Here's a brief exchange I had today with a friend of mine who has a startup company doing event services for the studios (among others). She was doing a little friendly bellyaching about how busy she's been with the Oscars, Golden Globes and other big self-love-fests coming up. I had figured everybody must be looking to pinch their pennies, what with the tough economy, the strike and so on. Apparently not...

Me: Is that stuff even going to happen this year? I mean, don't the awards shows need writers to make up all the stupid jokes and whatnot?

Event planner: They're all proceeding like they're going to happen. And I'm only dealing with the people in the events departments, and they have a budget that they have to spend, or...