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!

Moreover, this is the fabled pump where some of Hollywood's most influential service-station attendants got their starts before moving on to Chevron, 76, Mobil and elsewhere. The opportunity to own a piece of history proved too irresistible for the building's buyers, whose previous attempt to buy an old agency headquarters fell through when CAA insisted on moving its 96-Octane Baby Mulcher and Stem-Cell Refinery to the Death Star in 2006. If this isn't the definition of a win-win situation, then we don't know what is.

• This Photo is Awesome For Two Reasons [Bus Your Own Tray]

Rancic, who hosts E! News with Ryan Seacrest, is suing her former agency for "breach of contract and fiduciary duty," according to her lawyer, Lavely & Singer bulldog Paul Sorrell. "They put the interests of other clients they had ahead of hers," Sorrell said. "It was a major conflict of interest, so she fired them."

Now that the Dam of Obviousness has been breached, we expect lawsuits against WMA any minute on the grounds that "they exist," "they take ten percent commission," and "they're mean." We've contacted William Morris for comment, though we've been assured "they'll get back to you soon, they're just at lunch — I mean, 'really swamped right now.'"

• SUE THE AGENT [New York Post]

• A-Rod thinking beyond baseball in partnering with William Morris [ESPN]
• Alex Rodriguez [IMDB]

David Berenbaum and Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes have been brought on deck to bring Hasbro's supernatural game Ouija Board to the big screen. The project is set up at Universal, where Hasbro has a six-year strategic partnership.

Although the specific log line for the film is being kept under wraps, the film will be a supernatural adventure with the Ouija board playing an integral part of the story. The movie is not taking a Jumanji-like approach, which involved a game coming to life.

Translation: "The film is being planned without much of a story; maybe a becleavaged young woman channeling a dead ex-lover for clues as to his murderer, who in turn stalks her. (NB to Universal: We're copyrighting that!) Berenbaum will write dialogue, for what it's worth. Something will explode in the name of supernatural adventure. DreamWorks owns the rights to the other key Hasbro/Bay tie-in, Transformers, so large-scale robots are out of the question." Did we miss anything? Does Monopoly make a cameo?

• Michael Bay conjures 'Ouija' movie [THR]