BREAKING: Brad Grey No Longer Newsworthy

You know it's a slow news week when no less an authority than the New York Times observes there is nothing important happening in the world of Brad Grey. Loving the Paramount chieftain as we do, Movieline at first refused to believe such grim revelation. But there it is on the paper's Hollywood blog, which has the tragic numbers to prove it:

A quick search of "all news" (in English) on the Nexis database shows that the terms "Brad Grey and Paramount" turn up only 178 hits for the last six months. And a lot of those are fairly neutral stuff, like stories about Paramount's having signed a new deal with the Montecito Picture Company or cut staff (like everyone lately).

The year-ago period, early April 2007 to early October 2008, shows 238 hits, many not so nice, like the Vanity Fair story in December of 2007 chronicling a split with DreamWorks that was headlined as one of Hollywood's "nastiest" break-ups ever.

The same period a year earlier brought 376 articles, more than double the current level. Those included many about the sudden departure of his hand-picked president, Gail Berman, after a very short tenure.

Certainly Grey's courtroom adventures last year during the Pellicano trial contributed to those unsustainable levels of visibility. And don't forget that his recent reupping at the 'Mount affirmed his security to an extent that even a rueful Nikki Finke quickly realized the futility of hating him. There go 100 Brad Grey stories right there. It's really not that complicated.

· As Google Makes Clear, Things Have Settled Down a Bit for Brad Grey at Paramount [Carpetbagger]