Film Director Oliver Stone on Monday night started a fight about Israel with host Stephen Colbert, on the CBS “Late Show” that never made it to air, the NY Post Page Six reported. A source in the audience said the political brawl was “painful to watch.”

The Oscar-winning Stone appeared on the show to promote his latest documentary, “The Putin Interviews.” Stone was granted unprecedented access to both Putin’s professional and personal worlds, and interviewed the Russian leader more than a dozen times over the course of two years, most recently in February following the U.S. presidential elections.




After showing a clip in which Stone clearly accepted without a hint of criticism Putin’s statement that Russia, unlike the US, never interferes in other countries’ elections, Colbert harangued Stone on his pussyfooting around the tyrant from Moscow.

It’s hard to believe, but the maker of “JFK” actually grunted that Putin “has been through a lot. He’s been insulted and abused . . . abused in the press, in the media.”

Say it ain’t so, Oliver…

In the segment that made it to air, the audience cheered wildly when Colbert said, “Anything about him negative that you found? Anything? Anything?” and, “What do you say to the people who will say this is a fawning interview of a brutal dictator?”

Soon enough, Stone, unable to convince Colbert or his audience that he was not Putin’s lackey, tried to shift the talk to Israel.

The source told Page Six they “watched from behind [their] hands” as Stone claimed, more or less, that “Israel had far more involvement in the US election than Russia,” challenging Colbert: “Why don’t you ask me about that?” to which the ever-nimble host responded, “I’ll ask you about that when you make a documentary about Israel.”

Stone was obviously pulling the old anti-Israel, leftist line about how AIPAC is controlling Washington (much the way the “Jews” control Hollywood) – and in his haste to save face apparently forgot the difference between contributing to political campaigns and hacking DNC computers.