From KCRW in Santa Monica, I'm Claude Brodesser 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 brakes. Check it out.

This week on the business, the Swifty Lazare of Kids' Agents shares horror stories about

mafia moms, Clearas Ill crises, and casting for the role

of the chubby kid. Then, what it really means when your child wants to be a star. And finally,

all scripts are not created equal, so why do they all look alike? But first, it's the Hollywood

News Caravan. Forget that lunch at the Ivy. It's the business from NPR.

It was a week where politics and art collided.

The venerable crime drama, Law and Order, has been under financial scrutiny by NBC,

and one of its two Law and Order spinoffs might even face execution.

NBC executives were sequestered last week, but reports leaked in the trades saying that producer Dick Wolf could slash talent costs on the shows by eliminating

some veteran actors. Perhaps sensing that the axe was falling, former United States Senator Fred

Thompson, who plays DA Arthur Branch on the original Law & Order, announced he was considering a run for president.

Hey, you know, if the acting thing doesn't work out,

it's always good to have something practical to fall back on,

like being the leader of the free world.

Speaking of leading the free world,

the militaristic metaphor of a movie, 300,

shattered March box office records

and continued brisk business all last week.

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