Ryan Kavanaugh wanted a producer’s credit for “The Fighter” so badly, his staff constructed a phony paper trail to strengthen his apparent involvement with the film that won two Oscars in 2011, according to a new report.

Although the Academy denied his appeal, the founder of now-bankrupt Relativity Media did manage a shoutout from Christian Bale, the film’s Oscar-receiving star, when he accepted Best Supporting Actor from the Golden Globes.

The behind-the-scenes nugget is contained in New York magazine’s movie-ready story of the Hollywood mini-mogul — but don’t expect Relativity to produce it. Kavanaugh has threatened to sue the mag over the “character assassination.”

Before he reinvented himself as an entertainment entrepreneur, the flame-haired Kavanaugh was a venture capitalist. Both career paths led to the same place: a courtroom.

Investors not only sued at the end of his VC incarnation, but a lawyer allegedly told the soon-to-be mogul’s parents, “You’re lucky your son isn’t walking around in striped pajamas,” author Benjamin Wallace writes.

Kavanaugh went on to pitch himself as a financial whiz with a “Moneyball”-like approach to producing hit movies. An ex-colleague who saw Kavanaugh work his magic on a would-be investor was blown away.

“I said, ‘Jesus, Ryan, that was amazing.’ He goes: ‘Wasn’t it?’ He’s a little kid. He’s very persuasive in the moment. But if you had a video and went through it in slow motion, you’d realize those numbers don’t add up,” the former co-worker told the mag.

Meanwhile, Kavanaugh keeps getting backers. While waiting to emerge from bankruptcy (target date: Feb. 1), Relativity announced that actor Kevin Spacey will take over its movie operations and that Google’s Eric Schmidt is investing.