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The LAT reports that the Producers Guild has rejected Paramount head Brad Grey's attempt to receive a producing credit* on Warner Bros' The Departed, a movie the former manager was "instrumental" in putting together before taking his current job at the 'Mount, a decision that will probably deny Grey the chance to hedge his Oscar bets by competing against his own studio's Best Picture hopefuls, Dreamgirls and Babel. The Times explains the PGA guidelines that could keep Grey off the podium in the eventuality of a Departed Academy Awards win:

According to guild rules, executives who work for a studio or financier of a film can't earn a "Produced by" credit unless they "demonstrate a commitment of time and resources to the production of such significance that such commitment is tantamount to taking a leave of absence from his/her executive duties." Grey wasn't working for Warner Bros., but guild officials were concerned his Paramount job kept his focus elsewhere.

Indeed, in a year in which his attention was clearly consumed with identifying which Paramount employees needed to be let go to make room for his new DreamWorks charges and dreaming up ways in how to turn his lot into Hollywood's premiere power-lunch spot, Grey had no time left to devote to satisfying the Guild's onerous producing credit requirements (i.e., showing up on set for five consecutive shooting days to sample craft services, then sit in a personalized director's chair for no fewer than three minutes to give a vague impression of involvement in a production). If nothing else, the PGA's decision could help Grey bypass the tricky politics of winning an Oscar for one studio while running another, eliminating the possibility that he could be overcome by emotion during a theoretical Departed acceptance speech and tragically blurt, "I just gotta say, I always knew this movie was gonna be way better than the crap I'm making at my day job."

*Clarification: Says a reader: "Brad Grey is a first position producer on THE DEPARTED. That's not in dispute. His dispute is only over being listed as a producer for the Oscars."