Duff had launched a Tween Army defensive in the propaganda war against Dunaway, who'd previously wondered why producers couldn't "get a real actress" for the forthcoming The Story of Bonnie and Clyde. But it proved to be an untenable attack ("I think it was a little unnecessary but I might be mad if I looked like that now too"), crushed by Dunaway's legend and other wintry conditions that forced Duff to stand down in time for today's Bonnie Hunt Show:

"[Dunaway] started acting way later than I did so I think I have time to grow and grow with each project. I am learning and work hard at my craft."

Bonnie comforts Hilary and says, "I think even Faye went through a time, if you look historically, where some people might have said that about her. She has great beauty but she proved herself."

Duff admits that what she said was mean but says, "It's not OK for people to take stabs at you and to say mean things for no reason."

We don't know what the ensuing Cold War period will bring, but even the flimsiest of olive branches is to be commended with so much at stake for moviegoers worldwide. May that other great superpower Warren Beatty uphold their peace, sparing Duff's Clyde Barrow-reviving co-star a similar, "I take dumps bigger than Kevin Zegers" indignity in the crucial months ahead.

• The Bonnie Hunt Show

Duff and Kevin Zegers are locked in for the title roles in The Story of Bonnie and Clyde, an indie revision of the gangster love story immortalized 42 years ago by Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty in, you know, Bonnie and Clyde. That one won two Oscars, made Beatty's multi-hyphenate reputation, and revolutionized the depiction of violence with its bloody, climactic slo-mo ambush sequence.

This one? We're not sure; the optimist in us would like to believe Duff and Zegers' post-Disney angst will nicely complement their Depression-era crime spree. But really, we'd just be happy with Duff's requisite closing-title story-song eschewing Autotune and avoiding the imminent chorus rhyming "love" with "above." Any costume and art departments with a budget should be able to plug up the gaps from there.

• Hilary Duff set for 'Bonnie and Clyde' [Variety]