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Today's NY Times takes a look at Paramount's negotiations to upgrade its culinary offerings by allowing the company behind industry power-eatery The Grill to set up shop inside the walls of its Melrose lot. While some fear that the move might potentially compromise the old-school commissary charm of on-the-lot dining (i.e., watching your favorite executives eat mediocre food in bland surroundings), others think that the brand might create some heat at the Mount:

On the surface, the negotiations are simply part of Paramount's overhauling of its food services. "We're in the early stages of discussion with the owners of the Grill to create a stand-alone place here," said a spokeswoman for the studio, adding that the move is "among the many things we are considering."

But in the Kremlinology of Hollywood, the possible move means so much more. Paramount Pictures, the last old studio to maintain a Hollywood address, could significantly upgrade its image by importing the Grill's cachet to its production lot, in a remote location well east on Melrose Avenue. (A new restaurant would most likely serve Paramount personnel only and not the eating public, of course.) [...]

"It would make the lot the hottest commissary in town," [producer Jim Wedaa] said, explaining that the lunch ritual still has some of the old magic, especially if an executive is asking guests to wend their way through snarled traffic for lunch. "It's a total power play when people ask, 'You want to come over to the lot?' "

Should the plans for the supercommissary generate positive buzz, embattled Paramount emperor Brad Grey will reveal the next stages of his bold plan to make his studio the envy of everyone in town: diverting funds from its money-gobbling development and production budgets to install a Cheescake Factory, a Ferris wheel, and a ten-slide waterpark to the lot. Everyone knows that a good corkscrew slide tests off the charts with the coveted teen demographic.