HOLLYWOOD DEALS PROVIDE NEWS, SPORTS, NETWORK TV.

Byline: Lisa Friedman Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - The nation's top G.I. Joes paid thousands of dollars last year to watch Strawberry Shortcake try to thwart the Purple Pie Man.

That Pentagon contract with a Burbank-based children's animation company was part of about $5 million the Department of Defense spent in Hollywood during 2003 for the rights to show movies and television programs to U.S. troops and military families around the globe.

While defense giants like Boeing and Northrop Grumman made billions in defense contracts last year, Hollywood studios had a smaller - but still significant - amount of Pentagon business.

Warner Bros., Columbia Tristar Motion Picture Group and Sony Pictures all had defense contracts during 2003, and local television production companies licensed dozens of shows to air on the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.

Some of the deals involved Burbank-based Dick Clark Productions, Los Angeles-based Tribune Entertainment (distributor of ``Mutant X'' and ``Soul Train'') and ``That '70s Show,'' created by Carsey-Werner-Mandabach of Studio City.

``Our job is to provide American radio and television to our troops overseas, the same shows as you would see in the states,'' said Armed Forces TV chief Melvin Russell.

The shows are broadcast by satellite from March Air Force Base in Riverside County to military bases in 177 countries where troops and their families live, as well as to Navy ships at sea.

Its four television stations include a 24-hour news channel; a 24-hour sports channel; a ``network television'' channel for which the Pentagon acquires current television programs from the major networks; and a station that airs cable shows and syndicated versions of shows like ``Friends'' and ``NYPD Blue.''

There's also children's programming for military families, which is where ``Strawberry Shortcake'' comes in. The Pentagon paid Burbank-based DIC Entertainment $35,000 to air episodes of the series as well as the American Revolution cartoon ``Liberty Kids.''

Another Pentagon contract for $95,000 in licensing fees went to comedian Byron Allen's independent Los Angeles-based syndication company Entertainment Studios.

Allen distributes a one-hour magazine show called ``Entertainers with Byron Allen'' that features interviews with celebrities who also send their best wishes to troops overseas.

Entertainment Studios spokesman Eric Schwartzman said the company's five-year contract with the Pentagon is ``for the most part, a nominal amount of money. It's more about goodwill.''

Sometimes the Hollywood contracts are for serious work as well. A spokesman for Burbank-based Warner Bros. said a $1.9 million contract last year went to creating a public service announcement on land mines in Cambodia.

The announcement - broadcast on Cambodian television and shown in towns and villages across the country by the Cambodian Mine Action Center where residents live dangerously close to land mines and unexploded ordnance - features Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and a young Cambodian boy named Rith.

Lisa Friedman, [phone]

lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com