Harvey Weinstein

For a movie that has grossed only $11 million, been panned by half the nation's film critics and is now almost gone from the local megaplexes, one might think that "Bobby" faces an insurmountable climb if it is to capture Academy Awards attention. But that doesn't take into account another familiar name: Harvey.

It took four days, but the first Sundance Film Festival feature finally has been sold -- with Harvey Weinstein's purchase of the Iraq war bereavement drama "Grace Is Gone" for $4 million. Thanks to a consistently grim slate of films, acquisitions this year have been slow, especially compared to last year, when "Little Miss Sunshine" sold soon after its screening on the first full day for a record $10.5 million.

They won the best picture Oscar with 2002's blockbuster "Chicago," and now director Rob Marshall and producer Harvey Weinstein plan to adapt another hit Broadway musical for the screen. This time the production is "Nine," which won the Tony for best musical. The Weinstein Co. said Thursday that Marshall will direct the adaptation, with Maury Yeston, the composer and lyricist for the original 1982 production, reprising his songwriting roles.

I miss Harvey Weinstein. Not the Harvey Weinstein you see today, the slimmed-down mogul who's acquired the Halston fashion brand, invested in a MySpace-style website for the rich and famous and bought the Ovation arts channel. Not the Harvey Weinstein who told the Hollywood Reporter last year that "we are focused on other areas outside of film."

IN just seven months, Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig did what some designers spend a lifetime dreaming of: They dressed Renee Zellweger for a stroll down the red carpet, at the London premiere of "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason." Two months later, Cate Blanchett followed, in a golden, sari-inspired frock at the Rome premiere of "The Aviator."

Independent movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, whose cigarette habit was once so extreme he was fined for lighting up in a restroom on a British Airways flight, has become Hollywood's newest anti-smoking messenger. On Tuesday, California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer announced that Weinstein Co. was the first movie company to agree to insert anti-smoking advertisements in DVDs that depict smoking.

HARVEY Weinstein is credited with changing Oscar campaigns forever with an aggressive marketing style that raised the financial stakes while opening up the competition for independents. For the past year, he and his brother, Bob, have been running the Weinstein Co. after leaving Walt Disney-owned Miramax. This season, one of Weinstein's main pushes will be "Bobby," directed and written by actor Emilio Estevez, a tribute to Robert F.

For all of us Beatles fans, the news last week that the Weinstein Co. had acquired "Nowhere Boy," a coming-of-age tale about John Lennon's tumultuous teenage years in Liverpool, was cause for high hopes.

Amid questions about their company's financial viability, Bob and Harvey Weinstein showed that they still can do what they always have done best: sell a risky, independent drama. Quentin Tarantino's bloody World War II action film, "Inglourious Basterds," sold about $37.6 million worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada this weekend, exceeding industry estimates based on pre-release polling. The weekend's other three new movies, meanwhile, showed little life at the domestic box office.