Harvey Weinstein may have become the most vilified man in showbusiness.

But friends say what really vexes him about his downfall is his suspicion it was sparked by a spectacular betrayal by his younger brother Bob.

The Weinstein success story — which has produced 300 Oscar nominations — was always about not one but two men, seemingly inseparable brothers who, as co-founders of the Miramax film company, constituted Hollywood’s most formidable double act.

Bob Weinstein liked to tell people about how their father, Max, had commanded them to stick together.

But now, if his brother’s suspicions are correct, it appears that Bob may have stuck the knife into Harvey’s substantial back.

Harvey Weinstein (right) may have become the most vilified man in showbusiness. But friends say what really vexes him about his downfall is his suspicion it was sparked by a spectacular betrayal by his younger brother Bob (left)

Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein during 29th Annual Dinner Of Champions Honoring Bob and Harvey Weinstein at Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, California, United States

Harvey Weinstein (right) may have become the most vilified man in showbusiness. But friends say what really vexes him about his downfall is his suspicion it was sparked by a spectacular betrayal by his younger brother Bob (left)

The Weinstein success story — which has produced 300 Oscar nominations — was always about not one but two men, seemingly inseparable brothers who, as co-founders of the Miramax film company, constituted Hollywood’s most formidable double act

For the latter is convinced that ultimately he was brought down not by any of the women he wronged, but by the brother he’d worked with hand-in-glove for more than 40 years.

According to a showbusiness report in America, Harvey Weinstein has proof in the form of a receipt slip that seven months ago Bob was sent Harvey’s personnel file from their company, in which many of the sexual harassment claims made against him were detailed.

Several resulted in women being paid off with large sums. The disgraced mogul believes his brother passed it on to the New York Times, providing it with the concrete evidence it needed for the story that has engulfed him.

Harvey has also told friends that Bob, 62, and fellow members of the Weinstein Company board knew about his ugly behaviour for years, thus contradicting their insistence that the revelations came as an ‘utter surprise’.

Bob — who voted with the board to sack Harvey on Sunday — has denied his brother’s claims, and turned on him with a savagery fit for one of their bloodier films.

‘My brother Harvey is obviously a very sick man,’ he said in a statement yesterday. ‘I’ve urged him to seek immediate professional help because he is in dire need of it.

‘His remorse and apologies to the victims of his abuse are hollow. He has proven himself a world-class liar and now, rather than seeking help, is seeking to blame others.’

Bob (left) — who voted with the board to sack Harvey (right) on Sunday — has denied his brother’s claims, and turned on him with a savagery fit for one of their bloodier films

While Harvey Weinstein’s business partners have scrambled to distance themselves, the apparent vitriol driving this family feud, and the dramatic coup that has left Bob as sole chairman of their company, has shocked the industry.

‘It’s Cain and Abel — Hollywood style,’ proclaimed a U.S. newspaper amid reports that a long-simmering antipathy between the brothers worsened after the death of their mother, Miriam, a year ago.

Of course, some are sceptical of the idea that Bob didn’t know anything about his brother’s sordid history with women. There is also speculation over whether he sought to remove Harvey because he saw the chance to settle an old score.

He is certainly a colourful character in his own right: his second wife went to court seeking a protection order against him on the grounds she feared ‘bodily harm’, while other reports say he was once punched to the ground by Harvey.

What is clear is that, for the moment, Bob’s star is undeniably in the ascendant. In a move reminiscent of a Stalinist purge, he even told the producer of a Weinstein Company family film starring Robert De Niro that Harvey’s name will be erased from the credits when it comes out next spring.

It is an extraordinary state of affairs for the siblings who took on the Hollywood establishment and became perhaps the most powerful brand in the film industry.

Bob provided the behind-the-scenes business brains while Harvey was ‘front of house’, the creative genius who chose the Oscar-winning scripts, schmoozed the stars and — we now know — operated Tinseltown’s most insatiable casting couch operation.

The relatively more cordial sibling — with the emphasis on ‘relatively’ — Bob has always kept a lower profile than his brother.

Self-harm: Once he returned to the house, Lily reportedly called authorities to say her father was 'suicidal and depressed'

No fly list: He said on Tuesday that he was boarding a plane to fly to rehab in Europe so that he could treat his sex addiction

He oversees the company’s Dimension division, which releases both family-friendly pictures such as Paddington, as well as horror films like Scary Movie. ‘I tend to be known as “the quiet brother” which is fine by me,’ he says. ‘We have different means of working towards the same ends.’

Insiders note he is as savvy a film producer as his brother, but doesn’t have Harvey’s ease in dealing with the top stars. At studio parties, he generally sits with his employees while his brother is hob-nobbing with actors and directors.

He doesn’t seem to have his brother’s workaholic energy either, often taking several weeks off after producing a film to recuperate at a spa, while his brother moves straight on to the next movie.

‘Harvey was more the celebrity of the two,’ says Marvin Peart, producer of the Weinsteins’ new Robert de Niro film. ‘It was very much a case of him having a certain table at a restaurant, going to the opening nights. Bob was more comfortable on a film set.’

Bob Weinsten always seemed happy with the arrangement, and acknowledged his older brother had to be a showman in the early days to get their small films noticed. ‘It works out for the best that only one of us likes the spotlight. There wouldn’t physically be enough room in it for both,’ he has said.

Not — as that comment implies — that he’s a shrinking violet. While his brother is notoriously pugnacious, it has been claimed that Bob shares a hot temper and will regularly scream at staff. While relations with his brother reportedly soured considerably in recent years, they have long had a tempestuous relationship and have been known to stop talking to each other for months at a time, according to former colleagues.

Reports quoting company insiders claim they have come to blows at least once, describing an incident in their Manhattan office several years ago when Harvey punched Bob in the face, knocking him to the ground in front of stunned witnesses.

‘I’ve been assaulted!’ Bob reportedly shouted in outrage.

Insiders say the brothers had been feuding for nearly a year over various business issues before last week’s bombshell revelations.

A particular bone of contention between them was whether to give priority to film releases by Weinstein Co — Harvey’s more ‘art house’ arm of the company — or those released through the more commercial wing run by Bob. The row reflected a fundamental difference between the pair, with Harvey keen to make upmarket films that won Oscars, and Bob more worried about keeping the company profitable with more populist fare.

Sources say rivalries between the brothers were, to some extent, kept in check by their formidable mother, Miriam. She was once the backbone of Miramax and worked as its original receptionist. However, she died aged 90 last November.

Bob has worked hard to stay out of the limelight. But in the past he has also faced negative headlines over his treatment of women. In 2012, his second wife, Anne Clancy, issued divorce proceedings ending their 12-year marriage, seeking a protection order as she feared ‘bodily harm’.

Weinstein issued a statement quoting an addiction expert who said there had been no abuse on Bob’s part, and that Anne was reacting to family efforts to deal with her alcoholism. Anne’s lawyers rejected the claims and insisted the expert was a ‘paid agent’ who didn’t know their client.

Off again: Weinstein, 65, fled again before LAPD arrived on the scene, and soon after Lily had a change of opinion, saying her father was not at risk of self-harm (They are pictured together in 2014)

The mother of two of his four children, she challenged their pre-nuptial agreement, claiming she had been rushed into signing it just hours before they had a wedding rehearsal. A divorce court rejected her claim, but ordered Bob Weinstein to pay her more than $300,000 (£227,000) in legal fees. His first marriage also produced two children — both daughters — and ended in divorce, but for all that he is not exactly short of cash.

Last month, Bob Weinstein put the 7,000 sq ft Upper West Side home in Manhattan he used to share with Anne Clancy on the market for an eye-watering $29.5 million (£22.3 m).

Months earlier the couple put another property in the neighbourhood up for sale, this time asking $19 million (£14.3 m). He is estimated to be worth $300 million (£227 m).

He and his brother were concert promoters who worked their way into the film business in the Seventies by buying cheap foreign films, and re-editing and distributing them for the U.S. market. They named their company Miramax after their parents, who raised them in a working-class district of Queens in New York.

Bob credits their diamond-cutter father Max’s love of the movies and business for steering them towards Hollywood.

Until the mid-Nineties, when they sold Miramax to Disney for as much as $80 million (£60.5 m) but remained at its helm, they worked on everything together. But as the business got bigger, they split up responsibilities, and started choosing and producing films separately.

In a rare 2011 article for Vanity Fair, Bob said his father told them: ‘If you stick together, nothing is impossible’. And they had done just that, he insisted, adding: ‘Not a day goes by that we don’t speak to each other at least five times, to offer suggestions, ask advice, deal with business and generally watch each other’s back.’

After the extraordinary events of this week, with one brother blamed for the other’s ruin, Papa Weinstein must be spinning in his grave.