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After the Writers Guild of America (WGA) began its strike against Hollywood studios Monday, production ceased on TV shows such as Two and a Half Men, Back to You and The Office, and hundreds of crew and cast members from those series began receiving layoff notices.

Other shows ending include Til Death, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Rules of Engagement and The Big Bang Theory.

Other shows have enough new episodes produced in advance to last a few more weeks without repeats, leaving viewers largely unaware of the strike fallout for the time being.

Nightly talk shows that rely on a steady stream of topical jokes and skits were the first to be affected. At least eight such programs, including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, were forced into reruns the first day of the strike.

The strike began when the two sides failed to reach a deal on writers' demands for a greater share of revenues from the Internet.

On a happier Hollywood note, French architect Christian de Portzamparc has been chosen to design the world's largest and most ambitious museum dedicated to the history of film and the Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said yesterday.

Sid Ganis, the president of the group that annually hands out the Oscars, says he hopes to see ground broken on the 3.24 hectare site in 2009 and have the museum completed by 2012.

But there are a few problems, readily admitted, by Ganis and de Portzamparc: the museum still has to be designed and a budget still has to be arranged.

On the East coast, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will appear in the film version of Sex and the City, due for release next year, his spokesman said.

Bloomberg, appearing as himself, filmed the cameo appearance earlier this week in New York, his spokesman said, revealing only that "the mayor was playing himself and doing the kind of things that mayors do."

Bloomberg follows in the footsteps of former mayors Ed Koch and Rudolph Giuliani who appeared as themselves in the sitcom in 2001 and 2004 respectively.

Borat, the fictional Kazakh reporter who caused a diplomatic stir with his moviemaking adventures in the US, is back with Touristic Guidings to Minor Nation of US and A and Touristic Guidings to Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

Borat Sagdiyev, a clueless and offensive journalist created by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, made television and movie audiences laugh and cringe but angered the government of Kazakhstan for portraying the former Soviet country as misogynistic, anti-Semitic and backward.

Earlier this week, he said that he preferred Kazakhstan to the US and encouraged everyone to "look on my guidings book and then come visit. Bring your whole family and stay at Astana Funworld Resort - it have beautiful beaches, almost totally free of land mines and the sea is guarantee to have no jellyfish, shark, or any other marine life."

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