Hollywood May Enlist in Unconventional Warfare

The people who head Hollywood’s media conglomerates are not accustomed to taking meetings without knowing the agenda. But that’s exactly what they will do Sunday as about 40 of them sit down in Beverly Hills for brunch with Karl Rove, President Bush’s senior advisor.

In broad strokes, the White House has said it wants the involvement of the entertainment industry in the campaign against terrorism. There have been hints of having Hollywood create public service announcements. There have been promises of no propaganda requests. There has been discussion of “morale building.” But little else.

“We’re going to listen to what the White House has to say,” said Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, which helped organize the meeting. “I do believe that Hollywood ought to be involved in any way we can. I don’t know the specific agenda Mr. Rove is bringing. He contacted us.”

Every studio is sending top-level representatives: Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman John Calley, Walt Disney Co. President and Chief Operating Officer Robert Iger, MGM Chairman Alex Yemenidjian, Fox Chairmen Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman, and Viacom Inc. Chairman Sumner Redstone.

Hollywood already has played an unofficial role in the public relations war between Washington and the ruling Taliban of Afghanistan. A bevy of stars has participated in various concerts to benefit the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, some of which were aired commercial-free by the major networks.

But the 11 a.m. meeting in the Peninsula Hotel’s Veranda Room is the Bush administration’s second attempt to officially enlist Hollywood in the war effort. The first approach was an Oct. 17 meeting among two mid-level Bush staffers, a few network heads, some independent producers, and actors. The meeting was so unfocused that at least two network heads left early. It was widely regarded in Hollywood as a bust.

“A bunch of well-intentioned representatives of the administration came to Hollywood on a fact-finding mission with more questions than answers, which seemed perfectly apropos,” said Sandy Grushow, chairman of Fox TV Entertainment Group. “Hopefully, this Sunday they can provide us some specifics in terms of what they’re looking for now that they’ve had the opportunity to think and talk about it.”

This second sit-down between the two camps will probably define any relationship between Democratic Hollywood, a Republican administration and the U.S. action in Afghanistan. The various media titans have competing business interests. One of the only issues that unifies them is an industrywide stance against government regulation, particularly of content.

Indeed, observers have said that discussing entertainment with the federal government could drift into dangerous territory of propaganda and censorship. Many invitees feel clear boundaries will have to be established, and standards of conduct will have to be articulated.

This second meeting was brokered by Gerald L. Parsky, who ran Bush’s presidential campaign in California last year. Parsky, who runs an investment firm, enjoys a close relationship with the White House.

After the initial meeting produced so much confusion and so few tangible results, Rove called Parsky and asked if he could arrange another tete-a-tete, this time with the entertainment business’ upper echelon.

Days later, Parsky approached Paramount Chairwoman Sherry Lansing, a friend with whom he sits on the University of California Board of Regents.

Although Lansing, a lifelong Democrat, was a convention delegate last year for presidential nominee Al Gore, Parsky nonetheless asked her if she would be willing to rally prominent figures in the entertainment community for a meeting with Rove.

“This is an extraordinary time,” Parsky said.

Parsky assured her that this was not a political meeting. There would be no quid pro quo, he promised, and the White House was not going to discuss changing the content of movies or TV. Rather, he said, it would center on morale-rallying efforts.

The project was exactly what Lansing had been looking for. Unable to attend the earlier meeting because of her UC Regents commitments, she nonetheless has been vocal to friends and colleagues about her desire to contribute to the war on terrorism.

Lansing canvassed Valenti and Viacom Chairman Jonathan Dolgen, and they quickly agreed. The elite invitation list was restricted to media chiefs. No writers, actors or directors were invited.

Fox, for instance, agreed to attend, because as Gianopulos explains: “The making and distributing of quality entertainment has always been challenging for our industry. As of Sept. 11, all kinds of new challenges have presented themselves. The relationship between these two realities isn’t immediately apparent, but is certainly worthy of discussion.”

The only conglomerate not sending a full contingent is AOL Time Warner Inc., whose entire corporate hierarchy will be in New York for the premiere of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” Warner Bros. Television head Peter Roth will represent the company.

According to one invitee, none of the studio chiefs has discussed the issue among themselves. Most of the dozens of people contacted for this article were reluctant to speak for attribution.

“This is a private meeting,” said DreamWorks SKG spokesman Andy Spahn, who wouldn’t confirm whether company founders Jeffrey Katzenberg, David Geffen, or Steven Spielberg--all prominent Democrats--would attend.

But the one thing that is clear is that the rules have changed. The expected studio turnout is a sharp departure from the last time Washington asked for Hollywood’s input. That was last fall, when the Senate, led by Democrat Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, asked studio chiefs to respond to a Federal Trade Commission report that castigated the studios for marketing adult-themed films, TV programs and video games to children.

At the initial hearing, not one studio chief showed up, a snub that outraged senators. It provoked a second hearing, at which eight studio chiefs were forced to defend themselves not only to the Senate, but in front of national TV cameras.

Administration Takes Hands-Off Approach

Hollywood continues to chafe at efforts by some Senate Democrats to rein in the business, such as a bill, proposed in April by Lieberman and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. It called for civil penalties for deceptive advertising aimed at children.

Conversely, the Bush White House has been noticeably silent concerning the legislation, and the administration has adopted a largely hands-off attitude toward the entertainment industry.

The fact that the studios, mostly led by Democrats, appear eager to meet with a Republican administration is an irony lost on no one in Hollywood. (Sunday will mark the first time, for instance, that Lansing has met Rove.)

Yet Gianopulos said, “When a country is faced with the challenging issues we face today, it’s a much less partisan environment.”

While Sunday’s meeting has drawn attention from industry observers and the news media, Washington has a long history of calling on movie makers during wartime. During World War I, actors Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin were asked to sell war bonds. In 1940, while World War II raged in Europe, the U.S. Justice Department settled an antitrust suit against the five major studios. From the settlement of the suit until the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Hollywood produced three dozen features on the war in Europe.

The entertainment industry’s anti-Nazi slant was so great that conservative senators in Washington held hearings to investigate whether Hollywood was trying to pressure the nation into entering the war. Once it began, Sen. Prescott Bush, the current president’s grandfather, helped fashion a bridge between the entertainment world and a war effort. He helped found the USO.

For the last several years, Washington has enlisted Hollywood storytelling know-how in the development of “immersive simulation” technologies. For instance, Paramount created a training exercise that simulates the environment of a National Security Council situation room during a crisis. The exercise is used by the National Defense University to train mid-level military personnel in strategic thinking.

Washington may find willing recruits in Hollywood, where a passion for patriotism has been brewing for several years. Indeed, the industry has found financial and political success in portraying the U.S. soldier as the Everyhero. The country’s spirit has been revered through movies like “Saving Private Ryan,” NBC’s award-winning drama “The West Wing,” and HBO’s miniseries “Band of Brothers.”

More is on the way, regardless of the outcome of Sunday’s meeting.