Harvey Weinstein made his name trading the most emphemeral commodities of all — Oscar buzz — but it will be the harsh realities of cold, hard cash that threaten to bring him down.

The lukewarm reaction to The Reader is not the only barometer of the perilous state where the Weinstein Co., which he and brother Bob launched in 2005, finds itself.

A much less subjective measure is a report from Bloomberg News that one of their early backers, Fidelity Investments, has marked down the shares it owns by 25%.

"When valuing private-company holdings," says the Fidelity flack, "we consider the purchase price, changes in market conditions and other factors, such as the fundamentals of the business." The move by Fidelity doesn't put the Weinsteins in very glamorous company: "Of the 11 privately issued stocks held by the two Fidelity funds at Sept. 30, only Weinstein Co. and mining company B2Gold Corp. are no longer carried at their original cost, according to the filing."

While Weinstein will no doubt now turn to talking about what sensations Robb Marshall musical Nine and Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds will be when they're released next year, it's those pesky "fundamentals" that led the Weinstein Co. to trim staff by 11% last month.