I was hoping this had been put to bed already, since I hadn’t read any updates in a little while. But it’s still very much in play.

In short, the most recent update, courtesy of THR, states that Harvey Weinstein has enlisted the civil rights leader trio comprised of Jesse Jackson, NAACP president & CEO Ben Jealous, and National Chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality, Roy Innis, in his fight against Warner Bros. over the use of the title The Butler.

Throwing their support behind Harvey Weinstein and the Lee Daniels-directed film, the trio released the following statement:

“We are all watching and waiting for the results of today’s arbitration and hoping that Warner Bros. and the MPAA make the right decision on this important movie about civil rights.”

The arbitration referred to above involves The Weinstein Co.’s lawyer David Boies, making another attempt today to secure the title for the upcoming movie (which opens in just under a month – August 16th), in an appeal hearing of the MPAA’s Title Registration Bureau. Thus far, Warner Bros has been on the winning side of every previous ruling on the matter.

My question is, what exactly are Jackson, Jealous and Innis going to do here, and why would Harvey Weinstein enlist their help? How much influence do they have with the MPAA? With Warner Bros.? Or is their plan to have this case instead tried in the court of public opinion, making public, rousing speeches, and calling their flock to rise up against this *injustice*?

This entire thing is becoming sillier to me. Somebody has to give eventually… and thus far, The Weinstein Company is losing.