STRIPPER TO SCREENWRITER...

...or how to get the recognition you want in Hollywood.

Our ever so charming yet naughty Minnesota girl Brook Busey-Hunt, aka Diablo Cody, cred has been lingering in a Hollywood purgatory since her lusty splash to fame on David Letterman this spring. By her own admit, Diablo's instant fame turned quickly into fledgling career and this is the stuff on which Hollywood is made.

Originally, Cody's red-hot script JUNO was shopped around by Mason Novick of the firm Benderspink, who has gained the reputation as the "horny manager" seeking sexy-girl blogger for career in pictures, who discovered Diablo in the Pussy Ranch, took his cut and signed her book "Candy Girl" to a six-figure publishing contract. As if there are not enough horny boys in LA LA land and lusty girls down in the valley! Novick was exposed to Diablo's writing while reading her raunchy blog on the internet. With profits, Brook bought a house in Minneapolis with hubby Jonny as apparently a book deal and a few thousand for a WB "three-picture deal" can no longer finance a house in LA.

According to columnist Jay Fernandez who writes Scriptland for the LA Times Diablo Cody is the kind of success story Hollywood loves. And he continues, "Novick has proven, is that surfing porn at work can no longer unilaterally be written off as unproductive."

LEMONY-SNICKET'S director Brad Silberling was originally slated to direct JUNO but has since been replaced by soup du jour THANK YOU FOR NOT SMOKING writer-director Jason Reitman and GHOST WORLD'S Russ Smith and Lianne Halfon producing for Mandate Pictures. JUNO has long been referred to as the female version of NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, not a flattering comparison in my book, however Reitman is reportedly working with Cody to "flesh-out" the adult characters. [Exactly what ND never got IMHO]

In order to fulfilled her promise to WB, Cody has written the feature script TIME AND A HALF, a dark comedy about a recent college grad swimming into a "mid-20s life crisis" and is finishing scripts for TV pilots she owes Sony and Dreamworks. As Fernandez describes her ascending career, Diablo's "work meetings no longer require a sheet of protective glass." Cody wants to write a horror movie and is tagged as a big fan of THE DESCENT.

Just this week, the Hollywood Reporter announced casting decisions have been made for JUNO. Cody reacted on her blog, "Ellen Page and Michael Cera are both so good. They're gooder than good. They're goodical. They're a Mark Goodson production. I could not be happier."

So the word on the street is that with an entirely new team for JUNO it could begin shooting in January 2007. Will they consider coming to shoot in Hopkins Minnesota again?