The NY Post today reports that the production company behind the movie “Factory Girl” — the Weinstein Company — is hitting back at Dylan over his opposition to the film.

The Weinstein Company has evidence – videotaped testimony by her brother, Jonathan Sedgwick – that Edie was madly in love with Dylan, and that she was never the same after she aborted his baby and he broke up with her.

Dylan’s lawyer, Orin Snyder, sent a threatening letter earlier this month demanding to see the movie before it is released, or even screened, to determine if it defames his client.

According to the Edie Sedgwick entry in “The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia” by Michael Gray, “There’s no evidence – and no real grounds to suppose – that Dylan and Edie had any personal relationship at all, let alone a significant one.

“She comes into the Dylan equation only because people used to believe that she is the girl whispering in Dylan’s ear in a photograph on the foldout sleeve of the original ‘Blonde on Blonde’ double LP and because of a persistent hunch by many people that . . . she was the ‘blonde on blonde.’ ”

But that’s not what Jonathan Sedgwick told the producers of the picture, which stars Sienna Miller as Edie, Guy Pearce as Andy Warhol and Hayden Christensen as a folk-singer who performs in Dylan’s trademark harmonica brace and fishing cap.

Jonathan says on the tape: “One day, she called me up, and she said, ‘I’ve met someone.’ She didn’t tell me who it was, but, ‘He’s a folk singer. He’s fabulously talented, and he’s full of conviction’ . . . Later on, Edie explained to me it was Bob Dylan.

“She told me she was totally in love with him . . . she also explained . . . she lost a child which she claims was Bob Dylan’s child. She had gotten into an insane asylum, and she was so wacked out on drugs that they aborted her because the child would’ve been just strung out . . . she said that was the saddest moment of her life.”

Jonathan said, “Her biggest joy was with Bob Dylan, and her saddest time was with Bob Dylan, losing the child. And Edie was changed by that experience, very much so.”

It’s curious that Sedgwick’s brother has apparently cooperated with the Weinsteins this way, considering that other family members had condemned the concept of the film as exploitative two years ago, but there you are.

The NY Post previously quoted Jonathan saying of his sister that:

She was a very sick, drug-addicted girl, and not worthy of anything but that! The ‘Edie’ persona, in truth, is more of a fiction than a reality – Edie was a manipulator and a liar, who happened to have a certain amount of charisma and beauty.

The question Dylan and his lawyers will have to consider is whether there is anything to be gained by wading through all this stuff in a courtroom. The Weinsteins are clearly betting he’ll blanch.

Meanwhile, the film itself, which did debut this weekend in LA (but not in NYC) is garnering some bad reviews (like this one in the LA Weekly) as noted in the Risky Biz Blog:

I don’t understand why Harvey Weinstein insisted on rushing this movie into the awards fray if it wasn’t up to par. It’s not like Hickenlooper or any of the principals were powerful enough to force his hand. Why not take the time to make it as good as it could be?

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