I'm hyper sensitive when it comes to smoking. Even when I haven't seen a person near me with a cigarette in their mouth, my eyes will water up and get itchy. I'll start sneezing. And I just want to get away from the smoker. Cities in Canada are cracking down on cigarettes in public places. You can't smoke in restaurants or outside the door of public buildings and hospitals. They just made it illegal to smoke within a certain distance of bus stops. And they are working on prohibiting smoking in your car if there is a child present. Smoking is going down. But there is a backlash and I suspect it might come from two sources - the smokers and the cigarette companies who are suffering major losses with fewer people becoming addicted to their products. Interview by Anne Brodie Apparently, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. A scant few years ago, Beverly Hills shocked the world issuing a public smoking ban. Restaurants, indoors and out, sidewalks, public spaces were off limits to the grey-skinned people. I have no idea where they go to do the deed. You don’t see them hovering outside office buildings in smoky clusters or even puffing in their cars. Smoking seems to be from another time and place, a different unhealthy planet. Smoking is the anti-Christ. But what about the movies they make in Hollywood? The pendulum is swinging back in an alarming turnabout. Movies are bringing The Cigarette back to levels of iniquitousness not seen in fifty years. Movies promote smoking by making it look essential, sexy, rebellious and fun, back in the day and now. Already glamourous stars like Viggo Mortensen, Keira Knightley, Julia Roberts and dozens more participate in the old-fashioned pseudo glamour of sucking on a fag and emitting smoke clouds from their nostrils. Yah, that’s glam alright. Actors can’t be asked to do something fundamentally dangerous like smoke even if a script calls for it. Herb cigarettes often used as a substitute are no better. And of course, there are no smoking stunt people. Often I watch movies and say to myself ‘He/she won’t inhale. He/she is an outspoken health nut - yoga, raw foods, hybrid cars, Save the Bay.’ And I am almost always wrong. They suck in and expel enough carcinogens to smoke several pounds of pork. Some stars have their characters written as a smoker, which allows them to enjoy regular coffin nails while on the job. It’s a problem for everyone. As someone with experience in television, I know smokers are hell to edit, the continuity of cloud, the rising and falling chest, arm movement, etc…arrggh. But what the star wants the star gets. You certainly don’t tangle with a smoking star by asking them politely to cease and desist for the length of an interview. I was nearly knocked over by the tobacco stench when I entered the hallowed room of a particular star this last Toronto film festival. I made a spontaneous stink face which he saw. Rather than issuing a firm ‘butt out, it’s Toronto’, scared handlers let stars smoke where banned, killing reporters, fans and others in proximity to them and stinking up the hotel rooms. Sean Penn, Johnny Depp, Brian DePalma still smoke publically, defiantly. Colin Farrell was the worst but he has cleaned up his act in real life, but he’s a smokestack onscreen. As I often do, I will hark back to an earlier age in Hollywood to find the ‘appeal’ of smoking. It sure does look glamourous, especially in films of the thirties and forties. Smoke ribbons curl up and around, framing the stars’ faces. Fabulous lighting highlights the sultry effect. All those slightly open lips, blowing softly, etc. Almost all film noir characters smoke as do people sitting around gambling tables, in confrontations with gangsters and during seduction and after… Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Victor Mature, Robert Mitchum, Gene Tierney, Forrest Tucker, Ray Milland and Yul Brynner seem more truly themselves with a cig in hand. They all died of lung cancer, as did Desi Arnaz, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin and Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, the Marlboro Man and Steve McQueen. More recent deaths from smoking include Don Knotts, Dan Rather, Suzanne Pleshette, Barbara Bel Geddes, Porter Wagoner, Lou Rawls, the Soprano’s Nancy Marchand, Bob Marley, Melina Mercouri…. I’ll stop now, it’s too depressing… New York State Health Commissioner, Dr. Richard Daines recently took out a full-page ad in a recent Wall St. Journal and New York Times asking studios to ban smoking in films that have G, PG and PG-13 ratings. He says that most smokers take up the habit during adolescence and that images of smokers in movies are ‘the single most powerful pro-tobacco influence on children, accounting for the recruitment of half of new adolescent smokers.’ He suggests that anti-smoking public service messages run before every film that shows characters smoking. by Anne Brodie Interview
Hollywoods Up in Smoke Again.
by Lady Lee 20 Replies latest social current
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R.Crusoe
I'm hypersensitive to any oxygen depletion!
If I sleep in a room with closed doors I will wake with a headache after breathing lower oxygen levels for long hours!
If I have air flow I am good!
Happened loads of times to me so I leave doors or windows to ensure air flow!
Smoke in confined spaces is a double whamy!
Speed of ventilation is a key factor!
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Jim_TX
What I find interesting is that I can 'spot' a smoker - by their voice. In sit-coms, or movies, they may not smoke - but their voice gives them away.
A local news-gal - her voice has that raspy 'I've ruined my vocal chords by smokng' sound. Believe me - it ain't sexy.
Yall remember the movie E.T.?
The voice of ET was done by a lady who had smoked all her life. Yeah... THAT's a mental. (I think that she died not long after the movie was released... not sure though. I suppose they could synthesize the voice for ET if they ever made a sequel.)
Anyway... I don't smoke... and when after I got divorced - and was looking for a girlfriend... one of my requirements was to find a gal who didn't smoke - not even 'occassionally'. Know how difficult that is? It narrowed the search down quite a bit.
My wife used to smoke... long ago - but doesn't anymore. She can't stand smokers either.
Regards,
Jim TX
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JK666
Somehow this topic makes me want to light another one.
JK
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MissingLink
I'm with you on that Crusoe. Our KH doesn't have ANY ventilation. After a half hour the air is wet and low in oxygen. It's really gross. I have to go out and get air.
In Ireland we've been smoke free in public places for a couple years now. Its fantastic. Since most places are small here - you don't have the "non-smoking" section option like in the USA. Its great to go to restaurants and pubs and not feel gross afterwards - especially with the kids.
No offense JK - feel free to do what you want to your own lungs. Most of the pubs here now have smoking areas outside where you can stay out of the rain. They're actually really nice, and I often go out there to have a beer in the fresh air (staying up-wind from the smokers)
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funkyderek
More recent deaths from smoking include Don Knotts, Dan Rather, Suzanne Pleshette, Barbara Bel Geddes, Porter Wagoner, Lou Rawls, the Soprano’s Nancy Marchand, Bob Marley, Melina Mercouri….
When did Dan Rather die?
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chickpea
i am betting the author meant peter jennings
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Finally-Free
Somehow this topic makes me want to light another one.
Me too. I'm going out right now to light one up, right outside of the front door of the public government building I work in. As long as they provide us with ash trays I assume it's ok to smoke there.
I haven't heard of any law about smoking near bus stops. Is this a provincial or municipal law?
W
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Lady Lee
Is this a provincial or municipal law?
Hmmmm I'm not sure. It is a brand new law and I never really checked. I suspect it would be municipal because it deals specifically with Ottawa buses.
It used to be terrible to enter a building or hospital and have to take a deep breath before I went through the barricade of smokers satifying their addiction.
And YES smoking is an addiction on two levels - the drugs in the cigarette as well as the behaviors that the smokers has developed to smoke.
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Nosferatu
There's a big problem with making laws against smoking - it doesn't make the person quit. Addiction will keep the person smoking, even if they have to go outside, pull over the car, and hide it. I didn't quit because of the anti-smoking bylaw, I quit because it was too expensive and because I wanted to. I got help from the Allen Carr book which also seems to be hidden from the public because nicotine patches and gum are great gimmicks and methods to get the nicotine into a person's body - just in a different way. Using "lighter patches" is no different from cutting down how much you smoke.