Hollywood Responds to Criticism : Culture: Key entertainment figures take in stride survey showing that most Americans agree with comments made by Sen. Dole. Several say that art reflects society, not the reverse.

Frank Price, a veteran movie executive who has run two studios, suspects that at any time over the last 2,500 years, people have been dissatisfied with the content of entertainment.

“Things are always getting worse, more disturbing. Euripides was banished from Athens for corrupting the morals of the youth,” said Price, the chairman of Price Entertainment who once headed Universal Pictures and Columbia Pictures.

Price, like much of Hollywood, Wednesday was taking in stride the findings of a Times Poll that found 71% of Americans agree with Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.), who chastised the entertainment industry for distributing films, TV shows and music laced with violence and sex that he described as “nightmares of depravity.” The poll found that a majority of Americans across the political spectrum sided with Dole’s criticisms, including many young people, liberals and blacks.

The poll also found that 61% of Americans believe that entertainment is getting worse, and a majority of those surveyed believe that Hollywood does not share their values. Yet, more than half of those polled said they saw a greater danger from government censorship than hurtful entertainment.

Although they concede that lines have to be drawn when it comes to graphic violence and sex, key figures in the movie, TV and pop music industries said Wednesday that Hollywood must reflect a wide range of values, not just those of the majority.

Marta Kauffman, co-creator and executive producer of NBC’s “Friends,” a twentysomething comedy with sexual themes, said it is not the entertainment industry’s job to only portray nice, family values.

“The whole point of art is to shake people up,” she said. “I was not a fan of[the Oliver Stone film] ‘Natural Born Killers,’ but it did something to me. It shook me up.”

Though many are critical of Dole for putting a partisan political spin on the issue, some in the entertainment industry believe that Americans are sending conflicting signals about what they want to see.

Frank Marshall, who directed the current hit action film “Congo,” said he found the poll results confusing in one respect.

“They’re speaking out of both sides of their mouth,” he said. “ ‘A ‘Little Princess’ [a highly acclaimed family film] is being pulled from the theaters because no one is turning out, and ‘Die Hard With a Vengeance’ opens at $22 million. There’s room for both, of course, but when people don’t turn out for family films, it creates a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“Still, the poll is a very intelligent one,” Marshall added. “It reflects an awareness on the part of the public of the importance of free speech, of the fact that drugs and family breakdown also contribute to violence, of the responsibility the public must assume.”

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Some industry insiders point out that while they share Americans’ concern about gratuitous violence and sex, the entertainment industry should not be scapegoated.

Tom Pollock, who as head of Universal Pictures is responsible for releasing a wide range of movies--from the soon-to-be-released astronaut thriller “Apollo 13” to this summer’s ghostly hit “Casper”--said there is some truth in what Dole is saying.

“Though I wish Dole hadn’t raised the issue in such a patently political fashion, there’s some truth in the fact that there are excesses,” Pollock said.

Though most Americans believe there is a correlation between violence in films, TV entertainment shows and rap lyrics, Pollock said, one should not assume that there is always a relationship between make-believe violence in the media and real-life street violence.

“We have a perfect control group,” he said. “It’s called Canada. They get all our records, movies and TV, yet, their rate of violent crime is one-tenth that of the U.S. Toronto is on the other side of the lake from Buffalo, but a world apart. What Canada has that we don’t is strict gun control . . . as well as less racial polarization and multigenerational poverty. Those are the real causes of violence.

“Still, it’s wrong to profit on ugly violence,” the studio executive added. “That’s where the lines should be drawn. Dole went to excess by tarring everyone with the same brush. The real issue is the moral issue of profiting off ugly violence.”

Peter Guber, the former chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment who now runs his own production company, agrees with most of those polled: He believes that the 1st Amendment--and personal taste--should prevail.

“If each person exercises individual responsibility, the collective takes care of itself,” he said.

The pop music industry has come in for its share of strong criticism, particularly for rap music that contains lyrics replete with graphic violence and sex. Indeed, the attacks against rap and other controversial music have created an air of fear in the industry.

Executives at several major record companies declined to be interviewed, with their representatives noting that they would rather lie low to avoid drawing the ire of politicians and the public.

“It’s a hot potato that no one wants to touch,” said one corporate spokesman.

But some would talk.

“The entertainment industry, for the most part, meets the demands of the audience,” said Rick Rubin, head of the Warner Bros.-distributed American Recordings and a producer who has worked with rappers Run-DMC, LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys, as well as rockers such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Tom Petty.

Rubin dismissed the notion that rap leads to violence, seeing the cause-and-effect the other way around.

“The art reflects the culture and it’s very important that it’s documented,” he said, adding that for many people, the music serves as escapist fantasy.

Rubin agreed with a majority of those polled who said the quality of entertainment has declined in recent years, “but not for the reasons many of those people might think.”

“The reason we see the decline has to do with the art following the decline of our civilization,” he said. “To point the finger at the results--as opposed to the cause--means you are looking at it the wrong way. Maybe it is easier to point the finger at the entertainment industry than to tell parents they aren’t raising their children properly--or to improve schooling.”

Happy Walters, who manages rap groups Cypress Hill (notorious for its pro-marijuana stand) and House of Pain, says people who blame music for society’s ills are looking at the wrong place. Walters said he believed that the people surveyed in the poll had the wrong impression of today’s cutting-edge music.

“Artists need to express themselves, that’s what we’re about here,” he said. “And parents need to take responsibility of their kids.”

Those who deal with creative talent on a daily basis say that the entertainment industry must be doing something right because it brings in billions of dollars each year from the public.

“The TV and movie businesses are healthy,” said Jim Wiatt, president of the large, influential talent agency International Creative Management. “Foreign attendance is growing. Domestic is up for the past two years. It’s one of the biggest years for advertising spending. Someone is spending money to support all this product they’re criticizing.”

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Television is often seen as a catalyst for the debate over violence, because the airwaves are federally regulated and Congress is quick to listen to unhappy constituents.

On Wednesday, ABC declined to comment on the Times Poll, while a spokesman for NBC said executives were unavailable for comment because they were on their way to Santa Barbara for a retreat. A source at the Fox network said, “We’re going to pass.” CBS did not respond.

But Robert Halmi Sr., who produced the CBS miniseries “Scarlett,” a four-part sequel to “Gone With the Wind,” said he agreed with Dole with “certain qualifications.”

“I’m in TV, and my business is 100% for family entertainment,” Halmi said. “I would not ever do an exploitation movie no matter how much money I would make.”

As for violence in the media, Halmi said it is “very difficult to say what provokes what.”

Halmi, 71, who came to the United States from Hungary 45 years ago, says he does not view sex on television as an issue.

“There is sex on TV and there is nothing wrong with it,” he said. “We all grew up with it. It doesn’t hurt as much as killing somebody. The major difference between European television and American television is that [in Europe] they would never show the violence, but they would show sex. Here, we cannot show sex but we can show violence. We inherited the Founding Fathers’ prudishness.”

This story was reported by staff writers Elaine Dutka, Robert W. Welkos and Judith Michaelson and correspondent Steve Hochman and was written by Welkos.