Everyone knows there's a "20-minute" rule in Hollywood. As in, if you're late to a meeting or a lunch because of gridlock on the freeway or surface streets, you get 20 minutes to arrive without anyone thinking the worst of you. Now comes a new study showing that the Los Angeles metropolitan area leads the nation in traffic jams, with rush-hour drivers spending an extra 72 hours a year on average stuck in traffic. Which reminds me of a phone conversation I had one day with a studio mogul who was stuck in traffic. "Don't they know I'm late?" he admonished. "There should be a special lane for important people." I told him there was -- but he'd have to move to Russia where, in certain parts of Moscow, Kremlin chiefs get their own traffic lane. That shut him up.