Scribes take novel approach to guilds

Authors' 'Dead' tome an industry whodunit

By DAVE MCNARY

Over the years, the Hollywood guilds have been the center of plenty of intrigue, ranging from strikes and disputed elections to lawsuits and ferocious battles over credits.

Now, add murder -- at least a fictional one. In "As Dead as It Gets," a roman a clef from Cady Kalian -- the pen name used by TV writer/producer Irma Kalish and former WGA West exec director Naomi Gurian, the head of the fictitious Creative Artists Workers labor union, is found dead in a bathroom, clad in a red garter belt and bra.

Story is told via Maggie Mars, a former board member of the combined writers-helmers union who's steeped in the town's inner workings. "We met at one of those Hollywood parties where people gather to dis the industry that feeds them," she observes early in the book.

As the protagonist digs into the union leader's past, she realizes she was one of the few who didn't hate him.

Kalish and Gurian are already penning a sequel: "A Few Good Murders."