Motion Picture Association Casts Chris Dodd As Chairman, CEO

WASHINGTON, March 1, 2011 -- And the 2011 Award of Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America goes to ... former Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd!

The former Democratic presidential candidate and veteran Beltway insider has accepted the job as the MPAA's new chairman and chief executive officer, the MPAA announced Tuesday.

As many news outlets and editorials note, Dodd faces a difficult job in a volatile environment in which the Hollywood studios are bigger than ever, and whom face the very difficult task of effectively tackling online piracy of their movies.

The movie studios have lately gone after BitTorrent tracking sites, and asked search engines such as Google to fiddle around with their search results to make it harder to access pirated content online.

Along with the recording industry, they've also exerted considerable influence over the Obama administration and its attempts to crack down on online piracy by seizing domain names associated with web sites that are accused of pirating content and selling counterfeit merchandise online.

Dodd, who served in the United States senate between 1981 and 2011, succeeds Dan Glickman, a former Democratic congressman from Kansas. Glickman resigned a year ago.

"Senator Dodd is a battle-tested leader whose reputation as a strong leader on major issues facing this country has prepared him to serve as the Ambassador for the movie business," said Fox Filmed Entertainment Chairman Jim Gianopoulos in a statement. "I, along with my colleagues, agree that he was worth the wait."

Walt Disney's Executive Vice President and General Counsel Alan Braverman said that Dodd's consensus-building ability makes him the perfect choice.

"His vast experience in consensus-building and innovative approaches to resolving complex issues make him the ideal choice to lead this organization," Braverman said in a press statement.