• The MPAA vs. Piracy in the Age of Recession

    So, with as much as 25 percent of its operating budget slashed, how does the Motion Picture Assn. of America maintain its fight against Hollywood Enemy No. 1? (That would be piracy, not Osama bin Laden.) "We’re going to have to be more focused … and do more with less," said an MPAA spokesman. Translation: the battle…

  • Hard Times on K Street

    You know the recession is bad when K Street, the center of Washington’s lobbying powerhouse, starts shedding jobs. Now two of the entertainment industry’s biggest trade associations — the Recording Industry Assn. of America and the Motion Picture Assn. of American — are shrinking. Facing budget and staff cuts, the RIAA just let go about…

  • Surprise (not)… It’s Genachowski!

    As expected, President  Obama has officially tapped his campaign’s top technology adviser, Julius Genachowski, to head the Federal Communications Commission. A longtime Obama buddy dating back to Harvard Law, Genachowski  certainly has the creds. He  worked at the FCC during the Clinton administration, was legal counsel to ex-FCC chairman Reed Hundt, a co-founder of  the…

  • Is Murdoch’s FCC Waiver in Trouble?

    Angered by a cartoon that appeared last week in the New York Post, Rev. Al Sharpton and NAACP chief executive Benjamin Jealous are meeting today with officials at the Federal Communications Commission in Washington. Sharpton says that they will urge the FCC to review the waiver that allows the News Corps’ Rupert Murdoch to own…

  • Stevie Wonder on the East Wing Dance Floor

    As Librarian of Congress James H. Billing put it the other day, “This really will be Wonder Week in Washington.” That’s Stevie Wonder of course. The 58-year-old singer, whose music was the backdrop for many of Barack Obama’s campaign appearances, will be honored tonight at the White House as now President Obama presents him with the Library…

  • Clooney Goes to the White House

    Actor and activist George Clooney, fresh from his visit to the region, brought his plea for peace in Darfur to the White House Monday night. Meeting with President Obama for 15 minutes and with Vice President Biden separately, Clooney pressed for immediate action. "I think somehow we should all know that these people are hanging…

  • Movies Taking a Page From Music Piracy Handbook

    Now that the Oscars are in the books, and off the red carpet, some in Washington are beginning to ponder the future of movies. Robert Atkinson, who heads the Washington-based think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, talked recently about the threat to the movies from piracy. With movies, music and even e-books available online for…

  • Jack Valenti Gay? J. Edgar Hoover Thought So

    No one who knew the affable and charming Jack Valenti, Hollywood’s chief lobbyist in Washington for many years, thought he was anything other than a draw to the ladies. But it turns out that J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI chief who was himself was a major homophobe, was “consumed” with proving that Valenti and a…

  • Hollywood Ad Guru Fred Davis III Heads to D.C.

    To Washington Republicans, he’s Hollywood. To Hollywood liberals, he’s a Republican. That unusual frame of mind makes advertising guru Fred Davis III an odd fit for either town. With the Oklahoma-born Davis about to open an office in D.C., I talked to him by phone today about the difference between the two towns. “In California…

  • Inside Google’s D.C. Offices

    Last week I took a tour of Google’s offices in Washington — a piece of Silicon Valley in button-down D.C. Think kid-inspired furniture in Google’s signature primary colors. A generous offering of employee comforts — a massage chair, a lactation room, and Google snacks – ubiquitous and available for the asking – like Google’s Reeses’…

  • Val Kilmer, Politician?

    Val Kilmer, the 49-year-old actor who played Iceman in "Top Gun" and was featured in "Batman," was last in Washington for the celebrity-packed Obama inauguration. This week he came back on a more personal political mission, to lay the groundwork for a possible 2010 run for governor of New Mexico, where he’s lived for the…

  • House Tries to Pass Media Shield Law

    Stop the presses. Congress might give reporters a Stay Out of Jail card. Like California, many states have a media shield law that gives reporters the right to withhold information from the courts to protect a confidential source.  But for the last eight years, the Bush administration fought to require reporters to disclose their confidential…

  • Ford’s Theater Reopening Will Feature James Earl Jones, SIdney Poitier, and President Obama

    Abe Lincoln would be proud, if a little star struck. A glittery by-invitation-only gala tonight marks the grand reopening of Ford’s Theater, where the 16th president was assassinated in 1865. The celebration of the theater’s two-year, $25 million renovation is the perfect blend of Washington political muscle and Hollywood star power. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…

  • Grammys Go Political

    President Obama isn’t the only one doing town hall meetings these days. John Conyers, the Michigan Democrat and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, was in Los Angeles Friday night for the Grammy Town Hall Meeting. Conyers warned the crowd that there would be “a serious struggle” in Congress this year over whether to force…

  • Arts Funding Hangs By a Thread in Stimulus Package

    President and Mrs. Obama and their two girls got a rapturous reception Friday night when they made their first appearance at the Kennedy Center, the crown jewel of Washington’s arts community. When the Obamas arrived for the sold-out performance of Alvin Ailey at 50, some theatergoers were so entranced they leaned over the balcony above…