It didn't take much imagination to see Harvey Weinstein wielding the whip hand two weeks ago when theSlumdog Millionaire backlash commenced. At least not as much imagination as Harvey summoned to deny it.

EW on Monday outlined the Weinstein Company's strategy for establishing The Reader as a viable Oscar-night candidate — a position few if any industry observers have attributed to TWC, though they underestimated him just as gravely before Kate Winslet, Stephen Daldry and company rose up last month to knock The Dark Knight and Revolutionary Road off the Oscar bubble last month. But that's relatively ancient history, and in any case a less dangerous act of awards-season mayhem than his tack of outmarketing/outgrossing Milk and Frost/Nixon and (allegedly) throwing a latrine's worth of kiddie-exploitation shit at Slumdog.

Except, of course, Harvey doesn't know what you're talking about:

No one has accused Weinstein of being involved, but he knows his reputation precedes him. ''What can I say?'' Weinstein says, on the phone from Rome. ''When you're Billy the Kid and people around you die of natural causes, everyone thinks you shot them.''

As David Carr notes, Harvey's quite the fan of the pistolero-underdog myth, adapting it for Oscar '08 after last invoking it over seven years ago at Miramax. But the more important question, also raised by Vulture, is, "What was he doing in Rome?" The official response likely has something to do with making sure Fergie's labia-veil stays affixed throughout the production of Nine, but we think we know better: Someone owes Benjamin Button's late-season Roman plagiarism accuser a nice night out on the town.