Should Celebrities be Allowed to Smoke on Film?

June 1, 2007

Yesterday was recognized as World No Tobacco Day 2007, and with tobacco being the second leading cause of death in the world, Hollywood still tends to glamorize it. While smoking on the silver screen has been highly debated over the past few years, what are your views on the subject? Do you think banning smoking from the big screen will take away from the drama of the storyline or do you think smoking should in fact be banned, since it portrays a negative image to young men and women who look up to these celebrities as role models?

Bauer-Griffin, Flynet, Source

31 Comments

melda 5 years 39 weeks

no i hate catherin heigel because she's always smoking in pictures

Fusion Heat 5 years 50 weeks

They just try to find other ways to blame others for their own actions... BS, keep them cigarretes!

alieapple 5 years 50 weeks

it should be up to them personally, whether they want to smoke or not. they're will always be divas who won't follow orders anyway.

designergirl 5 years 50 weeks

lickety split- I just noticed your comment. Actually, cartoons from Disney fifty years ago were violent and sexist, too. We'd be left with nothing.

designergirl 5 years 50 weeks

Who cares if actors smoke? Hollywood also glamorizes drug use, violence, etc... and people manage to avoid those behaviors (well, generally). No one campaigns against that. Censorship is terrible in any form. What about free speech?

mon repos 5 years 50 weeks

I think sometimes the filmakers/directors use smoking as a cheap way to convey what or who the character is. I would love to see this type of cheap shot banned. But since they can't bann contriteness, let them puff away on screen. We all know what smokers look like (and smell like!)in their fourties. For me, to see someone smoking onscreen shows the character to be trash, low class, no prospective future.... I know some people equate smoking with art, but I can only see the missing smokers tooth (two back from the canine), the wrinkles, the stained fingers, the smoky stale hair, the stained teeth.... nothing sublime or sexy about that.

Daisy6264 5 years 50 weeks

Whatever, it doesn't really matter.

BRANDYNICOLE730 5 years 50 weeks

I think people have their own brains capable of making their own decisions. If you don't want to smoke, no one is forcing you. I do not believe that because you do not agree with what others are doing, you should start a campaign to have it banned. No matter how stupid, or absurd, it seems to you, you think for yourself, while others think for themselves. Think about this: in some cities, if you smoke in the wrong place you can be fined $2,000; if you fail to put your child into a safety seat, the fine is $75. Where are our priorities? Second hand smoke preachers: What is worse? Breathing in 2nd hand smoke, or walking down the street and inhaling the exhaust from a bus, or any air in a big polluted city?

clepiau 5 years 50 weeks

Keep it, of course. Newsflash: Movies are art, which often reflects life, and in real life people smoke. I have no problem taking smoking out of public spaces because secondhand smoke kills and I'm not interested in dying because of someone else's nasty habit, but simply watching someone else smoke isn't going to kill anyone. Besides, like others have said, where does it end? And how come nobody mentions words like "censorship" when issues like this come up?

celeb_obsessed25 5 years 50 weeks

Keep it. People should have enough of a brain to know not to have others influence them. If people always followed what they saw, then everything would be banned. It's a personal choice, now how you justify why you're doing it, it's all up to you. I don't agree when people say, well I saw a celeb doing this so I'm doing it. You're your own person, so do stuff for yourself not because someone else is.

baybee 5 years 50 weeks

Of course they should be allowed to smoke. In the end, it's up to the parents who let kids watch movies where the characters are smoking. It's the parents' responsibility to teach their children about the dangers of smoking.

ellenmarie 5 years 50 weeks

I think that it depends on the target audience of the movie. If it's for kids, then they defiinitely should now smoke. I know that personally, I'm not influenced by characters in the movies, neither are any of the adults I know. Kids, however, are much more influential.

katie225 5 years 50 weeks

i said other because i think rated r movies are okay to have smoking in. or if it's historical. other than that, i don't think pg movies would even need to have smoking in it. i don't think we should ban it altogether. i'm a huge movie buff, and i can't imagine some of my favorite (rated R) movies without the characters smoking, such as "the royal tennenbaums".

LadyLibertine 5 years 50 weeks

Sometimes it is very important part of a character. In a few stories I have written that was the case. Just like death happens when it is needed in the story so is such a character flaw as smoking.

tinywhale 5 years 50 weeks

How can tobacco be the second leading cause of death in the world? If you think about it, causes like famine, malaria, tuberculosis, diarrheal diseases, etc. that kill thousands of people (most of them children) in underdeveloped countries must take more than the first 10 places of the list. Just wondering... And about the smoking in movies subject: cinema is an art-form. Art should be absolutely free, so that the artist can create! With all this banning (mostly in the USA) there will be nothing left to show in the end. It is like going back to middle-age, with the censorship of the roman catholic church and the absolute monarchs!

rubialala 5 years 50 weeks

it can totally add to a character, i say keep it.

Kazagirl 5 years 50 weeks

I don't think it should be banned...it is 2007, if people don't know by now that smoking can kill them then I have to sympathy for people who become addicted. It is up to parents to explain to their children the effects of smoking not Hollywood.

lickety split 5 years 50 weeks

yes. and no more sex in films, drinking, swearing or being rude. no more guns, swearing, driving in an unsafe manner or blowing anything up either. let's see, what's left; cartoons made by disney 50 years ago.

ScarletPimpernel 5 years 50 weeks

I smoke (don't judge me), and I know it's a terrible. But I never started because of watching movies or seeing celebrities do it. I think I mostly started smoking because all my life my mom was a 2 pack-per-day smoker, and she never discouraged it, even when I picked up the habit at age 13. I agree with whoever said it has more to do with parenting. But people should remember, not everyone who smokes is a bad person or a complete idiot. We all know about the effects and how we're endangering our lives by smoking. Other circumstances just make it difficult to quit. Plus, many smokers have tried (and are sitll trying) to quit numerous times over the years...

Yoonyah 5 years 50 weeks

I love me a cigarette once in a while !!!

a gentle rain 5 years 50 weeks

You go BShax!! YA!

BShax 5 years 50 weeks

If all it takes to get a kid to smoke is a celeb doing it, it is more a reflection of the parenting than the movies. It is mom and dads responsibility to teach kids good behavior in the face of bad behavior. Think of it this way -- every time your kid sees a celeb smoke is a chance to talk to your kid about NOT smoking. I think cigarettes should be taxed super super super super high to pay for all the costs smokers rack up and that people who smoke are tools, but banning it on film isn't a solution - - it is a distraction.

Imabeliever 5 years 50 weeks

precisly hollywood jess.. that was my point. Let's just throw out all bad behavior in film that might endorse an unhealthy or bad lifestyle.. smoking, drugs, sex, prostitution, murder, rape, fighting, speeding, stealing, lying.. wow.. there goes more than half of our Oscar nominated films since Hollywood began. And I think there might already be guidelines in place in the undefined super hush hush undefined or unverifable entity that is known as MPAA: that limit what can be protrayed on PG and PG13 movies.. that is good enough for me.

vanyvrgs 5 years 50 weeks

Why ban it? It is ridiculous. If you do not know what choices to make in life (and/or are not taught and raised to know it will likely kill you and if you do it you are an idiot) seeing it on the movies is not going to change it. I hate those arguments that people see actors as role models and will do everything they do to be cool. Be responsible and think like an individual. I do not buy people do everything they see celebs doing -- otherwise kids out there would be hanging around pantiless drinking till they pass out and going to rehab because it is the cool thing to do. I think with all this media attention/gossip sites people are actually more weary of celebs/movie stars see them as real people some with more problems than us) and don't see all they do as cool anymore. Anyway, I digress... And Prissy, they are going into old movies/cartoons and taking out the smoking -- another ridiculous idea. Don't even get me started on that point. There is a Tom and Jerry cartoon (or was it Bugs) that caused a lot of controversy because they removed a long smoking scene... that is just the beginning....