Illustration by Vault 49

It Happens This Week
• Bloomberg gives his State of the City speech.
• Feds release December retail sales report, just as stores’ markdowns reach new heights (and with tourists gone, New Yorkers might even make it inside them).
• Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies’s new play, Brooklyn Boy, begins previews.
• And hipster past meets hipster present when artist Cory Arcangel’s Super Mario Movie opens at Deitch Projects.

(Photo: Globe Photos)

Post-Disney Harvey May Go Indie
If the studios don’t want him, Miramax big to get small.
Though Harvey Weinstein can’t wrap a deal for his life after Miramax until he settles with Disney, those close to him say his plans involve starting a new independent—perhaps because the studios haven’t exactly been clamoring to sign him to a fat contract. “He’s gone to a number of studios and been turned down,” says one Hollywood exec. “He may still be a gorilla when this is over, but he won’t be 800 pounds,” seconds a studio bigwig. Of course, studios aren’t in the best mood to make a deal: Paramount’s management is changing, and the execs at Sony, Universal, and DreamWorks are said to not be crazy about Harvey. That leaves places like Warner Bros. and Fox in a position to negotiate. “Harvey’s plan was to do an awful lot of movies with an awful lot of money and an awful lot of autonomy,” says a supporter of his. He and his brother, Bob, “will get a deal, but not at the level they want.” But a spokesman for the Weinsteins says the studios can’t say no if they haven’t been asked. “They haven’t spoken with anyone about their future plans, only about current projects. We’re focused on maximizing profitability and achieving an amicable resolution with Disney.”
—Jacob Bernstein