Tauzin -v- Valenti
Rumours that House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La) will take over at the MPAA when its current boss, Jack Valenti, retires to spend more time with his family (ahem) are now rife.
Valenti is currently sweating beneath the spotlights because of his disasterous Ban Screeners move.
The Big Seven studios which own the MPAA will appoint Jack’s successor. But Tauzin goes back a long way with Hollywood, and Hollywood goes a long way back with him. And no lesser person than the RIAA’s former Truth Adjustor in Chief, Hilary ‘Reach Out’ Rosen thinks it’s all over bar the shouting.
"I think this is a done deal," she’s quoted as saying in the New York Post here.
"I could have egg on my face in a couple weeks, but I think this is a done deal."
If it is, the deal that’s done will apparently be worth around $1 million a year, putting him on a par with the RIAA’s invisible boss, Mitch Bainwol.
