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BEVERLY HILLS – Top Hollywood executives and a senior White House official met behind closed doors Sunday to discuss the entertainment industry’s role in the war on terrorism, emerging with warm mutual praise but few specifics. 

Participants said they talked generally about Hollywood helping to produce public service announcements for domestic and international consumption, and about studios providing first-run movies to entertain troops in the field. 

They emphasized there was no discussion of altering either the content of movies or television shows to respond to world events. 

“Content was off the table,” Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, told a press conference at the Peninsula Hotel. “Directors, writers, producers, studios will determine the kind of pictures they choose to make and the compelling stories they want to tell.” 

Valenti said the gathering was “a seamless web of unity,” and Karl Rove, a senior adviser to President Bush, described it as “a wonderful conversation.” 

“It’s clear that the leaders of the industry have ideas about how they want to contribute to the war effort, and we certainly want to encourage that,” Rove said. “These people, like every other American, feel strongly about the events of September 11 and the need to see this war through to its victorious conclusion.” 

Present at the meeting were the chiefs of Hollywood’s biggest studios and television networks and the heads of its major unions, including Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone and Melissa Gilbert, president-elect of the Screen Actors Guild. 

Rove said he discussed seven broad themes with the participants, including: the need to encourage volunteerism; to offer support for American troops and their families and that the administration’s war was against terrorism, not Islam. 

Rove said he did not request that Hollywood produce government propaganda. 

“The world is full of people who are discerning and we need to recognize that concrete information told with honesty, specificity and integrity is important to the ultimate success of this conflict.” 

Valenti said that Hollywood’s major studios could have a role in producing public service announcements that could air both at home and abroad to further America’s supposed image as a caring country. 

“We can try to tell people how America has been the most generous country in the world, we have fed and clothed and sheltered millions of people without asking anything in return. We can also make it clear to the millions of Muslims in the world that this is not an attack on Muslims. This is an attack on people who murder innocent people.” 

Robert Iger, president of The Walt Disney Co., said executives did not feel uncomfortable with any of the suggestions made by Rove. 

“It’s not about content, it’s not about propaganda, it’s not about censorship, it’s not about telling our news division what they should or should not cover,” Iger said. “It’s about how we can step up and help an effort that in the end is the patriotic thing for us to do.” 

Disney owns the ABC Television network. 

Participants said their conversation was an early step toward determining Hollywood’s role in the war effort. Executives said they would meet among themselves to discuss more specific proposals. No further meeting with administration officials has been planned. 

“I think there will be a lot more work tomorrow than there was today in terms of specifics,” said Bryce Zabel, chairman of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. “The Hollywood community is as patriotic as other Americans and wants to help get America’s message out there.” 

Entertainment officials met several weeks ago with lower-level government officials to brainstorm ideas, which included producing documentaries on the anthrax threat and fostering better understanding of the United States overseas. 

The meeting Sunday, by contrast, was called directly by Rove, a key administration figure.