STRUGGLING RELATIVITY FINDS WHITE KNIGHT

Supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle, who has been seeking to establish a beachhead in Hollywood, may finally have done so. He reportedly has acquired a 25-percent stake in Ryan Kavanaugh’s struggling Relativity Media from Elliot Management for an undisclosed price. The Los Angeles Times observed today (Friday) that Elliot’s stake in Relativity is worth about $150 million. In 2010 Burkle united with the Weinstein brothers in an effort to buy Miramax, the studio founded by the Weinsteins, from Disney, but the company turned down their final bid, said to have been about $625 million. According to TheWrap.com, Burkle invested $200 million in Relativity’s Immortals last year when the studio was having trouble raising money to cover the movie’s distribution and marketing expenses.