'Reader' and its TBD producers

 

How many producers does it take to get to the Oscar for best picture? Three, except when the answer's more than three.

That little series of letters under "The Reader" this morning -- TBD, as in, To Be Determined -- might seem like a bit of inside baseball to the folks at home. That's because it is.

It's also today's version of Academy Arcana.

Excited?

The short history: Since the late '90s, the Oscars worked under a rule that said no more than three producers of a best picture candidate would be eligible to compete for the trophy. Lawsuits ensued. So in 2007, the rule was amended to take into account people likely to wage court battles executives who shouldered a considerable amount of the work and hadn't been lucky enough to be named producer 1, 2 or 3.

The rule now says that the Academy will consider more than three producers "in a rare and extraordinary circumstance" to be decided by the Producers Branch Executive Committee.

So, that's clear right?

As for "The Reader," Scott Rudin already took his name off the Holocaust drama because of a dustup with studio honcho/Oscar tsunami Harvey Weinstein. That leaves four: Redmond Morris, Donna Gigliotti, and the iconic filmmakers Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella, both of whom died last year before the project was finished.

Who will make the cut? And what constitutes a "rare and extraordinary circumstance?" We look forward to finding out.