Walls and Waxman

MSNBC gossip Jeannette Walls had an item in The Scoop yesterday dinging NYT Hollywood writer Sharon Waxman for using a quote from Harvey Weinstein without proper attribution. The Dec. 2 piece on the Roy Disney-Michael Eisner breakup quoted Weinstein being sharply critical:

''All the great executives have been driven from the company,'' Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of Miramax, said. ''I think there is no camaraderie anymore, no great esprit de corps that I found earlier. I think there was more risk-taking, a more fun company. I don't know why, and it's sad that it is.''

Walls contends Weinstein and Hollywood insiders were surprised to see the quote because he hadn't spoken to Waxman for the story -- in fact hadn't spoken to her since the Disney flap at all. Turns out the quote was from an earlier interview for a book Waxman is writing on Hollywood. Fast forward to Dec. 8, when part of the quote shows up again in the New York Times, this time with more context:

A week before the resignations of Mr. Disney and Mr. Gold, in an interview with a reporter for The New York Times for a book about Hollywood in the 1990's, Harvey Weinstein, the co-chairman of Miramax, criticized Mr. Eisner in a public way unlike any in their often-fractious relationship as business partners since 1993.

''All the great executives have been driven from the company,'' he said in the interview. ''I think there is no camaraderie anymore, no great esprit de corps that I found earlier.''

A week later, Walls runs her item and says Waxman used Weinstein's comments to embolden other Hollywood types to talk to her. Now some backstory: Walls was upset a couple of years ago when Waxman, then at the Washington Post, lumped her in as a Miramax tool for buying into the Oscar hype for A Beautiful Mind. No links for the NYT stories, by the way, since they are beyond the seven-day cutoff for free access.