Is it Oscar war?! Harvey counterblasts L.A. Times' Goldstein
Los Angeles Times film columnist Patrick Goldstein "knows full well (because I told him) that I decided to rededicate myself to cutting-edge movies six months ago," Harvey Weinstein insists in letter to the editor published in today's L.A. Times. (CLICK HERE!) In a recent column titled "Please Come Home," Goldstein seemed to weep into a small white hankie, claiming that ye ole Happy Oscar Warrior has not only lost his fighting kudos spirit, but more. (CLICK HERE!)
Harvey recalls the notorious column thus: "Goldstein says he misses 'the Harvey Weinstein [he] used to know' — claiming that 'the Oscar impresario who . . . was truly, madly, deeply in love with movies' has been replaced by a 'slimmed-down mogul . . . who has lost his way.'
"That's sweet of Patrick (especially the part about my being 'slimmed-down'), but it's also a bit disingenuous. I never fell out of love with movies. I did have to spend time building the infrastructure of our new company, but we still produced films I'm extremely proud of, like Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's daring 'Grindhouse,' Anthony Minghella's beautiful 'Breaking and Entering' and the politically charged 'Bobby.'"
Goldstein had claimed that Harvey had not only lost his way, but "his magic touch," adding. "Since he cut his ties with Disney, leaving his Miramax label behind and starting the Weinstein Co. with his brother Bob at the end of 2005, he seems to have lost his passion for making the kind of classy fare that earned him an unprecedented string of 11 consecutive Oscar best picture nominations.
"I feel like putting Harvey's picture on a milk carton," he sighed. "Has anyone seen the crazy, spittle-spewing, chain-smoking hustler who would bellow insults, twist arms and shamelessly hype whatever movie was due that week?"
Well, actually, Harvey flashed a gutsy reminder of his ole, bawdy self up in the Utah mountains a few months ago when he, "reverting to his old Sundance strategies, didn't leave the negotiating table from 9 p.m. until 4:30 a.m.," according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Added Defamer.com: "After winning an all-night, $4 million bidding war for the rights to John Cusack's 'Grace is Gone,' a resurgent Harvey Weinstein pounded his chest and issued forth this barbaric, dealmaking yawp, 'The company got its groove back last night. I'm happy to be back in this game. F**k it. I'm good at this. It's fun.'"
Harvey got so excited because he thinks Cusack's performance in "Grace" could be Oscar-bait. "It's definitely an Oscar-season awards festival October/November release," he told the Reporter. "It's Cusack's turn."
But Harvey's not just buying up Oscar potential pix these days. He recently told Gold Derby here at TheEnvelope.com that he's really proud of the films growing from Oscar seeds he planted a while back. (CLICK HERE!)
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Photo: It's already "just like the good old days!" insists Harvey Weinstein in today's Times. (Getty Images)
At the recent Oscars, Harvey had to make due with films that were acquisitions. "I didn't have the time to start a movie from beginning to end," he told me in January. "'Bobby' was something where we got involved early, but it already had been shot. The same thing for 'Miss Potter' and 'Factory Girl.' Most of the Oscar winners we had in the past — 'Pulp Fiction,' 'Chicago,' 'English Patient,' 'Shakespeare in Love,' 'Finding Neverland,' 'The Aviator' — those were ones we produced, soup to nuts. This year will reflect the first year of the company's productions — movies we've been involved with from the beginning."
Harvey just announced that he's teaming up again with the director who gave him his last best picture victory, "Chicago," but got gypped himself out of the director's prize: Rob Marshall. They're in sync next to bring Broadway Tonys champ "Nine" to the screen.
In his letter to the Times editors today, Harvey details his other big pix in the works, many of which have strong Oscar potential. This Tuesday we can probably expect Goldstein to fire off his reply. Oh, let's hope so. It'll be a new Oscar War! Ain't that gonna be proof that ye ole Happy Oscar Warrior is BACK?!
