From KCRW in Santa Monica, I'm Claude Browdessa Ackner, and this is The Business.

So you still want to do the show business, and you think that you got what it takes?

I mean, you really got a rap and be all at and prepare yourself for the breaks.

Check it out.

This week on the business, the William Morris Mailroom is the high-stress, low-pay, sanctum sanctorum of showbits. It can lead straight to the top

or leave you in a straight jacket. We'll have part two of our conversation with ex-assist and Josh

Steinberg. Plus, writers usually fight to get credit. So what does it mean when a writer takes his

name off a film? But first, it's the Hollywood News Caravan.

From the show that we sometimes wish we could take our name off of,

it's the business from NPR.

NBC already streams many of its popular shows online.

And now, with a new initiative they call NBC Direct,

consumers will be able to download free of charge,

shows like heroes, the office, and the Tonight Show on the night there broadcast,

and keep them for seven days.

The downloaded files would degrade after a seven-day period and become

unwatchable, except, of course, for Donald Trump's The Apprentice, which is unwatchable right from the start.

NBC Universal Television Group president Jeff Gaspin told the New York Times, the file self-destruction

is, quote, kind of like Mission Impossible, only I don't think there

would be any explosion or smoke. So while NBC announced they'll start giving it all away in a few

weeks, it seems like ABC will beat them to the punch when they start putting their shows up for free

on AOL, effective immediately. They'll also make them available through their online joint venture

...