Mr. Vidal: "we had the saying at MGM that the power man, the commander of movie, was the producer. The pretty man was the star, the creative man was the writer, and the director was a brother-in-law - usually of some high ranking official at the studio. [..] The writers were pretty cynical about the directors, and the writers outranked the directors until the 50's. They've got paid more, generally, "