Who

The legendary film producer who co-founded Miramax with his brother, Bob, Harvey now presides over The Weinstein Company with his lower-key sibling. His second—and current—wife is designer Georgina Chapman.

Backstory

The son of Miriam and Max—the brothers combined their parents' first names to create "Miramax"—Flushing-born Harvey started producing concerts while a student at SUNY Buffalo, eventually bringing in little brother Bob to help. The Weinsteins later turned their attention to film, and founded Miramax in 1979. Their first movie was the now all-but-forgotten Secret Policemen's Ball, which they acquired at Cannes in 1980. After cobbling together financing, they released a handful of other art-house films in the '80s including Errol Morris' The Thin Blue Line. But the movie that really ignited their careers—and the entire indie film movement—was Steven Soderbergh's sex, lies and videotape in 1989. It nabbed the Palme d'Or, earned an Oscar nom, and made a pretty penny, proving that cheap indies could be highly lucrative, too.

The Weinsteins went on a tear during the '90s, producing films like The Crying Game, Reservoir Dogs, Clerks, The Piano, and Pulp Fiction (among many others), establishing themselves as the dominant dealmakers of the nascent Sundance scene. The duo kept up the pace even after selling off the studio to Disney for roughly $80 million in 1993; with a fair degree of autonomy from the media giant, they continued to pump out critical hits like The English Patient, Good Will Hunting, Shakespeare in Love, and Chicago. Over the course of 12 years at Disney, Miramax turned out a total of 550 films in all, which collectively earned 220 Oscar nominations and raked in $4.5 billion at the box office.

Things began to unravel in the early '00s when the relationship between Miramax and Disney began to fray; Harvey's rapport with then-Disney chief Michael Eisner took a decisive turn for the worse in 2004, when they clashed viciously over Michael Moore's controversial Fahrenheit 9/11. Following months of protracted negotiations, the two sides settled in 2005: Harvey and Bob left their baby with Disney, got part ownership of their Dimension division (which produced horror films like Scream), and headed off to start their own film production outfit, The Weinstein Company, with close to a billion dollars in financing.

Of note

Weinstein had little trouble raising capital for his new company. A billion dollars in financing was provided by Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, and LVMH, as well as high-rollers like Mark Cuban, Richard Perry, Vivi Nevo, and Eric Mindich. But the brothers have so far been unable to recreate the magic so famously delivered by Miramax. Semi-successes like Hoodwinked and Michael Moore's Sicko aside, they've racked up a long list of box-office duds: Breaking and Entering, The Libertine, The Hunting Party, the very pricey ($75 million) Grindhouse by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, and The Nanny Diaries, to name a few. The one moderately bright spot has been the Dimension division, which is overseen by Bob; it's turned out a few hits by sticking with the tried-and-true, like Scary Movie 6 and a 2007 remake of Halloween. Needless to say, Harvey's investors are nervously awaiting the company's upcoming releases including Inglourious Basterds, Shanghai, and Rob Marshall's Nine.

Medical file

Once a chain smoker and chocolate addict, Harvey is a healthier man these days: He says he's quit sugar and cigarettes and claims that his prior outbursts were due to unhealthy "glucose levels." The sudden change of lifestyle might have had something to do the events of August 2000. Harvey was hospitalized for what his aides say was a "bacterial infection," but what was rumored to be a heart attack.

Drama

He hasn't gotten to the top by being Mr. Nice Guy—Harvey's temper is legendary. Some of his more charming behavior includes excoriating his assistants in public, capsizing tables covered with food, hurling blunt objects at employees, and harassing his directors to within an inch of their sanity, as was the case in 2000 when he berated director Julie Taymor after the screening of Frida and then fired a dozen Miramax employees on the spot—in front of, oh, 100 or so reporters. (Although, in all fairness, he's never been as bad as fury-filled fellow producer Scott Rudin.) It isn't just people on the Weinstein payroll he abuses: In 2000, he famously lunged at an Observer reporter and put him a headlock after he asked a question that Harvey disapproved of.

Weinstein's business methods have been equally aggressive. Once called the "Sun Tzu of Oscar warfare," Weinstein pioneered the modern Oscar campaign in all its ugly glory. His aggressive attempts to sway Academy members—which included stratagems like using phone banks to bother voters at home and mounting multi-million dollar ad bonanzas—have drawn persistent criticism (although they're now standard, of course). And he's long been accused of heading off criticism by co-opting the media and using his influence to help out his pals. He gave lucrative movie script deals to gossip columnists like Richard Johnson and Fox News's Roger Friedman. And he gave his wife, Georgina Chapman, a big career boost by "persuading" his stable of actresses to wear her line at premieres.

Namedrop

Over the years, Weinstein has nurtured the careers of dozens of filmmakers, including Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Michael Moore, Kevin Smith, and Gary Winick; he also helped mint plenty of stars like Gwyneth Paltrow, whom he once dubbed the "the First Lady of Miramax." A slew of industry execs earned their chops working for him, including Brad Grey (who was once Harvey's assistant), Scott Greenstein, Cary Granat, Rick Sands, David Linde, Mark Gill, and David Dinerstein. Matt Hiltzik once headed up his PR department. Jonathan Burnham was president of Miramax Books. Weinstein hire Tina Brown to edit the ill-fated mag Talk in partnership with Cathie Black's Hearst. In 2003, he tried to buy New York with Mort Zuckerman, Donny Deutsch, and Nelson Peltz, among others. (He lost out to Bruce Wasserstein.) David Boies repped him in his contract negotiations when he split with Disney. He teamed up with Desiree Gruber and Heidi Klum to create Project Runway. Deborah Grubman is his real estate broker. Jennifer Rudolph Walsh is his literary agent. Steve Rattner, the investment banker and financier, has advised him on numerous occasions over the years. And, in case you're wondering, Larry Rosenthal is responsible for his bright, white teeth.

On the side

Harvey likes to have plenty of side projects to keep him busy. He's an investor in Jason Binn's magazine company, and had a stake in the hugely successful Broadway run of The Producers. More recently, he invested in the Eurotrashy social network ASmallWorld.net (along with other notables like Bob Pittman), and took a stake in the cable channel Ovation with Richard Perry. In 2007, he bought out the faded fashion label Halston. He's also an investor in the home video company Genius Products.

Then there are the various restaurants and clubs he's helped finance over the years. He was one of the original investors in the L.A. restaurant Ago (alongside Ridley Scott and Robert De Niro), and gave seed capital to Giuseppe Cipriani to open his London outpost.

Personal

In 2004, Weinstein split up with his wife of 20 years, Eve, whom he met when she was his assistant at Miramax. (She got to keep the $25 million apartment on Central Park West, which she later sold to Robert De Niro.) The slovenly, aged producer is now married to fashion designer and Marchesa founder Georgina Chapman, who is 24 years his junior.

Habitat

Weinstein owns an oceanfront spread in Westport, which is where his 2007 wedding to Chapman took place. He also owns seven-bedroom townhouse in the West Village, which he purchased for $14.95 million in 2006. His previous apartment, a 5,000-square-foot Crosby street condo that Nicole Kidman used to live in (and the same building that's home to Kelly Ripa and Nick Denton) was sold for $8 million in 2007.