The biggest fight in Hollywood right now is between The Weinstein Company and Warner Bros. over the title of Lee Daniels’ The Butler. Warner Bros. managed to successfully fight the film’s title, citing a 1916 short that has rarely been seen and setting off a public battle over Daniels’ movie. Harvey Weinstein appeared on CBS This Morning to tell his side of the story.

The fight kicked off last week, when Deadline reported that WB asked TWC to change the film’s title because of the obscure short. TWC refused and the case went to arbitration. WB won though and since then, lawyers for the two sides have traded letters, accusing each other of ignoring rules. Daniels himself even wrote a letter to WB head Kevin Tsujihara, asking the studio to stop the fight.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Weinstein, his lawyer David Boies, constitutional lawyer Floyd Abrams and MPAA head Chris Dodd all appeared on CBS This Morning today. Weinstein suggested that there are “ulterior motives” behind the fight, noting that there have been several films with similar titles made during the history of movies. He specifically took Heat - noting that there’s the new Sandra Bullock comedy, the Robert De Niro/Al Pacino movie, a new project by Jason Statham and a 1975 Burt Reynolds movie.

THR reports that Weinstein suggested that this is a fight over profits from The Hobbit. “I was asked by two execs at Warner Brothers, which I'm happy testify to, that if I gave them back the rights to The Hobbit they would drop the claim,” he said. “For a 1916 short? This was used as a bullying tactic. I think this is 100 percent. This was the big guy trying to hit the small guy.”

Weinstein actually makes money from The Hobbit, since his Miramax had the film rights to The Lord of the Rings before they made a deal with WB to transfer the rights. The Weinsteins are set to make 2.5 percent of The Hobbit’s total gross.

A WB rep later told THR that there is "no correlation” between The Hobbit and The Butler issue.

The MPAA’s Title Registration Bureau had ruled in WB’s favor during arbitration. “You sign an agreement in which you say I will abide by the rules,” Dodd said of TWC on CBS.

The Butler - or whatever TWC picks for its final title - is supposed to be out on Aug. 16. TWC did pull trailers and the movie from its site, Weinstein told CBS, to avoid the $25,000-per-day penalty for calling it The Butler.

WB did issue the following statement after Weinstein’s CBS appearance:

The Weinstein Company, as the New York Times has noted, is following an oft-trodden path of creating “well-publicized controversies” in order to promote their films by disseminating deliberate misinformation about the true nature of this dispute. The Weinsteins are sophisticated experts in this arena and three neutral arbitrators have penalized them for blatantly disregarding MPAA rules. It goes without saying that Warner Bros. has no issue with Lee Daniels’ film (never has) and fully supports the artistic goals of the filmmakers. The Weinsteins’ suggestions to the contrary are deeply offensive and untrue.

image: TWC