The situation between star “Yellowstone” actor Kevin Costner and the show’s co-creator and showrunner Taylor Sheridan has reportedly grown so toxic that the relationship may no longer be repairable.

Puck News reported this week that bitter divisions have been brewing for months between Costner’s team and Sheridan’s team and have even poured out into the open on social media. For example, a longtime associate of Costner’s took a shot at Sheridan on Instagram in response to Sheridan’s new mobster show “Tulsa King,” writing: “Stick to westerns, bro. You don’t know S*** about THIS life. Stay in your lane, country boy. I’m actually embarrassed for you as a writer and creator.” The post reportedly made it to the CEO and president of Paramount Media Networks before it was deleted.

The report said that the underlying issue was Costner’s “ego and his unavailability” which goes with his reputation of being “either exacting to a fault or an unjustified pain in the ass.”

Once “Yellowstone” skyrocketed its way to being television’s top rated-drama, Costner reportedly started “squeezing,” demanding to be compensated for promotion days and that the total he makes per episode be bumped from $1.2 million to $1.5 million per episode if there is a sixth season.

When the fifth season was expanded from 10 episodes to 16 episodes, the season was broken up into two parts and Costner had negotiated short windows for when he would be available to film. Costner contracted COVID during the first window of filming and instead of waiting till he was clear to work, he reportedly said that the window expired and filming had to be delayed by months. Costner’s team has allegedly only offered a very narrow window of time slots to resume filming for the second half of the season, which the report said was nearly “impossible” to pull off.

The report said that Costner’s team points the finger at Sheridan because the filming for all of the fifth season was supposed to be finished last year and they claim that Sheridan delivered the scripts late.

“The idea that Kevin was only willing to work one week on the second half of season five of Yellowstone is an absolute lie,” Costner’s attorney Marty Singer told Puck. “It’s ridiculous — and anyone suggesting it shouldn’t be believed for one second. As everyone who knows anything about Kevin is well aware, he is incredibly passionate about the show and has always gone way above and beyond to ensure its success.”

Sheridan is also behind the extremely popular “Yellowstone” prequel series “1883” and “1923.”

If Sheridan decides to kill off Costner’s character in the show, patriarchal figure John Dutton, then it could be four years before the spinoff with Matthew McConaughey comes to the network due to legal issues.

The report said that Sheridan was “furious” with the situation, that he can’t finish writing the rest of season five until the Costner situation is resolved, and that the relationship is likely over.

The President, more than any other figure, has become emblematic of the American experiment. From humble beginnings, the office has become synonymous with august power itself.

The Commander-in-Chief of the greatest military force in human history. The ‘Leader of the Free World’ and America’s representative on the world stage. The de facto leader of whatever party he belongs to. The Chief Executive of the largest employer in the country, who can mold and bend countless federal policies with a stroke of his pen.

Their faces dominate our currency, their figures tower over our most famous national monuments. They loom large in our imagination — they dominate casual discussions of our politics. The average American may not be able to name the three branches of government, but even the most politically illiterate citizen can usually name the sitting president.

But for all that pomp and circumstance, I’d wager that almost no one would be able to tell me the name of America’s first president.

Don’t believe me? Well, if you say it’s George Washington, you are mistaken.

The United States declared its independence on July 4, 1776, yet Washington did not take office until April 30, 1789. The Continental Congress that would declare independence was formed on September 5th, 1774.

Washington would serve as America’s first Commander-in-Chief for the duration of the Revolutionary War, but during those formative years 14 men would preside over the fledgling government as it stumbled, fled, and failed to supply Washington and his army, leaving the nation’s soldiers frozen and half-starved at Valley Forge. Yet, for all its dysfunction, this was the government that would best the British, win the critical favor of the French and Dutch, and emerge victorious over the greatest empire the world had ever seen.

So, on this Presidents’ Day, I would like to take a moment to salute the valiant efforts of the forgotten Presidents, whose existence has largely been confined to the realm of trivia.

Peyton Randolph, Henry Middleton, John Hancock, Henry Laurens, John Jay, Samuel Huntington, Thomas McKeen, John Hanson, Elias Boudinot, Richard Henry Lee, Nathaniel Gorham, Arthur St. Clair and Cyrus Griffin.

Why, then, have the memories of these men been confined to the pedantic ramblings of overeducated columnists?

Well, the President of the Continental Congress was not anything like the modern office of the President.

Under the Articles of Confederation, the President was not the head of a separate branch of government — he was selected by the Congress from among the Congress, and his role was largely ceremonial. He presided over the Congress, and moderated debate, and seldom served for more than a year at a time. He did not set the agenda, he had no control over committees assignments, and he certainly was not given control of the troops.

The members of the founding generation were extremely skeptical of strong executive authority — after all, weren’t they rebelling against a corrupt and tyrannical king, and a system that concentrated far too much power in the hands of a single man? These were people who deeply feared the dangers posed to liberty by the mere existence of a standing army, the last thing they were going to do was vest the entire federal bureaucracy in one person.

The Articles, to be fair, didn’t have many powers to vest. It had no power to tax, and relied on the voluntary contributions of its member states. It had no virtually power to regulate the internal affairs of the states, no power to regulate commerce between them, no power to amend its basic bylaws without the unanimous consent of all states. It could raise armies would sometimes finance, take on debt which the states may deign to repay, and negotiate treaties with any foreign government that would take them seriously. Barring some existential crisis, the first federal government couldn’t do much of anything.

The Presidency was a do nothing job in a do nothing organization.

And in fairness, for a while it sort of worked. But, as the fledgling republic came of age in a time of peace, the wartime pressures that had held to ramshackle structure together faded away and the hollow edifice threatened to crumble. America couldn’t pay back its debts, America couldn’t provide benefits to its former troops, America couldn’t prevent legal disputes between rival states.

Economic dislocation and open rebellion threatened to bring the whole thing down.

So, in the summer of 1787, the beleaguered Continental Congress authorized a Constitutional Convention to iron out some reforms and see if the Articles of Confederation could be salvaged.

The Convention was a mess. One state, Rhode Island, refused to send any delegates at all. About a third of the delegates who were appointed didn’t show up. The 55 men who did show up, however, were among the most highly educated, politically seasoned, materially successful men in the country: most of them had served in Congress, several had been state governors, and many had been in government since the Revolutionary days.

Described by their contemporary, Thomas Jefferson, as a ‘Council of Demigods’, these titans of law, commerce, finance and industry crowded together in a small assembly hall in Philadelphia, with the windows closed so that eavesdroppers couldn’t listen, and over the course of an agonizing hot and muggy summer with no air conditioning, tried to see if they could salvage this thing.

Tensions were high. One of the first conclusions drawn by the convention was that the Articles were broken beyond salvation and the only way forward was to start over from scratch. To be clear, these men who had spent years of their blood, sweat and tears to create this nation looked at the first draft of the American Republic and said ‘we can keep the name.’

There were many controversial issues debated at the convention — the structure of Congress, the balance of power between the federal government and the states, and that ever fatal issue of slavery.

But the nature of the executive, and what would become the Presidency, was among the most loaded issues of all.