Miramax–the name and the catalog–may finally be returned to its rightful owners, the Weinstein brothers.
I was the first to write several months ago that once Disney decided to close Miramax, they should give the name back to the Weinsteins. Well, Disney does nothing for free, except when you wish upon a star. So the Weinsteins are in the middle of talks to buy it all back. They’re joined supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle, who also owns half the debt of Barneys department stores and most of Sean P Diddy Combs.
There are others in the bid for Miramax, including billionaire brothers Alec and Tom Gores, whose brother Sam owns the Paradigm Talent Agency and is married to former “Another World” star Jensen Buchanan. The other horse in the race belongs to David Bergstein, who once owned ThinkFilm.
Bergstein is a terrible choice. He destroyed ThinkFilms and is now embroiled in a nightmare case in bankruptcy court. Giving Miramax to Bergstein would be like putting it in an incinerator, no matter how much money Bergstein says he’s representing. No one at Disney, especially Bob Iger, wants to be part of that legacy.
The Gores are an interesting family. The two brothers–Alec and Tom–could not be less like brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein. For one thing, the Gores were very much a part of the Anthony Pellicano case. Alec hired Anthony Pellicano to wiretap Tom’s phone and that of Alec’s wife, Lisa, because he thought they were having an affair. It’s amazing they still talk to each other, let alone are combining to buy a company.
Alec Gores’ second wife, Hedi, is on the board of Madonna’s Raising Malawi, a front for the Kabbalah Center of Los Angeles. She’s used Alec’s fortune to help underwrite the cause.
Alec Gores does have a connection to filmmaking: back in 2004, he commissioned actor Tom Arnold to write and direct a $5-million feature film called “The Kid & I” starring Gores’ 18-year-old son, Eric, whose mother Gores allegedly wiretapped just three years earlier.
Eric Gores, like the character he plays in the movie, suffers from cerebral palsy. He co-starred in the vanity production with Joe Mantegna, Linda Hamilton, Jamie Lee Curtis and Shaquille O’Neal.
“The Kid & I” is notable for being the only film in which Arnold Schwarzenegger has appeared since becoming governor of California. Gores, by coincidence, donated $7,000 to the Republican Party, George W. Bush and failed California U.S. Senate candidate Bill Jones during that period.
Obviously, neither the Goreses nor Bergstein is an appropriate owner for a catalog that includes three Best Picture winners and dozens of hits from “Chicago” to “Good Will Hunting,” “Shakespeare in Love,” “Il Postino,” “Pulp Fiction,” and “The Cider House Rules.”
In the end, Disney is a family company. Bob Iger knows that. It’s built on the Disney family legacy. Miramax is very much the same, dedicated to the memory of the Weinsteins’ father, Max, and their very much living and feisty mom, Miriam. If the Weinsteins prevail, Disney and Iger get gold stars. Everyone’s happy. And the movie universe is in balance again.
