Before the talent agencies merged into one beast, William Morris Agency paid their assistants a higher rate than their competitor Endeavor. So to level the playing-field of broken dreams the newly formed WME decided to by drop their entry-level wages from around $13.50 to roughly $9.50.

Though there were some rumblings of a walk-out when the salary cuts were first announced, it's doubtful you'll see any Armani-clad assistants hopping up on a chair and singing solidarity forever in protest over the brutal cuts. So here's a cost saving survival guide for the meagerly paid Hollywoodhelpers.

1. Get off the fucking the Tracking Board!
The Tracking Board is a subscription based message board that Hollywood's assistants love to traffic. There they can dish on script specs, casting news, and which boss deserves the most spit in their latte. But access to the Tracking Board costs $49.99 a year! So while it's a great tool of catharsis (and networking!) with the rise of Twitter we're sure you can get your message (PLZ SEND HELP HARVEY HAZ A CATTLE PROD) out on the cheap!

2. Get the Screenwriting App instead Final Draft!
No need to spend a $135 bones on fancy script writing software! Who says you can't a meaningful tome about a uniquely rebellious lighthouse keeper who is in 'the dark' about women on your iPhone!?

3. Screw the movies! Just hoard the screeners!
Who doesn't love plopping down on a plush seat to watch the newest Kathy Heigl vehicle about the 'true nature of love'? But is it worth more than what you make per hour? Probs not! You've got access, you have an Xbox, suffer through that never-touched screener of 17 Again and stay in tonight.

4. Your family's prescription drugs are cheaper than cocktails!
People, if there's anything this recession can teach us is that life is better lived through pharmacology. Your lil' sis in the tunic and the white Jetta is hopped up on 'Lord Knows' What because her Brentwood shrink says she has 'problems focusing'. Use whatever she's popping instead of a Red Bull to plow through your day. Your real estate agent dad is stressed cause he can't flip that condo in Encino? We're sure the man has some Ativan to help you deal with your bosses tantrums!

5. Start a mean blog about the assholes you work with!
Nikki did it and so can you! You guys, $400k/year is knocking, aren't you pissed enough to take it?

If all else fails there might be some Executive Ball-Washer openings in publishing! Best of luck!

Sure, they're not the worst odds anyone's ever acted on, but history isn't everything. Or actually, when you crunch the numbers, it might be. Is the film industry's bullishness just heedlessly setting itself up for a crash?

Hollywood floored it 80 years ago as well, greenlighting scores of films after the stock market bombed in 1929. Studios experienced a surge in net profits in the years before the crash (largely attributable to the advent of talkies) but had difficulty sustaining any of it when spending increased to establish sound on sets and in theaters. Moreover, box-office receipts plunged from 1930 to 1933, by one count dropping almost 38% to their Depression-era ebb at $482 million. Much of this could be blamed on the drop in screen counts, which would continue to erode by more than 35% until their 1935 low of 15,200. But grosses picked up along with ticket prices, with viewers paying around 28 cents each by the end of the '30s.

Production spiked as well, which is where the contemporary parallels get messy. But bear with us: Hollywood distributed 622 films in 1931 and 672 in 2007. Last year's box-office grosses were a record $9.6 billion — adjusted for inflation, $100 million less than the the total gross in 1931. Worse yet, the average ticket price during that time would cost $3.06 today. That's less than half the current national average of $7. We could go on like this all day... throughout the '30s the average film cost around $6.7 million in today's dollars, Michael Bay is spending $225 million on Transformers 2, etc. etc.

The National Association of Theater Owners has long insisted that its business is recession-proof despite jacking up prices for concessions and desperately plugging commercials into multiplexes — neither of which constitute especially reliable sources of income as both viewers and media buyers pare back. Studios themselves have leveraged their output through home video, VOD and international deals, but the numbers suggest that audiences just don't escape to new movies — at least not enough new movies — the way they did 70+ years ago, whatever the medium; 1930s Hollywood didn't have the Web, cable (or even TV for that matter) or video games to contend with.

It also didn't face a looming SAG strike, which, for what it's worth, union president Alan Rosenberg says he has support for and could draw a vote within the next month. Studios have already called his bluff, but if he's successful, notes Variety, the stoppage could cost higher-budgeted films in production as much as $500,000 a day while a new contract is hashed out — a worst-case tailspin in an economy where even Steven Spielberg had to mortgage his future with an Indian media conglomerate.

Yet the machine lurches along, as creatively financed as ever (déjà vu: Wall Street also invested heavily in the sound era as well before the 1929 crash severed that lifeline) and utterly sure — arrogant, even — in its confidence that audiences will pay between $9 and $13 to watch Seth Rogen in The Green Hornet. No pressure, Seth! You'll always have history on your side.

"Absent a clear resolution to this financial crisis that restores confidence and liquidity to the credit markets, California and other states may be unable to obtain the necessary level of financing to maintain government operations and may be forced to turn to the Federal Treasury for short-term financing," Schwarzenegger said in a letter to Paulson dated October 2 and provided to Reuters on Friday.

"The economic fallout from this national credit crisis continues to drain state tax coffers, making it even more difficult to weather the continuation of frozen credit markets for any length of time," Schwarzenegger said.

Or, in the soothing words of State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, "Paralysis lingers." No shit. We could really go for one of Sarah Palin's winks right now.

• California may seek Treasury financing [Reuters]

Let's start with my new obsession: Betty's equestrian style. It makes me regret that I have nothing saved from my horseback riding days, because I've spent upwards of 3 hours (that's not an exaggeration) on equestrian clothing sites and realized that building this look will probably cost me about $800. Howevs, I'm totally getting one of her shirts. But I would kill for this bag:

And her winter coat goes so perfectly with all of it:

As do those gloves:

And speaking of gloves, I think it's about time that we bring back opera gloves and costume jewelry.

The accompanying dress was also awesome. Other than New Year's and maybe Halloween, I can't think of an occasion to wear those where I wouldn't look like a total tool, though. Oh, and dresses! Peggy's was adorbz:

And duh, Joan's ruled, too. Now I'm thinking about investing in some serious foundation garments this fall:

Now, on to set design. Obvs this shelf is choice:

I dug this blond wood headboard:

And the matching lamps on the nightstands:

Now I need multiple silk pillows with large buttons:

And for some reason I was really drawn to this stupid framed art of a metal dog:

I also wouldn't mind a globe in my house. I suck at geography, so it would actually serve a dual purpose. I imagine that Betty went all out to make Don's office cozy and official. And smoked the whole time. Christ, I wish I could look that glamorous while chain smoking. Instead, I'm in a muumuu and my hair and face are competing for the Greasiest Surface in Brooklyn award.

Lastly, Roger Sterling's office is all kinds of awesome. I want to have that wall art.

And I wouldn't mind having him, either.

One of the problems is that Mr. Sanghoee wants to direct it himself. Also, it's a movie about Wall Street coming out during a recession. Also, it's a self-funded vanity project that will end in tears and massive debt. And films financed in this briefly fashionable style have all tended to do poorly. (Remember The Kingdom?)

A fund in Atlanta weighing a $7.5 million investment has cut back by $3 million. A $5 billion hedge fund group that was supposed to handle debt financing now has other priorities, namely liquidating 80 percent of its holdings.

Still, the world is full of suckers with money, and they're often willing to give it to fellow suckers with money. So this film will probably get made, in some fashion. And we'll all get to experience that increasingly common joy of watching bad things happen to bankers when it tanks. If we even notice it come out.