Where's the beef?

Roadside Attractions and Samuel Goldwyn Films, which distribute films together through IDP, and the MTV cable network all found themselves in a bit of a pickle Wednesday over a commercial spot for the Morgan Spurlock documentary "Super Size Me," in which Spurlock spends a month eating nothing but food at McDonald's.

The public spat began with a news release issued by IDP under the headline "MTV Refuses to Air 'Super Size' TV Spots," alleging that the "network claims (the) spots are 'disparaging to fast-food restaurants.' "

According to IDP spokesman RJ Millard, because Spurlock's award-winning documentary is expanding into additional theaters this weekend, IDP approached MTV about an ad buy that would see its commercial play on the youth-oriented music net over the Memorial Day weekend.

Millard said MTV told IDP that it would not accept the spot without revisions and that it would not run the spot, once revised, in any commercial pods that also featured ads for any fast-food restaurants. IDP declined to make the changes and issued its release instead.

But an MTV spokeswoman disputed IDP's version of the events. The channel did initially suggest some edits for the spot, according to a spokeswoman, but ultimately accepted the original version.

By MTV's account, IDP then withdrew the commercial, "and instead of submitting the commercial, they chose to put out a press release."

"IDP, Samuel Goldwyn, Roadside Attractions and our advertising agency were never informed that the ads were approved," Millard countered. "I've got the correspondence from them -- an e-mail that says they wouldn't run it without changes. Now that we've gone out with our story, they're changing their tune and saying they approved the ad, but we were never notified."

MTV also denied IDP's claim that the commercial was nixed out of concern for other fast-food advertisers. "The edits were not about conflicting with other advertisers," an MTV spokeswoman said. "It was about the content of the advertisements."

The content MTV initially found objectionable in the "Super Size Me" commercial was a shot of Spurlock vomiting after ingesting a hamburger and a reference that Spurlock makes about how the hamburger could "kill."

According to IDP, the same spot has already run on Fox, CNN, MSNBC, Comedy Central, E! and Food Network.

However unappetizing MTV found the spot, "Super Size Me" is tickling audience's taste buds. In its first three weekends of release -- as it expanded from 41 to 148 theaters -- it has climbed from 20th place to the No. 10 spot on the weekly charts, and it has grossed more than $3.2 million to date.

Andrew Wallenstein contributed to this report.