or lazy to correctly place the easily discerned reason for Beck’s “offensive” quote. Hint: It has nothing to do with Cameron’s 2007 documentary, “The Lost Tomb of Jesus,” which (1) no one has heard of, (2) didn’t air until March of 2007, and (3) aired after Beck’s comments of February 26, 2007.

We’ll let the rest of the story be filled in by Beck’s reaction to the flap on his show Wednesday night:

Why is James Cameron so certain he’d come out on top in a gunfight against a “global warming denier?” I think maybe he has been seen too many movies and thinks of himself as Gary Cooper.