Up to 24 Laid Off in New Weinstein Co. Purge

Apparently not encouraged by the spit-take and crotch-veil buzz surrounding its forthcoming releases, the struggling Weinstein Company axed “roughly two dozen” employees this afternoon. The New York Post reports that human resources broke the news to the staffers — about 11% of the Weinsteins’ workforce — in a purge related not to the studio’s ongoing money woes, but rather a bit of bearish anticipation of the fast-approaching recession. Still, we’re as shocked as you are: The Weinstein Company has a human resources department?

It’s true! And with the recent flurry of departed execs and now 24 layoffs in the trenches, they’ll be staying busy with paperwork for a while: TWC is paying severance based on time with the 3-year-old company, and it’s estimated that the cuts will save Harvey an amount “well into the millions.” But just to restate, says an insider, the negatives in the climate-controlled Delayed-Movie Vault are doing just fine — as are the Weinsteins, for that matter:

Last year, amid speculation that the studio was running out of money, the Weinstein brothers declared in an exclusive interview with The Post that they would not need to raise equity in 2008. So far, they have stayed true to that declaration. [...]

“If this was a real financial emergency for the studio, I imagine the layoffs would be greater than 24 people,” said one source, who added that the layoffs are expected to be a one-time event.

Hooray! Bob is safe, thank God.

• WEINSTEIN CO. TRIMS 11 PERCENT OF WORKFORCE [NYP]