TITLE FIGHT

Cannon Films is battling for a movie title--with its own producer.

Cannon’s calling its now-filming Charles Bronson thriller “Assassin”--and insiders say it’s likely to stay that way when released.

But producer Pancho Kohner told us, “It’s called ‘The President’s Wife,’ based on Richard Sale’s novel ‘My Affair With the President’s Wife,’ and as far as we’re concerned, it’s not going to be called anything else.”

(The flick’s about a Secret Service agent who falls for the First Lady after he’s assigned to protect her, with Bronson’s real-life first lady, Jill Ireland, co-starring.)

That softer title may just be a bit, uh, subversive: When the crew shot recently in Washington, it applied for permits for “The President’s Wife.” A Cannon spokesman conceded, “There was some concern that ‘Assassin’ might have a negative connotation and the crew might not get cooperation--people in Washington are worried about terrorism.”