Bloomberg News-Smoking being snuffed out in Hollywood movies, study finds

August 20, 2010

By Arielle Fridson

Humphrey Bogart never seemed to be without a cigarette on the big screen, and a generation of men in the 1940s learned a romantic move when Paul Henreid put two between his lips, lighted them both, and handed one to Bette Davis in “Now, Voyager.’’

Film directors’ dependence on cigarettes as a style setter is lessening, researchers led by Stanton Glantz said yesterday in a report published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While Sigourney Weaver’s smoking in 2009’s “Avatar’’ sparked controversy, the number of tobacco-related incidents fell by almost half in last year’s top movies, compared with 2005.

Efforts to fight tobacco in films, including the Smoke Free Movies project headed by Glantz, may be having an effect on Hollywood, according to an editorial note attached to the report in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Further steps, such as assigning R ratings to movies that show people smoking, may be needed to stamp out onscreen tobacco, according to the note.

“The bad news is that 54 percent of PG-rated movies still have smoking in them,’’ said Glantz, a professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco.

The editorial note in the CDC publication represents the strongest statement to date by federal health officials that steps should be taken to combat movie depictions of smoking, Glantz said. “Having the CDC weigh in is a very, very big deal,’’ he said.

Top-grossing movies released last year depicted 1,935 smoking incidents, a drop from 3,967 in comparable films in 2005, according to the findings.

Glantz’s Smoke Free Movies campaign ran print advertisements to protest the smoking scenes in “Avatar,’’ which was directed by James Cameron.

“James Cameron did us a gigantic favor with ‘Avatar’; it became such a controversy all by itself that it substantially advanced the issue,’’ Glantz said. He said he sent the director a fruit basket to thank him.

The report cites research by a nonprofit group named Breathe California of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails. The group looked at the 10 top-grossing movies each week from 1991 through 2009, and found that depictions of smoking peaked in 2005, according to the CDC report.

In 2005, for instance, actors Owen Wilson and Christopher Walken were seen smoking cigars on a balcony in “Wedding Crashers.’’ Also, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt smoked cigarettes in “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.’’

Two studies showed that adolescents with higher exposure to smoking in movies “are 2.0 to 2.7 times more likely to try cigarette smoking in the future,’’ according to a National Cancer Institute monograph dated June 2008.

In the United States, smoking is responsible for almost 1 in 5 deaths, according to the American Cancer Society.

US Representatives Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Joseph R. Pitts, a Pennsylvania Republican, have urged the Motion Picture Association of America to reduce youth exposure to smoking in movies.

In a letter yesterday, the legislators said the industry should consider recommendations including mandatory R ratings for films with smoking and a ban on the mention of tobacco brands.

To read "Smoking being snuffed out in Hollywood movies, study finds" click here.

FAIR USE NOTICE
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is available without profit for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.