Motion Picture Association Of America

Responding to complaints of undue censorship from movie makers and film critics, the Motion Picture Assn. of America abolished its X movie rating on Wednesday and replaced it with a new adults-only classification. The MPAA, in a joint announcement with the powerful National Assn. of Theater Owners, said the X rating would be replaced immediately with a designation of NC-17, which indicates that no children under 17 can be admitted.

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.

When the late Jack Valenti held court, with his silver mane, White House contacts and celebrity friends, the Motion Picture Assn. of America boasted the Washington lobbying establishment's equivalent of the double feature: political clout playing alongside Hollywood glitz. Politicians and other power brokers snapped up invitations to private screenings of new movies in the MPAA's 70-seat theater just two blocks from the White House.

In bringing "Scandal" to the screen, the iconoclastic Palace Productions had to overcome church objections, threatened lawsuits and widespread opposition to the notion of raking up the details of a sex scandal that toppled a British government more than a quarter century ago. But now, just as "Scandal" is gaining popularity in British theaters, its producers face an even bigger hurdle: the Motion Picture Association of America has made the rare decision to tag it with an X-rating.

October Films lost its bid this week to overturn an NC-17 rating on Trey Parker's upcoming film "Orgazmo," and attorney Alan Dershowitz--who was retained by October--thinks that makes no sense. "The thing about 'Orgazmo' is it's adolescent humor. Therefore, adolescents should be able to see it," Dershowitz said of the comedy about a young Mormon man who stumbles into the lead role in a porno film that becomes a big hit.

Assistant FBI Director William M. Baker, who has headed the bureau's efforts to fight terrorism and organized and white-collar crime, is leaving to combat the $1.2-billion annual piracy of U.S. films for the Motion Picture Assn. of America, it was learned Tuesday.

The humidity inside the screening room at the Motion Picture Assn. of America's headquarters in Sherman Oaks must have reached tropical hothouse levels when the movie ratings board members assembled recently to view Philip Kaufman's "Henry & June." If the sexual content in "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!" put beads of sweat on their furrowed brows, this one might have caused a complete meltdown.

Hoping to become a mouse that roared, tiny Go-Video Inc. announced Wednesday that it has reached an agreement with Samsung Electronics Co. of Korea that will allow the video firm to become the first to market a dual-deck videocassette recorder in this country.

"Smoke and mirrors" is how filmmaker Matt Stone recently described the Motion Picture Assn. of America's movie rating system. "Hypocritical . . . and broken-down," wrote film critic Roger Ebert. "Political artifice," opined Peter Bart, the editor of Variety. "A de facto censorship board," agreed the Broadcast Film Critics Assn.

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.

Hollywood laid much of the blame for illegal movie downloading on college students. Now it says its math was wrong. In a 2005 study it commissioned, the Motion Picture Assn. of America claimed that 44% of the industry's domestic losses came from illegal downloading of movies by college students, who often have access to high-bandwidth networks on campus.

The Motion Picture Assn. of America will relocate its Encino office down the street to a larger space in Sherman Oaks Galleria, the association said Thursday. The MPAA, a trade group representing six major Hollywood studios, is sub-leasing the 100,000-square-foot space from Warner Bros. Entertainment for the next 8 1/2 years.

The previews you see in movie theaters are approved for all audiences by the Motion Picture Assn. of America. But the trade group for the major Hollywood studios saves one type of sneak peek for a more select crowd. At its exclusive 70-seat theater two blocks from the White House, the MPAA offers free movie screenings to its best friends in Washington -- and those it wants to join the list.

The Motion Picture Assn. of America, the trade group for Hollywood's biggest studios, sued two websites, claiming they illegally post copyrighted movies. The group filed complaints in federal court in Los Angeles against Cinematube.net, Ssupload.com and their owners seeking damages and court orders barring illegal posting.

It takes a lot of creativity, and sometimes even a thesaurus, to be a movie rater these days. From their San Fernando Valley screening room, the Motion Picture Assn. of America's raters watch more movies in a year than some people see in a lifetime. With each one, they try to summarize potentially objectionable parts while not giving away the plot.

Boy Scouts can earn badges for woodcarving, raising rabbits and firing shotguns. But in the Los Angeles area, Scouts will now be able to earn their stripes by proselytizing about the evils of copyright piracy. Officials with the local Boy Scouts and the Motion Picture Assn. of America on Friday unveiled the Respect Copyrights Activity Patch -- emblazoned with a large circle "C" copyright sign along with a film reel and musical notes.

For 22 years, the Motion Picture Assn. of America has weathered assaults leveled by filmmakers and critics against its movie ratings system. Today, the MPAA will meet one of its opponents face-to-face in a New York courtroom in a case that could determine the fate of the controversial adults-only X rating. Famed civil rights attorney William Kunstler will appear before New York Supreme Court Judge Charles Ramos to argue that in assigning Pedro Almodovar's "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!"

Hollywood's trade group and its labor negotiating executives plan to move their offices in Encino down the street. The Motion Picture Assn. of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are expected to relocate in November into larger quarters in the Sherman Oaks Galleria. The groups have been in their current building on Ventura Boulevard since 1993.

Movies and cigarettes used to go together like Bogie and Bacall, with Hollywood and its stars glamorizing the habit on screen and off. Now films could earn a tougher rating if their characters light up. Under a policy announced Thursday, the Motion Picture Assn. of America said its movie raters would take into account "depictions that glamorize smoking or movies that feature pervasive smoking outside of a historic or other mitigating context."