Preparing For Life After Valenti

By Viveca Novak

Want a job that allows you to mingle with movie glitterati (without having to live among them) and show films in your own private theater? It may be too late. Washington institution Jack Valenti, who for 37 years has headed the Motion Picture Association of America, the Hollywood studios' lobbying group, is finally ready to retire, and sources tell TIME the choices to succeed him have been narrowed to two Louisianians. One whose name has been floated for months is Congressman Billy Tauzin, Republican chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Tauzin has strong backing from Disney, but that has proved to be a liability among some of the other major studios. His chief rival is John Breaux, the Democratic Senator from Louisiana, who is popular with the Bush White House. Other rumored candidates, among them former Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee, appear to have fallen back.

Both Tauzin and Breaux play it cool when asked about their interest in the job. "No one has told me Jack is leaving, and I won't believe he's going until he does," Breaux told TIME. But the three-term centrist Democratic Senator may not run for re-election in 2004, especially if a Democrat wins the Louisiana Governor's race this fall, thus ensuring that a Democrat would fill out his term. Said a spokesman for Tauzin, who insists he is running in '04: "No job has been offered, and we all know Jack's going to be running Hollywood from heaven." At 81, however, Valenti wants to retire as soon as a successor has been picked. Studio heads will meet around Labor Day and could make a final selection then. --By Viveca Novak