Search starts for MPAA chief Dan Glickman's replacement

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. Glickman's departure was expected at some point, given Hollywood's behind-the-scenes discontent with him as a politician who struggled to understand the industry's insular world. It opens up one of Washington's most high-profile and coveted lobbying posts. His salary was $1.2 million in 2007. The MPAA represents the six major movie studios -- Paramount, Sony, 20th Century Fox, Universal, Disney and Warner Bros. Its board is expected to meet in the next few weeks to officially begin looking for a replacement. The ideal candidate will understand the political climate and have access to key leaders in Washington, according to several top industry executives, who declined to be named. The person also must understand Hollywood's changing business models and the evolving digital technologies, as well as have relationships with media company heads. According to insiders, candidates include Bob Pisano, a former head of the Screen Actors Guild who has been the MPAA's Los Angeles president and chief operating officer since 2005, and Harold Ford Jr., a former Tennessee congressman who chairs the moderate Democratic Leadership Council.