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Glickman picked to click as top movie lobbyist
17:02 01Jul2004
By Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON, July 1 (Reuters) - Hollywood cast former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman as its new leading man in Washington on Thursday, ending years of speculation about who would replace 82-year-old Jack Valenti as the movie industry's top lobbyist.
At a press conference in Washington's opulent Hay-Adams Hotel, Valenti introduced the former Kansas congressman and Clinton administration Cabinet member as his successor at the helm of the Motion Picture Association of America.
"It's been a long ride, it's been a great ride," said a tearful Valenti, who has held the job since 1966. "But everything comes to an end."
As the public face of the movie industry, Glickman, 59, will seek to curb the unchecked Internet file swapping that threatens to cut into movie sales.
Lawsuits against individuals who share movies online are not out of the question, he said.
"I think there are a lot of strategies to deal with piracy," he said. "Education is one of them, enforcement, litigation is another strategy. I don't think you can just go with one strategy."
The son of a Wichita scrap-metal salesman, Glickman served in Congress from 1978 to 1994, including a two-year stint as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
After he was defeated for reelection, he served as agriculture secretary until the end of Clinton's term in 2001.
He most recently served as director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.
Glickman downplayed concerns that a career Democrat might have trouble working with a Republican Congress and White House, saying he had friends in both parties and had experience working with a conservative constituency.
"It's always been my style not to be a bomb thrower but a diplomat," said Glickman, who added that his experience negotiating international trade agreements for the Agriculture Department would come in handy as well.
Glickman said his favorite movies include The Godfather Parts I and II, which he said he had seen more than 100 times, and Animal House, "because I was in a fraternity at the University of Michigan ... and the characters were people that I was with."
Other favorites include Shanghai Noon and Rush Hour, films produced by his son Jonathan Glickman, an executive at Spyglass Entertainment.
The MPAA's search committee examined 25 candidates for the job, which pays a salary of more than $1 million per year.
Glickman has imposing, and dapper, shoes to fill.
Valenti, in his 38 years at the MPAA, developed a voluntary ratings system, which has enabled the industry to fend off government attempts to curb explicit sex and violence on film.
Valenti was widely criticized for 1982 congressional testimony in which he compared the videocassette recorder to the Boston Strangler, comments frequently invoked by technology-industry advocates who say tightened copyright laws could harm innovation.
Congress is considering several measures that would tighten copyright laws, including one that would crack down on people who bring camcorders into movie theaters.
MPAA members include Walt Disney Co.
(Additional reporting by Charles Abbott)
(c) Reuters 2004. All rights reserved.