The L.A. Times is reporting film and TV writers, actors and crew members are canceling vacations, working overtime and squirreling away savings while they still can.

Talent agencies, postproduction houses and equipment rental shops have drawn up plans to cut costs and payrolls while caterers and special-effects houses scramble to find jobs that reduce their dependence on the entertainment industry.

The reason why:

Writers could walk out as early as Thursday if their union can't hammer out a new three-year employment contract with the studios to replace one that expires at midnight on Wednesday.

I didn't know that chimpanzees with typewriters could get contracts. My best guess is if writers in Hollywood go on strike, I won't notice. After all, how much writing will actually go into Saw V? Judging by this past season's lacklustre movies, most writing has been done by Dumb and Dumber. My suggestion to Hollywood is to go out and get some Replacements; better yet, movie goers should go out and read a book by a real writer and stop supporting garbage, but then after years of public education, most people don't actually read.