Paramount head won’t get credit on ‘Departed’
Paramount Pictures Chairman Brad Grey has lost his appeal for a producer credit on “The Departed,” a best-picture Oscar nominee released by rival studio Warner Bros.
The decision by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which doles out the Oscars, was made Thursday evening at a meeting of about 20 top producers who sit on the organization’s executive committee.
The ruling supports an earlier one by the Producers Guild of America that denied Grey a credit on the Martin Scorsese crime drama.
The guild awarded Graham King credit as the sole producer, a decision Grey appealed and lost despite the support of King and Scorsese, who maintained that the former talent manager and producer was instrumental in getting the $110-million film made.
Grey then heavily lobbied the Academy to reconsider the guild’s decision.
The Academy follows the guild’s recommendations unless a credit is contested.
Grey’s fight for credit raised eyebrows in Hollywood. Some thought it was self-serving and egotistical, especially because Grey’s own studio has its own contender for the best-picture Oscar: “Babel.”
The Oscars will be handed out Feb. 25.
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