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Yesterday's LAT visited Studio City's Archstone apartments, where pre-fame actors flock to overpay for luxury-lite amenities and to feed off the crackling energy of communal desperation. (On cold days, we hear you you can actually see the sparks arcing between waitresses' heads as they pass in the hallways.). Not to be outdone, today's NYT heads beachward, where the industry's mid-six-figure set overpays for ocean views and to feed off the communal energy of desperate Hollywood social-climbing.

This isn't quite David Geffen territory, though: an up-and-coming Hollywood income of $200,000 to $400,000 a year doesn't buy a place in that Malibu. So, until their Tinseltown ships come in, young film-industry types lease pieds-à-terre for $3,000 to $6,000 a month. [...]

Back on Las Flores Beach, Shauna Robertson, a producer of "Elf" and "Anchorman," is thrilled to be able to spend weekends at the tiny, one-bedroom apartment she calls her "shoe box." For $2,800 a month, it has a view of the ocean on three sides. "I can't imagine not having it in my life," she said, adding that she wished everyone in her frenzied industry could have one, too. "The world would be a much better place if everyone could have a house in Malibu."

Really, we can't echo Ms. Robertson's sentiment enough. Everyone working in the business should have a three-grand-a-month shoebox in The Boo. The gentle lapping of the Pacific on the sand helps quell the impulse to murder your boss, who just won't shut the fuck up about her totally cute and sooo tiny! beachfront rental.