We don’t know how else to say it: Crash sucks. We hated, hated, hated that movie — almost as much as the L.A. Times did.

So why did it win Best Picture?

According to Roger Friedman, Crash’s secret weapon was PR agency The Dart Group – which boasts staffers who had previously engineered Shakespeare in Love’s upset win over Saving Private Ryan.

Writes Friedman:

What happened? Did the Academy voters reject the idea of a movie about gay love taking home the big prize? I doubt it.

What I think happened: For reasons that are somewhat unclear, Focus Features — which released “Brokeback” — is a little like the pre-2005 Red Sox. They cannot close the deal.

It doesn’t help that Focus is notoriously paranoid about press, and has a basically unfriendly attitude when it comes to marketing its movies.

“Crash,” on the other hand, was steered to victory by many of the same folks who worked on past Miramax campaigns that brought glory to “Shakespeare,” “Chicago,” “The English Patient,” and, in other categories, “Good Will Hunting,” “Cider House Rules,” “Chocolat” and others.

That was The Dart Group, where former Miramaxers Cynthia Swartz [top] and Amanda Lundberg ply their magic. And Lions Gate, which released “Crash,” knew how to make theirs an underdog story.

Technorati tags: Crash, PR, Public Relations, Marketing