How To Stop Hollywood's Deadly Connection To Smoking

We observe these scenes daily: characters smoking in major motion pictures and on popular television shows, and “lighting up” during on-air interviews and in tabloid photos. Is Tinseltown "addicted" to smoking? Does Hollywood consider tobacco use glamorous or cool? Are entertainment celebrities biologically prone to tobacco and other addictions? Why do filmmakers continue to use smoking (a recognized killer!) as a plot device? How does such high-profile use of killer tobacco negatively influence our youth?

With so many celebrities smoking on-screen and in public, it's no wonder our kids, who already want to look and act like the stars, start that lethal habit. Parents need to know about the insidious ways famous people influence kids to become another generation of addicts. Scientific research proves that more than 390,000 children and teens in the U.S. start underage smoking each year upon seeing their favorite celebrities smoking in movies. Tragically, tobacco use will someday kill 100,000 of those adolescents.

The list of celebrity smokers is shocking. Here are just a few celebrity smokers (those alive, so far): Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Scarlett Johansson, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, Leonardo DiCaprio, John Travolta, Mel Gibson, Jennifer Lopez, Kirsten Dunst, Kate Moss, Matthew McConaughey, Russell Crowe, Simon Cowell, Mary Kate Olsen, Jennifer Aniston, Orlando Bloom.

Do they realize they’re likely to age quicker and more noticeably because of their smoking habit?

And what about movies that “hype” smoking? Scenes that brazenly promote smoking routinely appear in romantic comedies, action/adventure flicks and dramas. Recent offenders include Ocean’s Thirteen, Spiderman 3, Dreamgirls, Knocked Up, and even the Summer teen flick Nancy Drew. (To discover more about smoking in movies, and to learn which current top movies have smoking scenes, visit http://www.tobaccobook.com/Tobacco-Holocaust-Movies.html.)

Angelina Jolie quit smoking for the safety and health of her children, and convinced Brad Pitt to do the same. Julia Roberts also quit for the sake of her kids, as did Ben Affleck when he and Jennifer Garner became parents. But those celebs are in the minority. Despite repeated warnings of tobacco’s undeniable dangers to our health, our pocketbooks AND our political freedoms, most performers and filmmakers who smoke or promote smoking won’t stop. That's why many prominent medical organizations, including the World Health Organization, American Lung Association, American Medical Association and American Heart Association, support instituting these changes in Hollywood:

1. Any film showing or implying tobacco should be rated "R" The only exceptions would be when the presentation of tobacco clearly and unambiguously reflects the dangers and consequences of tobacco use or is necessary to represent the smoking of a real historical figure.

2. Producers should post a certificate in the closing credits declaring that nobody on the production received anything of value (cash, free cigarettes or other gifts, free publicity, interest-free loans or anything else) from anyone in exchange for using or displaying tobacco.

3. Studios and theaters should require a genuinely strong anti-smoking ad (not produced by a tobacco company) to run before any film with any tobacco presence, in any distribution channel, regardless of its MPAA rating.

4. There should be no tobacco brand identification nor the presence of tobacco brand imagery (such as billboards) in the background of any movie scene.

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