Dan Glickman

Re Jeffrey Kagan's Jan. 18 letter on Dan Glickman (new secretary of agriculture): In actuality, Glickman was voted out of office by those who knew him least. Only just this last fall I changed my permanent address from Wichita, Kan., to California. Through several moves I maintained by voting registration in Wichita for no other reason than to retain Glickman as my representative. And I'm not even a Democrat. Unfortunately, an ineffectual Democratic governor, a strengthening in the anti-choice movement and a tendency by Kansas Republicans to believe that nothing exists beyond the state borders except Sen. Bob Dole led to Glickman's recent defeat.

Hollywood's seemingly endless quest for an industry lobbyist appears to be zeroing in on former Sen. Christopher J. Dodd from Connecticut. Dodd, a former U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful who recently retired from the Senate, has long been a candidate to head the Motion Picture Assn. of America, replacing former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, who resigned as chief executive a year ago. A person close to the MPAA, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, said that over the weekend Dodd had emerged as the top contender and was now the only candidate in negotiations for the job, which pays $1.2 million a year.

Had the decision been up to a casting director, Dan Glickman might never have gotten a callback to play Hollywood's leading man in Washington. First, there's his look. The Motion Picture Assn. of America president wears cowboy boots in lieu of Gucci, off-the-rack sports jackets instead of Armani. Then there are his previous roles: 18-year Democratic congressman and six-year Clinton Cabinet member.

Former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey is poised to become the next head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America. Kerrey, a Democratic former governor and U.S. senator from Nebraska, is the favored candidate to replace Dan Glickman as chairman and chief executive of Hollywood's chief lobbying group, people familiar with the matter said Friday. The heads of the major studios have reached a consensus that Kerrey, who is currently president of the New School university in New York City but is expected to step down this summer, is the best person for the job, these people said.

Dan Glickman, the former congressman and Agriculture secretary who was named Hollywood's chief lobbyist Thursday, will probably be compared with Jack Valenti for years. But he will never be mistaken for him. Valenti, in his 38 years as president and chief executive of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, became synonymous with the movie industry. In 1965, when Valenti went Hollywood, he was already one of the most inside of Washington insiders as one of President Johnson's closest aides.

Jack Valenti, the silver-tongued lobbyist who served for nearly four decades as Hollywood's voice in Washington, announced Thursday that he would be succeeded by former Agriculture secretary and congressman Dan Glickman as head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America. In his new role as the MPAA's president and chief executive, Glickman, 59, gets one of Washington's plum lobbying posts, estimated to pay nearly $1.5 million a year.

Dan Glickman, who takes over today as Hollywood's chief lobbyist, is already on location. The former Clinton administration Agriculture secretary and Democratic congressman from Kansas is tooling around the Republican National Convention at New York's Madison Square Garden. At Glickman's side is his legendary predecessor, Jack Valenti, 82, who is retiring after 38 years as president of the Washington-based Motion Picture Assn. of America.

For all the rumblings in Hollywood that Dan Glickman was miscast as the industry's top Washington lobbyist, the next head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America could well be closer to his technocrat mold than to the suave celebrity of the man who made the job famous: Jack Valenti. That's because, with Glickman disclosing Monday that he'll step down next September, the movie industry knows it has evolved since he took over in 2004 as MPAA's chairman and chief executive. Preventing piracy of movies and TV shows dominates the trade association's lobbying agenda, and the desire for a glitzy face in the nation's capital has lessened as the major movie studios have become divisions in larger media conglomerates with sometimes competing agendas.

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman narrowly escaped being hit in the face with a pie by an animal rights activist. The suspect hurled the pie just as Glickman began a speech at the National Nutrition Summit, a two-day conference to discuss hunger and nutrition issues. Glickman ducked but got "tofu cream" all over the back of his suit, according to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which took responsibility for the action.

Rep. Dan Glickman (D-Kan.) is the choice of the House leadership to take over the Intelligence Committee, congressional staff members said. Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) had topped many lists as a likely replacement for Rep. Dave McCurdy (D-Okla.), who was removed last week by House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.). But George Behan, Dicks' press secretary, said that after discussions with members of Foley's staff, "we expect and understand the new chairman will be Glickman."

For all the rumblings in Hollywood that Dan Glickman was miscast as the industry's top Washington lobbyist, the next head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America could well be closer to his technocrat mold than to the suave celebrity of the man who made the job famous: Jack Valenti. That's because, with Glickman disclosing Monday that he'll step down next September, the movie industry knows it has evolved since he took over in 2004 as MPAA's chairman and chief executive. Preventing piracy of movies and TV shows dominates the trade association's lobbying agenda, and the desire for a glitzy face in the nation's capital has lessened as the major movie studios have become divisions in larger media conglomerates with sometimes competing agendas.

Reversing a long-standing practice, the trade and lobbying arm of the Hollywood studios won't disclose the average costs of making and marketing movies. For years, the Motion Picture Assn. of America has annually released a statistical analysis showing average movie costs of its six members, made up of the major studios and their specialty film labels.

China, a movie market of exceptional potential, is also a haven for film piracy, the president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America testified Thursday. Speaking before the House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing on trade with China, Dan Glickman said that country "is the most difficult market in the world for the U.S. motion picture industry." The country of 1.

Dan Glickman, the movie industry's top lobbyist, was doing his best. Determined to convince a group of UCLA students how wrong it is to copy a movie off the Internet, he was searching for a way to drive his point home. First, the chairman of the Motion Picture Assn. of America told the 60 or so students gathered in the Ackerman Grand Ballroom about "the power of movies to change people's lives." To shore up his credentials, he mentioned that his son, Jonathan, is a movie producer.

Had the decision been up to a casting director, Dan Glickman might never have gotten a callback to play Hollywood's leading man in Washington. First, there's his look. The Motion Picture Assn. of America president wears cowboy boots in lieu of Gucci, off-the-rack sports jackets instead of Armani. Then there are his previous roles: 18-year Democratic congressman and six-year Clinton Cabinet member.

Hollywood studios plan to start filing lawsuits within two weeks against online movie pirates illegally offering films on file-sharing networks, officials said Thursday. At a news conference at UCLA, new Motion Picture Assn. of America President Dan Glickman formally unveiled the industry's hardball strategy, saying studios had no choice in their battle to stem the growing number of people swapping movies over the Internet. "This was not an easy decision, but it must be done now," Glickman said.

Creekstone Farms Premium Beef may hire former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman and his law firm to sue the government for refusing to allow independent testing for mad cow disease, a company executive told Reuters. The U.S. Department of Agriculture this month rejected the small meatpacker's request for permission to test all its cattle for mad cow disease so Creekstone could resume the sale of Angus beef to Japanese customers.

Dan Glickman, who takes over today as Hollywood's chief lobbyist, is already on location. The former Clinton administration Agriculture secretary and Democratic congressman from Kansas is tooling around the Republican National Convention at New York's Madison Square Garden. At Glickman's side is his legendary predecessor, Jack Valenti, 82, who is retiring after 38 years as president of the Washington-based Motion Picture Assn. of America.

In Washington a few months ago, I ran into Dan Glickman. A long-time member of Congress from Kansas, Glickman was secretary of Agriculture under President Clinton. Then he moved to Boston to run the Institute of Politics at Harvard. He said, "You're in from Seattle? How do you like that new Alaska Airlines nonstop from Sea-Tac into Reagan National?" This was indeed a thrilling development for all public-spirited citizens of Seattle. But why was Glickman so excited? "Do you come to Seattle a lot?"