Not since the days of Joshua James vs Scott Walters have I seen a comment-war so heated. In fact, the TOC Blog has beaten David Cote's much-covetted 51-comment theatrenet record.

It all started innocently enough. Chris Platt noted aloud that the Jeff Citations will now be called the Jeff Awards, just like the closely related Jeff Awards.

The difference is that there will now be equity and non-equity Jeff Awards. The non-equity folks used to be stuck with paltry-sounding citations, now they get awards.

Well, "Julie" wasn't gonna take it lying down. She fired-up her practically anonymous and definitely-built-by-good-ol-USA-unionified-workers-keyboard and spoke her mind.

Nothing could drag the national reputation of the “Jeff Award” down more than to include non-professional theatres to share equal consideration with professional theatres.

Whoa, Nelly! She would have a hard time finding a better way to get folks fired up. What followed were 66 comments of vitriol and semi-rational argument about the benefits of Actors' Equity and the difficulties of working on either side of the AEA line. Commentors include actors, directors, producers, union-members and non-union-members alike, and - you guessed it - a blaggle of bloggers.

So, get over there. Read it. And don't forget to leave your two cents in the comments.

On a side note: Can anyone report a theatrenet thread with more than 66 comments?