Brown-Miramax Union Reads Like Fiction

Even by Hollywood standards, some things are hard to fathom. At least at first blush.

One is the unlikely marriage of Tina Brown and Harvey Weinstein--the media world’s latest odd couple.

This week’s announcement that the polished, Oxford-educated British magazine editor was leaving her prestigious six-year post at the New Yorker to form a new-media venture with none other than Miramax’s self-made, Queens-born king of independent movies startled insiders from New York’s publishing circles to Hollywood’s business and creative communities.

“I’m stunned. Just floored,” said a Hollywood executive who has worked on both coasts.

“Even though it was anticipated for so long that Tina might leave, this shocked everyone,” said a prominent New York literary agent.

Brown and outgoing Vogue Publisher Ronald Galotti, who had a successful previous collaboration at Vanity Fair, are launching a company to publish an upscale glossy national magazine intended to spawn source material for movies, television and books.

Walt Disney-owned Miramax, the scrappy independent production company founded and run by Weinstein and his younger brother Bob, is bankrolling the new venture and will produce the movies and TV programming, as well as publish books under its own imprint.

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In a joint phone interview with Brown on Thursday, Weinstein kidded about how the business relationship with his new, more tailored and buttoned-down partner was forcing him to change his notoriously slovenly ways.

“I’m calling you from Brooks Bros., where Tina is showing me what a tie looks like,” joked the 46-year-old stranger to a business suit. “Now that I’m partners with an incredible taste-maker like Tina, my shirt can’t be hanging out the back of my pants.”

Brown added: “He’s going to be hurtling upscale.”

As for Brown, she has no intentions of moving downscale.

One veteran Hollywood publicist said of the strange bedfellows: “It’s hysterical. Can you picture Tina Brown schlepping down [there]?” referring to the lower Manhattan location of Miramax’s converted warehouse headquarters in trendy Tribeca.

In truth, Brown and Galotti won’t be schlepping anywhere.

“We’re looking for premises, and I can assure you it won’t be in Tribeca,” quipped Brown, noting, “It’s too far from my house,” which is on Manhattan’s ultra-fashionable East Side where she lives with her husband, former Random House honcho Harold Evans, and their two children.

Brown confirmed that she once visited Miramax’s “dingy” offices, as Weinstein describes them, promising herself, “I’m never coming back down here again.”

All kidding aside, industry insiders are wondering how the Weinsteins--widely known to be tight with a buck, to put it mildly--expect to keep Brown living in the style to which she’s accustomed.

The 44-year-old Brown, daughter of a British movie producer, and Evans, who now runs Mort Zuckerman’s publishing empire, are one of the most visible and glamorous power couples on New York’s social scene.

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As one of New York’s most celebrated editors, Brown has a reputation as a big spender who’s fond of throwing lavish parties and enjoying such perks as a personal driver and car, an interest-free home loan, a wardrobe stipend and an unlimited expense account.

“She’s had a very charmed work existence,” said a source. “She’s used to Park Avenue.”

A number of Hollywood types also questioned how someone as dynamic and powerful as Brown will fare in the new venture with someone whose personality is equally strong.

Weinstein, considered one of the most colorful and controversial figures on the independent movie scene, is as famous for his rough-edged, tough-guy persona and bravado as he is for his taste in high-quality, edgy movies and his uncanny skill in marketing them.

The former rock concert promoter and college dropout--one of the movie industry’s most aggressive risk-takers--is a star in his own right. His bigger-than-life, quick-witted personality and outspokenness have made him a media celebrity of sorts in Hollywood, in much the same way that such acclaimed films as “Good Will Hunting,” “Pulp Fiction,” “The Crying Game” and the Oscar-winning “The English Patient” have made the 20-year-old Miramax the most powerful, high-profile force in the independent-film world.

“At Miramax, no one is a bigger star than Harvey,” said a source.

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Brown--who’s always enjoyed the status of queen bee--is also used to being treated as a star.

And there’s the question of how much autonomy Brown will actually have with someone as hands-on and opinionated as Weinstein.

“I know in issues where it really counts, Harvey understands my areas of autonomy,” Brown said. “And he understands the bill of rights that every artist brings to the table. . . . He understands the need to operate in our idiosyncratic, wayward ways.”

Weinstein said Brown will have “complete editorial and creative control of the venture, Ron [Galotti] will have business control, and I’ll be hands-on where they want me to be.”

Specifically, Brown will decide on matters concerning the magazine and any TV specials she develops. In terms of what movies will be made from articles served up by Brown, Weinstein said he will have the final word.

When asked if Weinstein’s reputation for sometimes being tough, strong-willed and contentious concerned her, Brown replied: “I like working with extraordinarily strong people. I’m sure we’ll have creative differences, but we’ll fight it out and the best man will win.”

For all their differences in style, Brown and Weinstein share a lot in common, not the least of which is their penchant and passion for smart literary material and the uncanny influence their creative output has had on pop culture.

“Superficially, we may be an odd couple, but deep down, on a spiritual level, we’re the same person,” Brown said.

Both are mavericks, unafraid to take creative risks.

Much like Weinstein and his brother helped popularize offbeat independent movies with commercial hits such as “Pulp Fiction,” Brown became famous for transforming the dry British publication Tatler into a slick, trendy monthly and raising the profile and circulation of both Vanity Fair and the New Yorker with innovative subject matter and controversial visuals.

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Weinstein and Brown, who have known each other for about five years through various Hollywood functions, have long been enamored of each other’s profession.

Two years ago Weinstein went to Disney chief Michael Eisner and then-Disney President Michael Ovitz about the possibility of Miramax starting its own publication. The voracious reader sees himself as a sometimes journalist, occasionally writing articles about movies for Premiere magazine.

Brown enjoys close ties to some of the industry’s biggest stars and mixes regularly with industry moguls like Eisner, Ovitz and Barry Diller.

To many in Hollywood and New York, Brown’s playing the card that puts her into show business comes as no surprise.