Oscar On Line One

Harvey Weinstein loves a good story, especially when it stars Harvey Weinstein. This one begins 12 years ago, when the then-head of Miramax was pulling an all-nighter to care for his sick daughter. As she slept, he started to read Bernhard Schlink's "The Reader," a novel about a teenage boy in postwar Germany who falls for an older woman with a sinister past. By sunrise, Weinstein dispatched one of his lackeys to see Schlink in Munich. "If you don't get the rights," Weinstein said, "don't come home." Weinstein tells this tale before 1,100 people at the December premiere of "The Reader" in New York, and the line gets a huge laugh. What's even funnier, in a Hollywood-schadenfreude kind of way, is that Weinstein hasn't had much to laugh about lately. He's had a string of flops—"Grindhouse," "Hannibal Rising," "Bobby"—and his hit Bravo show, "Project Runway," is in legal purgatory after he tried to sell it to Lifetime. He's even had to weather rumors that his studio, the Weinstein Co., is shutting down. But tonight the old Weinstein is back, as if he's woken from a long nap. As Kate Winslet, the star of "The Reader," shuffles in the aisle waiting for the boss to introduce her, one thing is clear: Harvey Weinstein isn't about to cede the spotlight anymore.

As usual, Weinstein owes his return to his faithful partner. Not his brother, Bob. We mean the golden boy named Oscar. Weinstein invented the take-no-prisoners award campaign with "The Crying Game" and "Shakespeare in Love," but this year he outdid himself. "The Reader" fought mediocre reviews to score five nominations, including best picture. This despite losing one A-list leading lady, two producers (Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack, who both died in mid-production) and several PR debacles, including Weinstein's public spat with coproducer Scott Rudin. Of course, no one thinks that "The Reader" can beat "Slumdog Millionaire." No one but Weinstein. Don't scoff: everyone expected Winslet to be nominated for "Revolutionary Road," but she ended up playing for Weinstein's team. The lesson: never bet against Harvey. With the Oscars on Feb. 22, he laid out his game plan with Ramin Setoodeh:

Setoodeh: You cried on the morning of the nominations?
Weinstein: I was expecting to get nominated, but the emotion. This sounds corny—I'm not using this, so to speak—but Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack were part of my life for 12 years. This was a passion project.

Do you think that sympathy over their deaths helped the film get nominated?
No. I think anecdotally people said when they saw the movie they were incredibly moved by it. It haunted Academy members, much like it haunts everybody.

Does "The Reader" really have a chance at best picture?
Yes. What happens is: there are some times when a front runner peaks. All of a sudden people say, "That movie is going to gross $100 million. It's fun, it's won a million prizes, but what else is there?" "Milk" has done a very good job on their campaign, and is also a very important movie, in my opinion. What could happen, "Slumdog" and "Reader" could split. "Slumdog" and "Milk" could split, and one of those could get through. With "The Reader," lots of Academy members still haven't seen it. I know, it's shocking.

What can you do about that?
I think to myself, "Can I come over to your house and show it to you?" I used to do that. I was like Santa Claus. I had all the DVDs, and I'd go to everybody's house, with cookies.

Is that how "Shakespeare in Love" beat "Saving Private Ryan"?
Yeah. The fact that it was a brilliant movie had nothing to do with its win.