Film Industry Gets New Top Lobbyist

Jack Valenti, the silver-tongued lobbyist who served for nearly four decades as Hollywood’s voice in Washington, announced Thursday that he would be succeeded by former Agriculture secretary and congressman Dan Glickman as head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America.

In his new role as the MPAA’s president and chief executive, Glickman, 59, gets one of Washington’s plum lobbying posts, estimated to pay nearly $1.5 million a year. But the position also has become one of the Capitol’s most rapidly changing.

Unlike the MPAA of old, which was made up of Hollywood film factories that were run by autocratic moguls, the organization Glickman inherits consists of media conglomerates engaged in divergent businesses that include movies, television, the Internet, theme parks and publishing. Often, these companies have conflicting interests and agendas in Washington.

The MPAA’s seven member companies also face growing technological and economic hurdles -- primarily the proliferation of bootleg movies that can be transmitted worldwide over the Internet and soaring production costs that have driven filmmaking to foreign turf.

Rep. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), chairwoman of the Congressional Entertainment Caucus, said Glickman, a Kansas native, brought “fresh prairie pragmatism to an industry that is being challenged, more than ever before, by the issues of domestic and international piracy, runaway production and advancement of new technology.”

In an interview, Valenti said Glickman’s extensive experience negotiating trade deals as President Clinton’s Agriculture secretary was a major consideration in the selection, given the MPAA’s push for international laws governing digital piracy and trade policies. Specifically, Valenti cited Glickman’s efforts in helping farmers get their products into China.

He also cited Glickman’s knowledge of Washington’s ways, based on two decades in Congress, where he sat on the House Judiciary Committee.

A self-described moderate Democrat, Glickman, in a news conference with Valenti at Washington’s Hay-Adams Hotel, dismissed the importance of party affiliation and insisted that the MPAA would take a bipartisan approach to pursuing the movie industry’s goals in Washington.

“My style is to be a diplomat, not a bomb thrower,” Glickman said. “You’d be a fool to think that you could be effective in this job if you are a partisan.”

Glickman’s hiring followed an exhaustive, often frustrating search.

At age 82, Valenti had grown eager to retire from the post he took in 1966, when legendary moguls such as Lew Wasserman and Arthur Krim lured him away from the White House. He had served as a top aide in President Lyndon B. Johnson’s inner circle.

After a months-long courtship, the MPAA’s first choice, Rep. W.J. “Billy” Tauzin (R-La.), turned down the job in January, hoping to land a more lucrative lobbying post, which fell through.

Eventually, the job narrowed to a two-person showdown between former Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke and Glickman, whose boosters included Clinton. Last Friday the studio chiefs offered him the job.

“Jack Valenti created the MPAA as we know it today,” Universal Studios President Ron Meyer said. “But Dan Glickman will be a great successor.”

Chief among Glickman’s challenges will be the spread of piracy that has come with the proliferation of high-speed Internet connections. That has fueled the growth of online swapping of copyrighted music and video files. Glickman said Thursday that “education, litigation and enforcement” would be his principal weapons in battling the problem.

But one technology policy group said the MPAA under Glickman would have to take a more flexible stance on basic technology policy to make peace with Silicon Valley and consumer electronics makers.

“Hollywood wants design and control over hardware and software, but if that continues to be their main policy goal, it is going to be very difficult for groups like ours to be on their side,” said Gigi B. Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, a Washington technology policy watchdog group that tracks intellectual property law.

“We congratulate Dan Glickman on his selection as the new president of MPAA [but] we hope that MPAA will attempt to embrace technological change, rather than try to hinder it,” Sohn added.

Gary Shapiro, chief executive of the Consumer Electronics Assn., which is often at odds with studios over technology that makes it easier to copy films and music, said he was optimistic that under Glickman the two groups would be able to “identify and support solutions that protect the valuable intellectual property created by the MPAA’s members.”

Valenti, although he officially stepped down Thursday, said he planned to help with the transition through summer, with Glickman taking over Sept. 1. Valenti also will continue to oversee the often controversial movie ratings system he fathered in 1968. This, Valenti said, would spare his successor from the frequently volatile and distracting disputes over ratings, as evidenced by the MPAA’s recent spat with filmmaker Michael Moore over the R rating given his documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11.”

“He’s got a very steep learning curve, and he’s overjoyed not to have to get involved with it right now,” Valenti said. “The ratings system is subtle -- there’s no Euclidian formula to it.”

Valenti, who is a native of Houston, was riding in the Dallas motorcade working as a political advance man when President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. He can be seen in the famous picture of the somber Johnson being sworn in on Air Force One.

That day Johnson asked him to join his White House staff, where he remained until the MPAA hired him in 1966. Valenti quickly became the face that represented the industry worldwide, becoming something of a celebrity himself and appearing annually on stage at the Oscars. In one memorable moment, comic Robin Williams playfully introduced him as Jack “Boom Boom” Valenti.

“It’s the end of an extraordinary era,” said Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Entertainment Industry Task Force. “Jack Valenti embodied the motion picture industry and was an ambassador in every sense of the word.”

Added Jay Roth, national executive director of the Directors Guild of America, which made Valenti a life member: “There is no one -- now, or maybe ever -- that matches Jack’s enthusiasm and commitment to the industry as a whole.”

Glickman, who has lobbied on behalf of Walt Disney Co., currently is director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is the son of a scrap metal dealer from Wichita, who once owned that city’s minor league baseball team.

A film buff, Glickman took his children, Jonathan and Amy, to the movies nearly every week.

Today, Jonathan Glickman is a film producer with Spyglass Entertainment. His credits include the “Rush Hour” movies and the Sandra Bullock film “While You Were Sleeping.” He described his father as “someone who doesn’t need to be the center of attention.”

Asked about his father’s favorite movie, Jonathan Glickman said: “For credibility, I should probably say ‘How Green Was My Valley,’ but I would say it’s ‘Trading Places,’ because it’s the only movie with a major role for the secretary of Agriculture.”

An amateur singer, Glickman is known for invoking in speeches the lyrics of his favorite song, Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler,” and its signature chorus -- “You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, and know when to run.”

“I guess he sees it as a political allegory,” Jonathan Glickman said.

In Washington, Glickman was considered especially adept at using humor to defuse tension.

As Agriculture secretary, Glickman was a frequent target of animal rights protests. When one protester missed him with a pie, he quipped: “It wasn’t a very well-balanced meal.”

Glickman also is known for being able to handle the big egos of Washington, something observers say will come in handy in dealing with studio bosses.

“There’s nothing he can expect that he didn’t face as a member of the president’s cabinet,” said Hilary Rosen, former chief executive of the Recording Industry Assn. of America.

Bates reported from Los Angeles and Shiver from Washington.