From KCRW in Santa Monica, I'm Claude Brodester 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.

But prepare yourself for the breaks. Check it out.

This week on the business, there's been a surge in Iraq, and a surge of Iraq movies here at home.

It might be working in Baghdad, but it's tanking at the local Cineplex.

We'll talk to the writer and director of In the Valley of Ella, Paul Haggis.

Plus, a not very happy new year, or winter, or spring, for striking writers.

But first, it's the Hollywood News Caravan.

Stick around.

It's the business from NPR.

So how bad have things gotten between Hollywood's producers and the striking writers?

Well, a recent communique from the Writers Guild East President Michael Winship about the studios began, quote,

They lie, and then they lie again, and then they lie some more, unquote.

More on the strike a little later in the show.

Elsewhere, is the Chinese government blocking American film imports?

MPAA chairman and CEO Dan Glickman thinks so, as do the feds.

Last week, U.S. Commerce Department officials, quote, forcefully, told China

that Washington does not consider it acceptable to suspend the showing of American-made movies.

Yes, with the Chinese already doing such an admirable job of

stemming the flow of poisoned pet food, lethal toothpaste, and deadly toys, we'd hate to

see what a strong and legitimate film distribution market might look like. Finally, Hollywood

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