Days of Wein and roses

Exiting brothers receive bi-coastal toast in absentia

By NICOLE LAPORTE

To mark the passing of an era, more than 200 current and former Miramax staffers were skedded to gather for a bicoastal tribute last week in honor of the famed indie company and its founders and toppers -- who weren't invited.

The toast/roast was pegged to the fact that on Sept. 30, Bob and Harvey Weinstein officially exit their contract with Disney and Miramax Films; they launch their new media company the next day.

So on Sept. 22, members of the Miramax diaspora -- i.e., "veterans of motion picture trench warfare," according to the party invite -- slated twin bashes at Barney's Beanery in West Hollywood and on a rooftop deck atop one of Miramax's Gotham buildings.

As the Mir-Anon members RSVP'd to their email invitations, they offered comments indicating that the event wouldn't necessarily be a reverent memorial service. Nor would it be downbeat.

"Sweet! You picked a bar I can walk home from," wrote one planned attendee.

More earnestly, another wrote: "I'm in -- is anyone hiring?"

Rick Sands, a Miramax alum who's now chief operating officer at DreamWorks, planned to be there.

Asked if the Weinsteins knew about the soiree, Sands said, "Absolutely not! They'll be the subject of conversation. They won't want to be there."

(Not that anyone would ever have anything negative to say about the brothers.)

Of course, Miramax will live on -- sans the Weinsteins -- at Disney. "Miramax is being reborn, there'll be a 'new' Miramax, like New Coke," Sands said.

Sands said he planned on attending the festivities because, to him, the Miramax experience was "unlike any other."

"There's a commonality that people have because of the shared experience," he says. "It's something that stays with you. Maybe forever."