As a mighty battle plays out on the silver screen between forgotten king Eirick and the god of thunder Thor in the movie ‘Vikingdom’, another battle was played out on Twittersphere, between a journalist and the celebrity wife of the movie’s director.

NONE It would seem that actress Lisa Surihani Mohamed ( right ) has taken exception to an article by Free Malaysia Today (FMT) reporter Lisa J Ariffin in which the latter processed a statement by Norse mythologist Karl EH Seigfried disputing claims in the film’s promotional material that it is based on “myth and history”.

Released in Malaysia on Sept 12 and slated for an Oct 4 release in the United States, the movie was produced by Malaysia’s own KRU Studios’ and directed by Lisa Surihani’s husband Yusry Abdul Halim.

Yusry issued a video statement yesterday on YouTube to explain the controversy over his film.

In it, Yusry said he missed the open letter by the mythologist, who teaches the subject at Loyola University in Chicago, as Yusry does not frequent the 'Vikingdom', KRU Studios or even his own Facebook pages.

However, he said he “appreciated” the Sept 17 letter to KRU Studios company director Shireen M Hashim, once he read it.

He said the “whole fiasco” was merely about the movie’s synopsis on online movie database IMDb and not on the movie itself, deeming it a “case of judging a book by its cover”.

Describing the FMT article as “journalism at its worst” and “amateurish”, Yusry alleged the news portal had merely translated a Malay “ misquoted ” report on the movie for Seigfried to respond to.

"Don't blame the messenger"

Meanwhile, the online exchange between the two Lisas began when Lisa Surihani took to Twitter yesterday to vent her frustration and “protect her loved one”, tweeting: “I honestly don't know whether you have the moral conscience and how you can sleep soundly without it.”

NONE She then lambasted Lisa J for not first making the effort to contact Yusry (left) for an explanation over the matter before running the report.

Unfortunately, ignorant as to who Lisa Surihani was and that Yusry was the latter’s spouse, the reporter responded that FMT has received an email from Seigfried and the story was passed on to her to work on.

She explained that not being a “showbiz” reporter but rather a “95 percent political” one, she had then emailed KRU for a response via their website as she did not possess Yusry's contact number, but received no reply from the studio.

This resulted in a slew of exchanges between the two in which Lisa S stating the other should “stick to politics”, while Lisa J insisted she was merely reporting news and that the actress should not "blame the messenger".

The exchange finally ended with the 27-year-old actress-cum-host, who acted in Ombak Rindu , pointing out that Yusry had released a video statement and Lisa J could “report on that if you wish”, to which the second party replied she would “rectify the situation”.

Credibility as reporter questioned

However, Lisa J then took to Facebook , critising "Lisa (Surihani) and her herd of sheep" for allegedly harassing her, questioning her credibility as a reporter and for calling her names over what is neither a review or an opinion piece of the movie, but a processed "negative" statement.

NONE "If you are hurt and upset because you've been slated worldwide, please do not attack a helpless messenger who played no more part than report news," she posted on the wall of the popular social networking site.

Training her guns on KRU Studios, she further posted: “Secondly, aren't you in showbiz long enough to know that not everybody is going to like you? Oh yes, I forgot. You're KRU and people in Malaysia are too afraid to mess with the biggest production studio here.”

She tells the studio, run by brothers Norman, Yusry and Edry, that while it may be “great at home”, the production house still has a “long way to go” internationally.

She further said unless the name-calling ceases, she may well come up with a story headlined 'KRU attacks Vikingdom reporter'.

"See, I believe I am entitled to ‘creative licence’ too, just like you and Vikingdom," she said.

'Vikingdom not meant to insult pre-Christian religion'