"Shakespeare In Love" cowriters Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard won the prestigious Writers Guild Award for Best Screenplay this week, beating such heavy-hitting competitors as "Bulworth," "The Truman Show," and "Saving Private Ryan." Having Gwyneth Paltrow's pretty face and mellifluous voice to speak their words didn't hurt, of course, but some think the script's sly jabs at showbiz politics were especially appealing to the Guild's biggest voting bloc: disgruntled screenwriters.

"What tickled me in the research was how much the Elizabethan theater was like the movie business," cowriter Norman tells EW Online. "The egocentric actors, the lawsuits, the star system -- everything we think of as show business, they invented." Norman added such modern twists as disputes over marquee billing, pushy financiers, and a writer getting the shaft once a draft is done -- themes that undoubtedly rang true for WGA members.

With Ben Affleck's character Ned Alleyn taking on the smug attitude of a box office heavyweight and Geoffrey Rush's Henslowe adopting the moneygrubbing crassness of the worst studio exec, it was only fair that Shakespeare himself be given the attributes of a suffering screenwriter. "For a long time I couldn't find a way into the story because Shakespeare is on this pedestal," says Norman. "But when I finally looked at him as a professional writer, I knew he was broke, he was horny, and he was hard up for a good idea -- because that's what we all are."

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