PC H’wood wolf at Liam’s door

It’s Liam Neeson vs. the wolves.

And PETA. And the rest of the animal-hugging Hollywood elite.

The tough-guy actor is going mano-a-mano with wildlife conservationists and much of politically correct Tinseltown, where furry beasts are the new black.

In his new movie, “The Grey,” which opened Friday, the Irish-born badass, 59, plays a depressed oil-company worker who survives a plane crash in the Alaskan tundra, a cold and hostile landscape filled with zombie-like beasts bearing sharp, pointy teeth and voracious appetites for fresh human meat. These killer critters are so impolite, they play with their food before chowing down. Good fun.

But as the film reveals, a sad Liam is the best adversary I can imagine for a hungry wolf pack. He just may not have realized that these hairy fiends come fully loaded with a fan club, Web sites and organizations devoted to stopping this movie.

“The Grey” is the victim of a boycott by nature types who think some viewers might feel compelled to shoot wolves on sight when, they insist, the creatures pose no threat. Truth is, wolves aren’t exactly man’s best buddies. More like that hostile neighbor against whom you might take out an order of protection.

But Neeson isn’t giving ground. He infuriated pro-wolf forces by eating real wolf meat on the movie set as a way of getting into character.

And he liked it.

Wolf jerky “was quite nice,” he told reporters in New York this month.

“I went up for seconds of the wolf stew,” he boasted to the Chicago Sun-Times. While some cast members “upchucked’’ at the great wolf barbecue organized by director Joe Carnahan, “all I can say is it was very gamy. But I’m Irish, so I’m used to odd stews. I can take it.”

“Just throw a lot of carrots and onions in there and I’ll call it dinner.”

It was war.

“Unlike other cast members, [Neeson] seemed to relish eating the wolf meat,” Nicole Dao, spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, told me.

“His stance on kindness to animals is sorely out of step with the direction in which the rest of the world is headed.”

Neeson’s spokesman shot back, “You sure they didn’t mean putting relish on his meat?”

Web sites, one called Boycott the Grey, feature Neeson’s face marred with red X’s. Maggie Howell, of the Wolf Conservation Center in Westchester, called Howard Stern urging him as “an animal lover and a dog lover” to quit promoting the film.

Neeson was already in the cross hairs of warbler Lea Michele of “Glee,” plus Pink, Alec Baldwin and Mary Tyler Moore for his support of the carriage-horse industry in New York. The belief that the horses do not lead pleasant lives has turned into a kind of religion among the Hollywood set.