"We were surprised HBO still sent limos to pick us up," she says. "Sedans this year, shorter than before, but still limos."

In honor of our struggling comrades
The show begins with a speech by Guild President Patric Verrone and a video presentation in honor of the Reality TV writers, who labor without WGA protection.

The horror stories told in the video ("I had to sleep on my editing bay floor") pay tribute to the people who bring you "The Bachelor." One speech asks the audience to visualize what "Elimidate" would look like if it really had no writers.

A harrowing thought indeed.

Case of the uglies
The physical disparties between writers and other branches of the entertainment professions is much discussed. "We're a little fat or a little ugly. That's why we're writers," Soloway says.

Another voice at the "Six" table takes issue with the stereotype. Mary Cleveland, wife of writer Rick Cleveland says, "Compared to where I grew up in Minnesota, these people look pretty good. Everybody here has had a good meal recently, they've had the eye surgery and other surgeries, they've been in the sun. That doesn't sound too ugly to me."

On with the show
The show starts, hosted by writer/director/actor Jon Favreau, who manages to set a fairly relaxed and funny tone throughout the night. He opens with a gag mocking the writer's place on the totem pole.

As a fellow writer, he tells the crowd, he honors their work. As a director, however, "I think you've taken it as far as you can…The studio's putting a lot of pressure on me to bring in another guy…What can you do, it's a studio."

The show manages to maintain a lighthearted tone, limiting the portentous, where-would-the-world-be-without-writers speeches. But there still is a strange made-for-TV quality, even though the event is not being televised.

The night clips along from award to award at a rigid production pace with hand-held cameras racing through the aisles to record winners' glee, giant teleprompters, a dulcet-toned announcer and a drapery heavy, fluted-columned, overlit set that could only appear beautiful through a TV lens.

One of these days, might one of these guilds think about throwing a show just to make a fun night for themselves?