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Hollywood to Start Narrowing Search for Valenti’s Successor

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Times Staff Writer

Hollywood studios today are set to finally start winnowing down potential replacements for Jack Valenti as head of their trade group, although sources said they expected picking a successor to take until at least July.

Representatives of the Motion Picture Assn. of America’s seven studios are scheduled to discuss in a conference call this afternoon results of a search by executive recruiter Spencer Stuart, studio sources said, with a follow-up call planned next week.

Sources with the major studios said one name at the top of the list was Dan Glickman, a former Kansas congressman who served as Agriculture secretary under President Clinton.

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Studio sources said Clinton, who enjoyed close ties to Hollywood, had even served as a reference for Glickman, now director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Glickman’s son, Jonathan, is a senior executive and producer at Spyglass Entertainment.

Also considered a top candidate is former Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke, now a communications and government affairs advisor to cable giant Comcast Corp. Sources also said studio executives continued to show interest in some dark-horse candidates, notably San Diego schools chief Alan Bersin. None of the three could be reached for comment.

Valenti for more than a year has been pushing to retire, although an effort to replace him with Rep. W.J. “Billy” Tauzin (R-La.) fell apart when Tauzin turned the job down in January.

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Sources close to the process cautioned that there still was no consensus. They added that one unresolved issue was whether Valenti’s job should be split into two posts, that of a chief executive and a chief operating officer.

Even if executives agree soon on a name, sources said, member studios will have to negotiate a contract. Valenti earns more than $1 million a year.

Valenti has held the Washington-based job since 1966, hired after working as a top assistant to President Lyndon Johnson. Valenti has begun his transition into a new role that he plans to pursue upon retirement: raising money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

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