When the late Jack Valenti held court, with his silver mane, White House contacts and celebrity friends, the Motion Picture Assn. of America boasted the Washington lobbying establishment’s equivalent of the double feature: political clout playing alongside Hollywood glitz.

Those heady days seem to be giving way to a less glamorous and less expansive future.

Like a director who has just been told that his ambitious movie project must be scaled back, the Hollywood trade association recently took a big hit when its member studios cut as much as 20 percent, or about $20 million, from its budget, leading to staff layoffs in Los Angeles and Washington.

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