It's pretty clear that, as I stated before, Cody didn't write Juno alone. This is why Juno had some heart but Tara has none. Reitman, when he "discovered" her blogging about her vagina on the Intertubes, asked her to write her very first script. She did. And then we don't really know what happened between them. There's a big question mark about how much coaching and writing he did to get that script into some kind of shape to show people. Cody had an MFA from Iowa -- she was no stranger to writing. But she was no professional, either, and certainly not a screenwriter. She didn't even know who Reitman was. Not even Tarantino or any of the greatest screenwriters in history ever got an Oscar for their "first script."

When I was a more junior screenwriter, I occasionally optioned scripts where the producer and director said, "Let's do drafts together and we won't take any writing credit." Those were great experiences. I learned a lot. (Although I'm out of the business now with a more lucrative writing career in another industry.) I doubt that Cody can write at the level -- whatever level it really was -- of Juno on her own. Read her memoir. It's well-written -- her prose writing is strong -- but at times even offensive in its ignorance, despite the artful style. (Also, the memoir came after the movie was being made.) I argue that the "lump" that the author of this article talks about came from Reitman, not Cody's sensibilities. She hasn't any remotely like that.