This image was lost some time after publication, but you can still view it here.

A reader reports some bedlam at last night's Miramax screening of The Aviator, where a twenty-minute melee broke out and a barely-employed WGA member was stabbed for punching Dr. Dre and dissing The G-Unit. Oh, wait, that was the Vibe awards! We get confused sometimes. Still, a decimated Miramax again proves its recent gift for courting trouble by alienating many of the voters they hope to court with their patented end-of-year awards publicity binge. Naturally, we blame Harvey Weinstein.

Thought you should know that I, along with several hundred other members of various guilds showed up the first Academy screening of THE AVIATOR last night, at the Clarity theater. Perhaps it would have been more fun being locked into a room watching ICE STATION ZEBRA then the disaster we were confronted with.

Miramax, doubtlessly in a frugal state, picked this nice, medium-sized screening room. It was no match for the Cecil B. DeMille throng that angrily pounded on the doors, with only the chosen few (or Academy members, and name producers screaming out their names for admittance) being admitted to Miramax's big (and only) hope for the Oscars. Particularly angering us was the fact that Miramax touted this screening as being made open to practically all guild members and accompanying Leonard DiCaprio fan clubs.

As many dejected, and fuming people drove home to watch their far-less desirable Academy screeners, I could only reflect on the irony that the Clarity screening room was the former home of USA films. Now being used on the cheap by a film company that looks to go USA's way very soon. And pissing off a mob of potential voters is certainly a quicker way to hasten it.

Please note that practically all of us rsvp'd to the Miramax number, and were "on the list." Unfortunately for us, I think they kept two lists- one for above the line. Everyone below it went down with the Titanic. The captain wasn't minding the ship to have the courtesy to call back and tell numerous people the screening was overbooked.

Thanks for running this if you can as a warning to all Miramax screening attendees.

No problem! The next time a Miramax screening appears overbooked, we recommend that below-the-line attendees try pretending that they're somebody important, like Leonardo DiCaprio's personal shopper.