New York Times writer David Segal goes for the jugular with some of the contextualizing work done here. There're the great anecdotes from filmmakers the Weinsteins have worked with, like Quentin Tarantino's story about the time Harvey wanted to buy a restaurant just so he could blow smoke in the fire marshall's face:

The story killed, and when the laughing died down, Bob smiled, waited a beat and added another punch line. "A million dollars," he sighed, "for a cigarette."

Ah, the flush years. They must seem kind of distant now.

Or Weinstein loyalists like Kevin Smith sounding "wistful" about a failure to promote a film:

"They had impeccable taste when they were hungry," Mr. Smith says. "The problem is that they're not really hungry anymore. They're starving and desperate."

Or guys like the producer of Fanboys going on the record about how terribly trite he thinks the Weinstein's tastes have become:

To Dana Brunetti, who produced "Fanboys," the whole episode was a blown opportunity. "I don't think the Weinsteins understood that they had this stalwart audience of ‘Star Wars' fans in their back pocket," he says. "They just wanted the movie to be whatever had been hot the previous weekend. It was ‘Superbad' one weekend, something else the next."

All things that would've never have been mentioned in public - or private, maybe - by the talent in the Weinsteins employed in their heyday. The Weinsteins' strange fraternal relationship with each other is documented; so are moments of affability, to push home the point that Harvey and Bob aren't the bulldogs they used to be. But key to understanding the Weinsteins, and the way they keep getting by despite hemorrhaging money on failure after failure, is a scene in which Harvey's rattling off the company's slate of current and upcoming releases.

...the brothers were downright generous with me when it came to screening their coming movies. In fact, they shared as much of their slate as was ready - six movies in all, as well as ads, DVDs and rough cuts of unfinished products. The goal, they said, was to demonstrate the strength of these films. For Harvey, it also seemed as if the screenings were supposed to bolster his case if - or, perhaps in his mind, when - he had to complain about this article. We showed him everything and he still said we're doomed, was the subtext. If there is such a thing as prevenge, this is it. "You see this?" Harvey asks, pounding a finger against a sheet of paper. It's a Nielsen NRG tracking poll, a gauge of public interest in coming movies. He points to figures besides "Inglourious Basterds." Here's the G-rated version of what he says next: "This is called ‘smash hit'!"

Or the "next big thing" strategy, which is what they've been riding on for a while, now: sell investors on the idea that whatever comes next will, in fact, be the great success, just based on concept alone: a new Kevin Smith movie, starring the fat Jewish guy from all the Judd Apatow movies: huge! A new Holocaust movie, starring the Academy-loved Kate Winslet: blockbuster! And so on. They even take to admitting that they're nothing more than film producers, which is something they failed to realize when they tried to diversify into a multimedia company.

"What happened was, I got more fascinated by these other businesses and I figured, ‘Making movies, I can do that in my sleep,' " he says in an interview in his office in downtown Manhattan. "I kind of delegated the process of production and acquisitions. Yes, I had a say in it, but was I 100 percent concentrating? Absolutely not. I thought I could build the company and delegate authority, and that's where it went wrong."

But while they now praise the virtues of being scrappy, independent film producers again, it has to bruise the egos of the Weinstein Brothers. So much so, that they'd let a New York Times reporter in their buisness to get the story of their next success strategy out, and in the process, risk having to read damaging anecdotes about themselves like this one, delivered by Kevin Smith:

At the premiere [of Zach And Miri Make A Porno], he introduced Mr. Smith to the actress Sarah Chalke, which was awkward because the woman was actually Traci Lords, a co-star of the movie. "The old Harvey would never would have made those kinds of mistakes," he says. "He just wasn't as present, he wasn't minding the farm, so to speak."

The diverse business approach for a film company becoming a media company was a new trick, weakly executed by an old dog, getting older. The question then becomes something along the lines of: will they keep up? As major studios have learned the hard (and Twittered) way, making and marketing films has become an entirely different game. Can the Brothers Weinstein get with it? Or have the innovations and advances in the realm of their fundamental business - just making movies, and nothing else - already passed them by?

At least not officially — not yet — despite condemnation from the blind community and the governor's office itself. Instead, one of the outraged has pieced together this press release signed by Michaels, supposedly endorsed by NBC (using a well-known network publicist's name) and then disowned by SNL's actual publicist upon investigation. We'd let it go at that, except the fake is so crappy and loaded down with typos, hinting that maybe the sender, too, owes the governor an apology of sorts:

“On our program last week, during the Weekend Update sketch, we featured a parody of New York Governor David Patterson. [sic]

It was not our intention to insult the Governor or to demean anyone with a physical handicap. We have great respect for Governor Pattersonʼs [sic] achievements and his leadership of our great state, as well as for people all over this country and the world who continue to thrive in the face of adversity and better our world in spite of any physical handicap.

Sometimes, in attempting to make the audience laugh, people can be hurt or made to feel as if they are the butt of the joke. That was never our intention, and I hope that our attempt to entertain did not harm. Again, my sincerest apologies to Governor Patterson [sic] and to anyone who may have been offended by the segment.”

Don't mention it, "Lorne"! We're sure filmmaker Fernando Merrelies [sic] will be the next to send his contrite regards to those offended last summer by his allegory Blindness, which he now realizes "failed at the box office due to its vast, insensitive alienation of the sightless demographic, for which I am truly sorry." Surely he won't make that mistake again.

Sheen, who spent his early years partying hard and bedding a bevy of actresses, doesn't remember getting some of the gruesome tats, including a dragon with glasses and a stingray on his left ankle.

A wooden sign nailed to his chest above his heart reads, "Back in 15 minutes." That one was originally meant to be an ashtray, he said, but went horribly wrong. Sheen can't even remember the year he got it. One tattoo he's already had lasered off is the "Denise," for ex-wife Denise Richards, on his left wrist.

Before he gets to those others, however, Mueller insisted the technician first attend to the the USC Junior Varsity pep squad team photo tattooed on his inner-thigh, and the pig dressed like an adorable hobo on his lower back—the result of Sheen getting liquored up one night after a particularly ugly day in family court, wandering into a random Sunset Strip tattoo parlor, and demanding a "jobless pig above my ass, in honor of Denise."

• STAIN REMOVER [NY Post]

"My mouth still looks wonky, i think i gott go back to paris tot he dr, he fixes bad surgery and also cleft palates and serious [bleep] its nbot really vanity hes conservtive, wich we like," the grunge singer wrote on her Web site. "This really isnt znyones business but im hating that id di that to my mouth back in the day and he didnt really take out enough the first time around i just wnt the mouth god gave me back."

"It was perfectly cute. and i had nice big lips as Gwyneth says when i was "Out Sick" (genius phrase) of my dark years id id some damage and i have to restore myself to not looking ridiculous, idont care if im prettty or ugly or jo de lie wich is what i apretty much am (french for ugly pretty - theres no english word fo rit and im sure im nots pelling it right)."

The Hole frontwoman has since gone on to other matters: She brushed off the lack of straight men in her fan base on the blog last night, pithily writing, "i prefer my frmale sof all ages and my young homos, colopur my ass liza im thrilled"—oblivious to one young homo fan whose heart she broke into a million little rainbow pieces. Still, we can't help but respond to the honesty of the multiple voices in her head—here's to hoping the world's leading facial reconstructionist can work the same scalpel magic on Love as he does on children born missing significant portions of their face.

• Spelling challenged [MSNBC]
• dudes/homos [MySpace]