Hollywood's Muscle Sculpted, & Vital

Invited to the symposium "The Business of Show Business" are members of Congress, federal and state officials, think-tank scholars and the media, who will get an earful from directors and moguls about the industry's global economic muscle, how movies are made and its challenges in the digital age. RSVPs have been sent by some influential Washington players, including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), who oversee such key policy areas as copyright law and foreign trade.

"We tell a lot of stories … but we never really tell our story cohesively as an industry," Warner Bros. Chairman Barry Meyer said. "This is going to be one of the few times we come to Washington and really explain our view of how critical our industry is, why it deserves the attention of the government, why it deserves the protection of the government."