sexual misconduct against co-founder Harvey Weinstein. Weinstein was fired by the board on October 8, three days after a New York Times detailed a decades-long pattern of alleged harassment.

Further reports by The Times and The New Yorker indicated that the company’s senior management knew about some of Weinstein’s behavior, although that is in dispute.

As a result of all this, Weinstein Co. has been stuck in a state of corporate limbo. There are widespread doubts in Hollywood about Weinstein Co.’s future as a standalone company.

Now comes Barrack and Colony Capital. The private equity firm has had a business relationship with Weinstein Co. for several years.

Barrack’s name has been in the news lately because he is a rumored candidate for White House chief of staff. He has been a closeItalian politician and billionaire businessman Silvio Berlusconi has taken his fight to become eligible for next year's Italian election to the European Court of Human Rights.

Berlusconi appealed to the Strasbourg-based court in 2013 after a criminal conviction for tax fraud triggered a six-year ban from public office. The beleaguered former prime minister has denied all wrongdoing and his lawyers are hoping a lifting of the ban will mean he can run in the next Italian election expected to take place in early 2018.

The media tycoon's political career was widely regarded to have ended in 2011 following a string of scandals. Berlusconi was forced to resign as prime minister amid a sex scandal involving his "bunga bunga" parties, while Italian bond yields were skyrocketing at the height of the