(image via frillr)
Harvey Weinstein, he so crazy. He once was the biggest cat in the jungle. He knew how to tickle Oscar's g-spot. Post-Miramax, meh, not so much. But Junglecat Harvey can still be lured into prone position with a saucer of milk placed near the most prestigious artistic/creative content in the room. You see, Harvey -- who some might regard as somewhat "thuggish" in his ambiance -- fancies himself as something of an artist (Averted Gaze), or at least if not of that temperament, the "Big Daddy" of Artists.
Don't ask us to explain the whys of that, but it probably has something to do with the fact that Mamma Miriam and Pappa Max Weinstein were intellectuals who always regarded artistic creation as the ne plus ultra of life. Their influence was great on Bob and Harvey. Anyway, Harvey has used his considerable bullying to jam some artistically impressive (and not-so-artistically-impressive) content through the Hollywood pipeline with his stubby little sausage fingers.
Now, smaller, at The Weinstein company, he is having to start from scratch. And in this vulnerable position, there is media shadenfreude in the air. Might Harvey fail? So what's a harried Weinstein to do? Latch on -- remora style -- to Showtime, the cable heir-apparent to HBO's edgy content (which hasn't been so edgy since The Soprano's closed). From TheHollywoodReporter:
"The Weinstein Co. is forging an exclusive, seven-year pay TV output deal with Showtime. And in an unusual twist, the indie distributor apparently will make an advance "bonus" payment of as much as $100 million to the pay cable channel.
"As in other pay TV deals, Showtime would parcel out payments to the Weinsteins according to the performance of the various films at the domestic boxoffice -- minus the prepayment, which is essentially a discount on the amount Showtime will owe the supplier.
"Declining to discuss the financial terms of the deal, the Weinstein Co. co-chief Harvey Weinstein called the suggestion of a prepayment clause 'rumor and innuendo' but added that in his opinion, the deal is 'a game-changer' for his company.
"'The whole purpose of these discussions has been to make sure we have the resources available to keep producing new and original programming,' Showtime chairman and CEO Matt Blank said. 'Theatrical films are still very important, though the price-value relationship was out of whack. Fully loaded, the (Weinstein) deal will cost us half of what we were paying historically for films.'
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