This may be my new favorite phrase. I steal it from the recently announced New Line/Tolkein lawsuit over how much Lord of the Rings made (6 billion), and how much New Line has paid ($0).

And with no particular segue... Jennise and I just finished the first draft of our 80's throwback TV pilot, The MacGuffin Capers. Jennise still hates the name, but since she hasn't come up with anything better I get to keep it. It's totally a Hollywood insider reference, which I hope gives any exec who hears the title and pitch an exact snapshot of the show. Jo-Ann *loves* the concept, and now that the strike is pretty much over, we should get some action soon.

Despite the marketability of TMC, I fear that the strike's impact on how studios pick, choose and buy pilots may be disastrous for new writers. There have been many articles on how studios will reduce the number of pilots they buy and make, though they are likely to make more episodes of those that they do. While it will be good to have more long-term support for shows, squeezing the buy-side market in an already tight field I think will result in the veteran showrunners and writers getting all the work (they are, after all, known and proven), and peeps like Jennise and I will end on the sidelines again. Fewer shows means fewer jobs, and there's ever more writers vying for them.

Yet we soldier on, fools that we are.

I hope that we'll have some further updates in the next couple of weeks. Maybe a meeting or two with regards to TMC, or our other work. Maybe more submissions for our pilots and my features. If that happens, I'll let you know!

PS: If you want to take a gander at TMC, e-mail me. We may be looking for a few critical eyes.