Jack Valenti dies, aged 85
p2pnet.net news:- Jack Valenti, Hollywood’s principal spokesman for decades, is dead at the age of 85.
He suffered a stroke last month and was in hospital for several weeks.
The head of the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), he was the man behind the movie ratings system and was also infamous for predicting the impending death of the Hollywood movie industry every time something new, such as VHS and p2p, came along.
He warned the US Congress in 1982 that the VCR was to the American film producer and American public what the, “Boston strangler is to the woman home alone”.
Valenti was a special assistant and confidant to president Lyndon ‘Vietnam’ Johnson, “when he was lured to Hollywood in 1966 by movie moguls Lew Wasserman and Arthur Krim,” says Associated Press, going on:
“Valenti abolished the industry’s restrictive Hays code, which prohibited explicit violence and frank treatment of sex.”
The world thanks him for that.
“In Valenti’s later years he handled tricky new challenges from the Internet and technologies that allow movies to be illegally reproduced and distributed in an instant,” says the story, adding:
“Oliver Stone’s 1991 film ‘JFK’ angered Valenti. Stressing he wasn’t speaking for the MPAA, he said the film’s implication that LBJ was involved in the assassination was ‘quackery’ plucked from a ’slag heap of loony theories.’
“Hurried aboard Air Force One for Johnson’s historic flight back to Washington, Valenti was instantly drafted as a special assistant to the new president.”
The piece adds, with no trace of deliberate irony, “The ratings program that featured labels such as ‘G’ for general audiences remained his greatest legacy, even as social mores evolved even further, creating new criticism over Hollywood’s attempts to protect its audience.”
Also See:
Associated Press – Film industry lobbyist Jack Valenti dies, April 26, 2007
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April 27th, 2007 at 10:23 am
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Entertainment/2007/04/26/bobby_pickett_monster_mash_writer_dies/
April 27th, 2007 at 11:54 am
yes?
April 27th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Jack Valenti was to fair use rights and the American public what the, “Boston strangler is to the woman home alone”.
Greed makes monsters of otherwise decent people. Jack got greedy. Real greedy…
April 27th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Farewell Jack. Your hysterical hyperbole will be missed.
April 28th, 2007 at 8:34 am
I never wish bad on anyone. But I won’t miss him.