W. & Hollywood?: You've got to be kidding. No, not necessarily.(Bush administration tries to form relationship with movie industry)

It's not exactly on a par with the president's efforts to win European support for his views on missile defense and global warming. Nor does it compare to CIA director George Tenet's peace negotiations in the Middle East. But these days the Bush White House is engaged in a little-known diplomatic initiative that might one day pay significant political dividends-or lead to acute embarrassment. It's an ambitious plan to improve relations with the leaders of a land that is, at least as far as George W. Bush is concerned, as remote and hostile as any enemy nation. That land is Hollywood.

It's an audacious idea. Everyone knows Bill Clinton owned Hollywood-and most big movie stars would rather do dinner theater than appear with a Republican president. But since the first days of the administration, White House officials have been compiling lists of entertainment figures who might be persuaded to support some of the president's policies (and who might also lend a touch of glamour to state dinners and other White House events). Recently, they have been quietly calling some of Hollywood's biggest talent agents, in hopes of making connections.

Given the strongly pro-Democratic feelings of so many in the entertainment industry, the idea might strike some as less audacious than crazy. But the administration doesn't think so, preferring to approach things from the positive side. "The starting point is, no one is allowed to think, 'That person doesn't like us,'" says a White House official.

"That's not how we're viewing this."

But just how will Bush attempt to win support in Hollywood? Some of the appeal will be based on issues where the president and the entertainment industry share common interests. One of those is the question of copyright. In an era of Napster and DVDs, protecting intellectual property has become a top concern, perhaps the top concern, of many entertainment executives, and the administration has already impressed the industry with its position on the issue. For example, in May the U.S. trade representative began the process of imposing sanctions against Ukraine, which has become a hot spot of world digital piracy. The action, seen as a harbinger of more extensive moves in the future, won widespread support. "There's just no partisanship on intellectual property," says Recording Industry Association of America executive Mitch Glazier, who calls the Bush record on the issue "stellar."

Another possible area of agreement is the First Amendment. As much as some entertainment figures adored the last administration, they were stung by the Clinton/Gore decision during the last campaign to threaten a crackdown on Hollywood for allegedly ignoring its own rating system and marketing violent material to young people. Bush, who has stressed the responsibility of parents to control what kids watch, hasn't pushed the Clinton/Gore plan. "So far, the Bush administration has been far more friendly to the American motion-picture industry than Clinton ever was," says Jack Valenti, longtime chief of the Motion Picture Association of America (who has met with White House officials Karl Rove and Lawrence Lindsey about a variety of issues). "Clinton was the one who ordered the Federal Trade Commission to indict the movie industry for deceptive advertising," Valenti continues. "It was the Clinton administration that fussed about our rating system."

But others in the business haven't been nearly as receptive. For example, an executive at a top Hollywood talent agency recently received a call from the White House-just a preliminary, let's-talk- sometime call, the administration official said. The executive was incredulous: George Bush wants better relations with us? She went to a colleague-a staunch Democrat-who recounted her reaction. "She asked, 'Why ...