BERGSTEIN OUT OF MIRAMAX DEAL

Construction magnate Ron Tutor, who is heading a group that has agreed to purchase Miramax Films from the Walt Disney Co. for more than $650 million, has told the Hollywood Reporter that David Bergstein, who was reportedly spearheading the deal, will play no role in the new Miramax. While calling Bergstein “very charming,” he went on to rebuke him for “all the sick things he did, gambling money he didn’t have, trying to grow a business he didn’t know and borrowing the way he did, and the madness, to sum it up.” Tutor acknowledged that he has been a passive investor in several of Bergstein’s failed Hollywood projects. “Whatever went wrong, I take responsibility,” he told the Reporter, “even though I wasn’t involved. I was too busy. But even being as passive as I was, I have to take responsibility. And in spite of what it may ultimately cost me, I’ve still got a lot of money.” (The Reporter said that a recent report put Tutor’s personal wealth at more than $700 million, and, it added, “that’s probably conservative.”) Asked about his current relationship with Bergstein, Tutor said, “I would say our friendship is very strained. We don’t spend any social time together any more.”