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http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/m-p-a-a-and-christopher-dodd-said-to-be-near-deal/?scp=1&sq=mpaa%20chris%20dodd&st=cse

M.P.A.A. and Christopher Dodd Said to Be Near Deal

Alex Brandon/Associated Press Christopher Dodd in his Senate office last year.
LOS ANGELES — Hollywood is a whisker away from naming Christopher J. Dodd as its new chief lobbyist.

The Motion Picture Association of America is wrapping up the hiring of Mr. Dodd, the former Democratic senator from Connecticut, as its chairman, according to two people with knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid conflicts with the movie organization. Barring a last-minute snag, a contract announcement could come early this week, these people said.

A spokesman for the association, which has been searching for a new chairman for a year, had no comment. A representative for Mr. Dodd could not be reached on Sunday.

Mr. Dodd, 66, is well connected in Washington and is known for successfully working both sides of the political aisle, attributes that the association considers crucial. Mr. Dodd’s three-decade Senate career followed three terms as a congressman. He made an unsuccessful bid for president in 2008.

Mr. Dodd also has ties to the entertainment industry. Lorne Michaels, the creator of “Saturday Night Live,” is a friend; Mr. Dodd once dated the actress Carrie Fisher. Donors for his various political races have included Ron Meyer, the president of Universal Studios, and the actor Alec Baldwin.

Nonetheless, taking over the Motion Picture Association would be arduous. The organization has been weakened by budget cuts and, when it comes to influence in Washington, Hollywood has been surpassed by Silicon Valley.

Mr. Dodd would need to force the member studios — Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Studios and Warner Brothers — to speak with a unified voice. It is a difficult chore that his predecessor, Dan Glickman, the former nine-term congressman from Kansas, had mixed success in pulling off.

During the movie organization’s heyday, a period from the late 1960s to the 1980s when Jack Valenti ran it, studios were mostly stand-alone entities whose interests in Washington were typically in lockstep. Today the member studios are all embedded within global media conglomerates, which employ their own lobbyists and often have competing interests.


Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC
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eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com
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