‘Hatfields and McCoys’ brings out Kevin Costner haters

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Kevin Costner rode again in ‘The Hatfields and the McCoys’ on Sunday night, with his haters in hot pursuit.

Taking its first shot at scripted drama, History begin airing its three-part epic miniseries about the notorious late 19th century feud between warring Appalachian clans, with the former ‘Dances With Wolves’ star-director as patriarch Anse Hatfield and Bill Paxton as his rival, Randall McCoy.

Reviews were mixed, but Costner’s detractors -- whose dislike of the actor is so intense they have actually discussed it in detail on a straightdope.com message board -- were out in full force Sunday.

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‘I cannot remember if I hate Kevin Costner because he is a Hatfield or McCoy or if it’s just because he is Kevin Costner,’ tweeted @markjanese.

‘This reality show on The History Channel is great. I didn’t realize that Bill Paxton and Kevin Costner hated each other,’ @stevenamiri added wryly.

Ratings won’t be available until later, but it already looks like Costner might have the last laugh. ‘Hatfields’ was near the top of Google search rankings most of Monday and zoomed to the No. 1 spot around airtime. Meanwhile, another historical drama, HBO’s heavily promoted ‘Hemingway & Gellhorn’ with Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman as the title characters, seemed virtually ignored, at least online.

As @julianspivey44 summed up: ‘Part 1 of ‘Hatfields & McCoys’ was pretty good ... seems like Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton will be locks for Emmy nominations.’

Did you watch ‘Hatfields’? What do you think of Costner and Paxton?

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-- Scott Collins (twitter.com/scottcollinsLAT)