The Office is no hit yet

Since blogging about The Office almost two months ago, I've wondered how Aleks Horvat's venture to rent work tables in a communal space to writers is faring. Turns out the chance to type away on Aeron chairs next to other laboring scribes in Brentwood hasn't proven all that enticing, Paul Brownfield writes in today's LAT Calendar.

Inside, business was slow, but Horvat, looking like a screenwriter (khakis, Nike Presto running shoes) seemed not to be worried. The Office could catch on, given time — not just with film and TV people but with students and other professionals — and that would create the need for more Offices: in Hollywood, in the Valley...

You are asked to turn your cellphone to vibrate. On one of the bamboo-papered walls are the words "It was Written Here." Underneath this sign will go the names of the movies and TV series and books created at the Office. Thus far, the wall is blank.

But hey, Brooke Shields wrote the first words of her forthcoming book on postpartum depression there.