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An insider offers observations on the negotiations between the Writers Guild and the studios, and it looks like the real winners are going to be the pharmacies and the realtors. (Actually, the pharmacies win pretty much every day in Hollywood, but we digress.) After last week's "negotiations broke down, pharmacies were flooded all over town with refill requests for Ambien, Xanax, Valium.....because lots of people are terrified, here, frankly."

Want to avert a strike? Shutter the Rite-Aids and Sav-Ons for a couple of days and let panic-stricken, flop-sweating negotiators hammer something out before they collectively wig out in anxiety attacks. And if that doesn't work, next time you're picking up your boss' kids from school, maybe let it slip to the tyke that the housing market is likely to be flooded, and to tell Mom and Dad to get the Beverly Hills place on the market quickly. They don't want to end up living in the Valley...

When negotiations broke down, pharmacies were flooded all over town with refill requests for Ambien, Xanax, Valium.....because lots of people are terrified, here, frankly. No one wants a strike—-there are still people who are shattered from the last big one, who lost their houses, cars, horses, boats (okay, it IS Hollywood). I even know of a couple divorces that went on, directly related to the last big strike, and the notion of a strike looms like a spectre over our glittering, privileged lives. The cost of living has gone up insanely; we're in a bubble economy, especially in terms of real estate. A work stoppage now would bring too many people down even faster than before. I know people who are quietly showing their houses for sale, in case a strike happens: they can sell high and get out before the economy goes straight to hell.