WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 — Hollywood has often been a whipping boy here, but with a new Congress in session, the heads of the major movie studios converged on the capital Tuesday to pitch their industry in the unaccustomed role of good guy: boon to the trade balance, engine of economic growth, polisher of the nation’s image and employer of a big, uncelebrated, middle-class work force.
Cheered by the Democratic takeover, the industry’s leadership hopes to press its agenda of fighting piracy, obtaining new tax advantages and reining in movie and television production from going abroad.
So the Motion Picture Association of America put on a daylong show for lawmakers, lobbyists and Capitol Hill aides, armed with some A-list talent — the actor Will Smith gave a morning speech, and Clint Eastwood received an award at dinner — and a new study showing that film and TV production accounts for $30 billion in wages, $10 billion in taxes, more than 400,000 jobs and a trade surplus of $9.5 billion.
“When people read about us, they read about celebrity and glitz,” said Dan Glickman, the trade association’s chairman, who said he learned much about other industries from such programs while he was a congressman. “That’s an asset we have, but that’s not enough.”
Judging from a few panel discussions, the M.P.A.A. had calculated that it would be hard to drum up sympathy for an industry symbolized by its highly paid stars and largely made up of giant conglomerates. So, atop the talking points, apparently, was the idea that the movie business is really made up of middle-class guild and union members who often live hand to mouth.
“It’s not just me and Tom,” said Mr. Smith, referring to Tom Cruise, one of his peers who can command $20 million a picture. He said his latest film, “I Am Legend,” was employing 1,000 local crew members and actors on location in New York.
The director Paris Barclay told of trying to hire one of his favorite technicians recently, and learning that the man had moved his wife and three children to Vancouver, because that is where the work is.
And Taylor Hackford, the director of “Ray,” in establishing his credentials, added: “I’m working class.”
The conversation often turned to piracy, the existential issue that dominates the association’s agenda. Mr. Hackford, who spent more than a decade developing “Ray,” told of finding a bootleg DVD of the movie on the day of its theatrical release, and said 42 million illicit copies were sold within five months.
That meant millions of dollars in lost revenue — “and DVDs is how people get their money back,” he said of movie financiers. “If they don’t, will I be able to sell a hard-to-sell picture like ‘Ray’? No.”
In a rare moment of newsmaking, Barry M. Meyer, the chairman of Warner Brothers, issued a sharp rebuke to the president of the Consumer Electronics Association, Gary Shapiro, who warned in January that antipiracy efforts could “smother” technological progress and said that “private conduct may be unauthorized, but that does not mean it is piracy.”
Mr. Meyer took issue with calling the theft of intellectual property merely unauthorized rather than illegal, and said that Hollywood’s promotion of so-called digital rights management technology had made it possible for consumers to rent or buy movies and TV programs at a variety of prices.
“It’s easy to demonize it, but without some level of control and order, things don’t work,” he said. “The only choice we’re not offering is free.”
He added: “Unlike the technology industry, which can outrun pirates by upgrading their product, there is no ‘Gone With the Wind 2.0.’ ”
Mr. Glickman took Mr. Meyer and some of his peers — Brad Grey of Paramount and Michael Lynton of Sony Pictures — to the capital for meetings with the new Senate leader, Harry Reid of Nevada; Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader; and Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the House majority leader. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi; Mr. Hoyer; Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut; and Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York attended an evening reception.
Almost no mention was made of the M.P.A.A.’s movie rating system, which Mr. Glickman recently tweaked. And it was not a Republican, but Senator Dianne Feinstein of California who, departing from a paean to everything else the movie industry stands for, called for the studio chiefs in the room to cut down on gratuitous sex and violence.
More typical of the day, however, was Representative Charles Rangel, the new Ways and Means chairman, promising to press the Bush administration to take a tougher line in trade talks with Russia, China and other countries concerning rampant piracy or barriers to Hollywood movies.
And then there was Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, vowing to press the Justice Department to do more about piracy — moments before rushing over to the actor James Cromwell and complimenting his performance as Prince Philip in “The Queen.”