BOSTON (AP) – Just two years ago, Massachusetts had no office working specifically to attract Hollywood and its big-money productions to the state.

Now, it has two.

In 2003, lawmakers added “entertainment” to the name of the state’s sports commission, and the quasi-state agency now bills itself as the principle organization working on behalf of Massachusetts to recruit Hollywood and other entertainment projects. For its work, the commission gets $450,000 a year in state funds.

By law, though, the Massachusetts Film Bureau – a private nonprofit founded by a former state employee after the state’s former film office was scrapped in 2002 due to budget cuts – is the “primary” contact for film production and development in Massachusetts. It gets $5,000 in state funding.

The lack of one clearly designated, state-sanctioned office has created an uneasy feeling among some prospective project managers, who can be easily wooed to cheaper locales, such as Toronto, or nearby states that have tax and other financial incentives for Hollywood.

Massachusetts, some worry, is missing out on bigger opportunities to lure film and other entertainment productions, which provide jobs and exposure and potentially millions in revenues at a time when the state is in a deep fiscal hole.

“The state is flat missing a mark,” said Carol Patton, publisher of Imagine magazine, a trade publication focused on film, television and new media opportunities in the Northeast.

Patton said she knows of producers who would stand in line to come to Massachusetts if there were one office with the legal authority and the sanction of the state to handle everything from permits to parking to blowing up bridges and imploding houses.

“You need to be able to send your production supervisors to one place to get that done,” she said.

Both groups say they can get it done.

The gossip and political divisions related to the two offices have created a saga nearly worthy of its own Hollywood script. Each group and its allies claim to have the best connections, the strongest relationships, the most significant results.

In a way, they’re fighting for their own survival while fighting for Hollywood’s attention.

Last month, the Massachusetts Sports & Entertainment Commission issued a news release announcing that Mark Drago had been named vice president and executive director for film and entertainment. The release included quotes from the Senate president, House speaker and Gov. Mitt Romney.

It did not note, however, that Drago had been the president of the commission when it handled only sports. Don Stirling, former marketing director for the Salt Lake City Olympic games, was brought in as president and CEO of the commission in October by Romney, his former Olympics boss.

Robin Dawson, who created the Massachusetts Film Bureau out of her home after lawmakers eliminated funding for the state film office she ran, responded with a press release that included a radio clip of Romney lauding her group’s work.

Dawson takes credit for helping to facilitate the production of several feature films shot in Massachusetts, including “Mona Lisa Smile,” starring Julia Roberts, and “Alex and Emma,” directed by Rob Reiner. Drago’s group has worked on “Fever Pitch,” directed by the Farrelly brothers, and is trying to bring the Miss Teen USA Pageant to Massachusetts.

Dawson acknowledged there is a sense that Massachusetts has two competing film offices.

“Absolutely. There has been legitimate concern over that,” she said. “We’ve been fairly established now over 2.5 years with not only the local community but the Hollywood community.”

Stirling and Dawson have met several times, but aren’t working in tandem on any projects.

“We, as the principle organization on behalf of the commonwealth, obviously are not going to get in the way of anybody else out there trying to do good things,” Stirling said.

He stressed that Drago has strong connections on Beacon Hill, having worked for Govs. Bill Weld and Paul Cellucci – and a good working relationship with union leadership, which has a checkered history in Massachusetts that can further complicate the wooing of Hollywood.

In 2003, former Boston Teamsters President George Cashman was sentenced to nearly three years in prison for embezzling union funds and taking a bribe. The charges against him stemmed from a federal investigation of the Teamsters’ movie crew, which had been accused of strong-arm tactics and extortion by makers of such films as “The Perfect Storm” and “The Cider House Rules” during filming in New England.

Local 25 handles negotiations with studios and independent filmmakers who want to shoot movies in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

Stirling also said Drago is working with lawmakers on legislation that would create financial incentives for producers who want to shoot in Massachusetts.

“The nature of the business is that when there are options for where something might be shot or who you might want to use as a production entity, they are going to go generally where the labor package and the financial package is best suited for that project,” he said.

Patte Papa, event and film director for the city of Boston, has been a film liaison for more than 20 years. She says she sees the film bureau more as a recruitment entity, vying to bring people to Massachusetts, while the commission is more about logistics, permits and scouting locations.

“People are confused,” Papa said. “They call here, now that Massachusetts Film Office is no longer. I say, No, now it’s under another name.’

“They’re either thinking it no longer exists or they think because Ms. Dawson has the Massachusetts name in front of hers – they don’t know where to go.”

And frankly, Papa doesn’t care. “That’s up to the governor to choose.”

But he has not, at least not definitively.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Romney said Stirling was brought to the state to focus on attracting sporting events.

“I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to have two film bureaus in the commonwealth,” Romney said, adding that the new film responsibilities were duplicative with the work being done by Dawson’s private group.

Senate Minority Leader Brian Lees, R-East Longmeadow, who filed a measure stipulating Dawson’s group as the “primary” film contact, said he expects the groups to work more closely together as time passes.

“For years, we could hardly get anyone interested in it,” he said. “And now we have two groups working on it, one the official designee by the commonwealth, the other someone that is funded more by the commonwealth. I don’t see this as a huge problem.”