Within hours of LL Cool J discovering that Fox had taken an old interview with him and represented it as being new on Sarah Palin’s show American Stories, the network backed off and dropped the footage from the program, according to The New York Times.

But not without getting a few licks in.

Read LL Cool J Is Mad at Sarah Palin

“It appears that Mr. Smith [LL’s real name is James Todd Smith] does not want to be associated with a program that could serve as an inspiration to others,” the network statement said. “We are cutting his interview from the special and we wish him luck in his fledgling acting career.”

The affable platinum-selling rapper, 41, is one of the stars of NCIS: Los Angeles. He plays an investigator who’s a Navy SEAL veteran.

Read Elisabeth Hasselbeck vs. Sarah Palin

In its news release touting Palin’s show, which premieres Thursday night, Fox originally said the first episode would include LL Cool J talking about overcoming obstacles in his life. But when the star found out , he took to twitter to complain about it: “Fox lifted an old interview I gave in 2008 to someone else & are misrepresenting to the public in order to promote Sarah Palins Show. WOW”.

After Fox released its statement, LL tweeted enigmatically: “Nobody can bring you peace but yourself.”

The normally talkative Palin had no comment. (The New York Times)

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