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Since the upsetting announcement earlier today that Crash was recognized in the Writers Guild nominations for best original screenplay, we've been driving around the city with our car windows rolled up, weeping openly and looking to induce an accident just so we could finally connect with another Angeleno. (Preferably with a motorist of a different race to test our unfair preconceptions of minority groups.) Amazingly, we were unable to form a fender-bending union with a fellow searcher, but now the good news: A reader with WGA membership offers a possible, comforting explanation for Crash's recognition by fellow scribes:

Crash and Cinderella Man were the only DVDs sent to WGA members during the nomination process — and they were both nominated! Coincidence? I think not. Most studios ignore the WGA or send (boo!) copies of the screenplay.


I'm pretty sure we got a DVD of Mean Girls last year, just in case that nomination has been keeping you up at night.

If this indeed explains the result, kudos to Lionsgate for realizing that spending money on some DVD screeners was a wise use of awards season promotional dollars. Equipping the standard screenplay with a small electronic chip that would shout various racial epithets at any Guild member who opened the cover, while effectively mimicking the subtlety of the words within, would probably have been considered a cheap stunt.