Studio Chiefs Hold Meeting on Violence

In the wake of a juvenile crime bill passed last week by the Senate that seeks to curb film and television violence, representatives from the major Hollywood movie studios met with Motion Picture Assn. of America President Jack Valenti on Monday in what he compared to an industry focus group on the issue of youth violence.

The high-level powwow at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills was the first such meeting of movie industry executives since the Littleton, Colo., high school shooting last month. Sources who attended the breakfast described it as a constructive “give and take” about how best to proceed as the Senate bill goes to the House of Representatives. But no specific strategies were agreed upon.

Valenti said he called the meeting “to talk about what’s going on in the country--the perceptions and the realisms--and mainly how we can do something positive to be part of any national crusade, if one is mounted, to lessen youth violence.”

“There is a perception of rabid violence in the country that is contradicted by the numbers, which show that youth violence is going down. However, perception is what really counts in the world,” Valenti said after the meeting. Refusing to name those in attendance, Valenti said the meeting yielded “nothing specific. No plans are being laid. I’m just absorbing and listening and querying.”

In Washington, meanwhile, legislators called for action.

“We hope more will come out of this than a public relations strategy and efforts at damage control,” said Dan Gerstein, spokesman for Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), a leading critic of the entertainment industry. “This is not the time for more vague promises and ‘we’ll look into it’ responses. People are looking for more deliverables and concrete responses.”

Sources said Valenti’s 30 or so guests included Paramount Pictures chiefs Jonathan Dolgen and Sherry Lansing; 20th Century Fox chief Bill Mechanic and Tom Sherak, chairman of Fox Domestic Film Group; Terry Semel and Bob Daly, co-studio chiefs at Warner Bros.; Bob Wynne, co-president of Sony Pictures Entertainment; Universal President Ron Meyer; Joe Roth, chairman of Walt Disney Studios; and two representatives from MGM, Chairman Alex Yemenidjian and Vice Chairman Chris McGurk.

Asked about the tenor of the gathering, one person who attended said that given the recent legislative action, “of course there is concern.” Another industry source said Monday’s meeting was probably the first of several high-level discussions, though none have been scheduled.

The bill passed last week by the Senate includes several provisions aimed at reining in film and television violence. The bill would:

* Launch an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice to determine whether the entertainment industry targets children in marketing violent products. The investigation would also measure the impact of media violence on children.

* Provide an antitrust exemption for entertainment companies that develop a code of conduct to minimize violent content.

* Discourage the use of public lands for filming movies that promote “wanton or gratuitous violence.”

The bill was widely seen as a shot across the bow, with Congress warning Hollywood to tone down its violence or face government intervention. But even short of that, the investigation itself could be potentially worrisome for the industry, Valenti agreed.

“Obviously, the Justice Department and the FTC both have subpoena powers,” he said. “Whether they’ll use them or not I can’t tell you.”

Valenti has always been an advocate of strategic self-restraint. Thirty years ago, he invented the MPAA ratings system, which the major studios submit their films to voluntarily, in part to lessen the possibility of state legislatures adopting their own regulations to govern film content.

Now, the possibility of government intrusion is again very real and Valenti is again on the hot seat. But so far, the movie industry’s responses appear to be falling short in Washington, where many are searching for ways to regulate entertainment by framing it as a danger to children, a premise that has been upheld by the courts with regard to tobacco and alcohol.

Valenti was the only movie industry spokesman to attend a recent White House summit called to examine the root causes of violence. The absence of any studio chiefs was widely perceived as a slight in the Capitol, especially when it was learned that Seagram chief executive Edgar Bronfman Jr. skipped the event to attend the opening of a new theme park in Florida.

But Valenti said Monday that Hollywood titans had stayed away at his suggestion.

“I saw no reason to expose these movie executives to the pillorying they would get. I didn’t think that was fair,” he said. “I speak for the movie industry.”

In Valenti’s recent testimony, he supported the idea of a surgeon general’s report to study whether violence in entertainment causes children to misbehave. But he has also been outspoken that the movie industry is too easy a target and is taking too much of the blame for society’s problems.

“If I were in Congress I would probably be trashing the motion picture industry myself. There is no penalty for kicking us around,” he said, adding that meanwhile, “Nobody is looking at the Internet. I don’t know of any movies that go into specifics on how to make a pipe bomb. But you can learn that on the Internet.”

Times staff writers Robert W. Welkos and Patrick Goldstein contributed to this story.