Troubleshooter Pisano tapped as chairman of distressed Motion Picture & TV Fund

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Apparently, Bob Pisano likes challenges. The interim head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America has been elected chairman of the Motion Picture & Television Fund’s board of directors, which has been come under heavy fire in the last year over its efforts to shut down a money-losing hospital and long-term care facility that has been a fixture in Hollywood for decades.

Pisano succeeds Frank Mancuso, who has served as chairman of the charity’s board since 2003 and will remain on the board. Mancuso had been an outspoken proponent of the board’s decision to close the facilities, saying they were losing millions a year and jeopardizing other healthcare and social services the fund provides to entertainment industry workers.

But the board was forced to delay those plans when most of the residents and their families refused to leave, leading to a stalemate. Currently, about 55 residents remain in the long-term care facility and there are no immediate plans to force them to leave.

Pisano, a former executive at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Paramount Pictures and national executive director of the Screen Actors Guild, previously served on the fund’s board for years until 2008. He is a candidate to replace Dan Glickman, the former head of the MPAA, the chief lobbying arm for the major studios.
‘As MPTF continues to look at every aspect of its operations, government, and mission, having Bob’s leadership in navigating the organization through these matters will be truly valuable,’’ Jeffrey Katzenberg, chairman of the fund’s foundation, said in a statement.

Pisano said in an interview he ‘took this on’ because ‘I feel it is important that people who’ve had a successful career in this industry put something back, and the best way to do that is through the motion picture and television fund.’

A longtime friend of Mancuso’s who worked with him at Paramount Pictures and MGM, Pisano said he supported his colleague’s view that shutting down the facilities was necessary. ‘I’m going to concentrate on continuing our transition to a community-based provider of social services,’ he added.

-- Richard Verrier