At Film Roman

... which is what Starz Media is now calling their Hollywood Way Studio. They spent years down-playing the old name, now the company has reversed field.

This mean anything? Hmmm ...

In any event, I went through "The Simpsons" unit and the place -- usually jumping -- was mostly empty. Far more empty than I'd ever seen it before, startlingly empty. An artist in an office next to rows of un-artisted cubicles said:

"Thirty people got laid off last week. There's going to be more next week. I think there's only one show still going."

There's a simple reason for this. The voice actors have still not signed for another season.

"They keep telling us the actors will be signing this week. They've been tellins us that for at least a month. There's six scripts ready to be recorded, but no actors."

I opined that maybe the six actors -- now in a wrestling match with Fox -- are holding off so they can leverage the threat of the oncoming big actors strike. Like, "You don't come more our way, then we'll be into July, and nobody will be recording ... or filming ... or anything."

Not saying the boys and girls are doing this, but it's a strategy, you know?

Meanwhile, the King of the Hill unit awaits the return of its crew, allegedly scheduled for sometime in June.