How did Harvey Weinstein land that distribution deal for Grace is Gone last weekend? A producer at Monday’s Picturehouse party told me that Harvey was so determined to lock things down, he drove over to the condo of the Grace producers at 4 ayem and knocked on the door — bam! bam! bam! I don’t know precisely which Grace producers were in the condo (it could have been John Cusack, Grace Loh, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Ed Hart and/or Paul Bernstein), but the Weinstein home invasion sent them into a five-alarm mode.
Like terrified rabbits, they all scurried into a bathroom and locked the door to hud- dle alone before talking terms with Harvey. Can you imagine? “He’s here…he’s in the house! What do we do? We have to be on the same negotiating page! Quick…the bathroom! John…! Ed! Everyone in! Lock the door!” Before the sun rose (or maybe a little bit after — I’m not sure), Harvey had acquired distribution rights for $4 million.
This episode reminded me of a term thought up by Paul Theroux in “The Mos- quito Coast” to describe a quality that Allie Fox had — “four o’clock in the morning courage.” In Harvey’s case, it’s four o’clock in the morning bulldog tenacity….same difference.