The politics of being Harvey

By Tom Tapp

In the last five years Harvey Weinststein has given over $300,000 to Democrats, the DNC and Democratic-leaning soft money groups. About $12,000 of that went directly to Hillary Clinton. Last campaign cycle he stumped for John Kerry. He also spent time organizing Bill Clinton's 60th birthday party last fall.

So what, you say?

This week's much-discussed New York Times piece about the post-"Grindhouse" Weinstein Company again begged the question the town has been whispering for years: What's happened to Harvey? Is this the same man who wowed us with "Pulp Fiction?" The same savvy marketer who split "Kill Bill" and made a fortune?

As WireTap reported in September, conventional wisdom has it that Harvey and brother Bob are spread too thin. �My only concern is that they may be taking on too many challenges outside their core business,� TWC investor Mark Cuban told the NYT yesterday.

�Harvey is involved in the movies being released,� one film maker who is working with The Weinstein Company told WireTap last fall. �(However) the product thus far seems tepid and bland compared to some of his past success. His signature is not on the movies.�

The mogul himself acknowledged the schism in January. After acquiring the John Cusack-starring "Grace Is Gone" in all-night negotiations reminiscent of his old take-no-prisoners self, Weinstein told The Hollywood Reporter, "The company got its groove back last night. I'm happy to be back in this game. Fuck it. I'm good at this. It's fun."

But with the non-release of "Grindhouse," the questions have arisen again. And they're likely to continue.

Why? We're going into an election year. And Harvey loves politics.

Given what's already the most active year-before-an-election-year ever, it's a pretty safe bet that he won't sit this one out.

Much of Harvey's energy will likely be focused on releasing Michael Moore's "Sicko," a conveniently-timed election year volley if ever there was one.

That may be good for TWC. But the question remains whether his attention will be too closely-focused on that film in particular and politics in general -- not to mention Halston, Genius Products, aSmallWorld.net and the myriad other ventures TWC is involved in -- rather than film.

Oddly, Harvey admitted to Nikki Finke earlier this week he has a problem: "We're making profits everywhere but the movie business," he said.