When billionaires battle, there's no one to root for

LOS ANGELES — As if the sniping, snarky network executives weren't enough to keep us amused, critics had battling billionaires to entertain them during this summer's press tour.

The problem is — in a battle between Donald Trump and Mark Cuban, there's nobody to root for. There's no good guy.

Although, honestly, as much as I never, ever thought I'd say this, my vote goes to Trump, who seems to have at least acquired a sense of humor about himself.

As with any fight among children, the question of "Who started it?" arises. And, yes, Trump talked about Cuban before Cuban talked about Trump, but only in response to a question and only because he appeared before critics three days earlier.

Trump did say that Cuban's forthcoming ABC reality show "The Benefactor" is a rip-off of his show, "The Apprentice." And Cuban has been beating up on Trump through postings on his Web site for weeks. Months.

Trump said he likes Cuban and he wishes him well with "The Benefactor." Sort of.

"I just want him to do better with the show than he's done with (his) Dallas (Mavericks) basketball team," Trump said. "I do. I really do."

Trump continued, "I would like to see him do well on the show because I think there's room for other knock-offs of 'The Apprentice.' "

Oooooooh ...

When his turn arrived, Cuban responded by poking at a sore spot in Trump's business empire.

"All I want to say is I wish Donald nothing but the best for 'The Apprentice 2.' And I hope it does as well as his casinos do," Cuban said.

Oooooooh ...

Then he got rather childish. Cuban insisted that he was approached by "Apprentice" producer Mark Burnett and told, " 'We're looking for somebody to come after the Donald and replace him at some point. Would you be interested?' I just told them, 'Look, you don't come after dogs. You don't come after kids. And you don't come after the Hair.'

"I don't want to do anything like his show. His show is his deal. Ours is completely different."

Which was the mantra for Cuban and his executive producers. Although their idea of "completely different," and everyone else's idea of "completely different" seem to be, well, somewhat different.