Jack Valenti: Last News

On Monday, the exhibition trade org the National Association of Cinemas announced that it’s longtime CEO and President John Fithian of 24 years was retiring.

J. Kim Murphy Bethlyn Hand, who served as senior vice president of advertising and administration for the Motion Picture Association of America, died Feb. 14 of Alzheimer’s disease. She was 85 years old. Hand joined the Hollywood trade organization shortly after Jack Valenti began his 37-year tenure as MPA president in 1966. “She was by my side at the very beginning of my tenure at the MPAA,” Valenti said in 2003, four years before his death in 2007. “I got a lot of credit for what she did.” Working with the MPAA, Hand’s responsibilities included the approval of marketing campaigns aligning with the guidelines of its ratings program — a duty that often spurred studio executives and producers to meet with her to plead their cases. In the ’90s, Hand was named one of Hollywood’s most powerful women by the Hollywood Reporter.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaBruce Berman is stepping down as chairman and CEO of Village Roadshow Pictures, the company behind such hits as “The Matrix,” “Joker,” and “Edge of Tomorrow.” He leaves after a 24-year run.“I am incredibly grateful to have been involved in the inception of VRP and the impact our films and franchises have had not only on popular culture but also on the craft of filmmaking,” said Berman.