“Entertainment Weekly hates me. They’ve hated me since they’ve been a magazine. Fuck ’em…and you can go and tell them that,” Bruce Willis said last Sunday (yeah, I know…three days ago is old news) during a press conference for 16 Blocks (Warner Bros., 3.3). Willis was asked why EW hates him. “Because I’m a threat to them. Why does anybody hate anybody? Because they have some beef. Who cares? They can all blow me.” I once wrote a News & Notes piece for EW about Willis and various troubles that happened during the shooting of Striking Distance (1993). My sources were impeccable and their info was basically that Willis was the primary cause of the difficulties, but the piece was given a final rewrite in New York that added an an extra-snide tone. Anyway, Willis found me in the phone book and called to complain. The guy was hurt…there was anguish in his voice. I couldn’t hint who my sources were and I couldn’t talk about the rewrite (which I thought was a bit harsh), and it was a difficult conversation. This episode — 12 and 1/2 years ago — was the first indication I had that Willis had very little love for EW and was not the kind to just sit there and take it.