Hollywood vs. Smoking

The Los Angeles Times reported today that Hollywood is considering adjusting their movie ratings.

Movies and cigarettes used to go together like Bogie and Bacall, with Hollywood and its stars glamorizing the habit on screen and off.

Now films could earn a tougher rating if their characters light up.Under a policy announced Thursday, the Motion Picture Assn. of America said its movie raters would take into account "depictions that glamorize smoking or movies that feature pervasive smoking outside of a historic or other mitigating context."

"There is broad awareness of smoking as a unique public health concern due to nicotine's highly addictive nature, and no parent wants their child to take up the habit," MPAA Chief Executive Dan Glickman said. "The appropriate response of the rating system is to give more information to parents on this issue."

I hate it when Hollywood, the Dysfunctional World, gets on its holier-than-thou soapbox and starts shoving their choice of better health down our throats. It's for our own good, after all.

There's broad awareness of alcohol as a unique public health concern too, but I haven't heard Hollywood going after movies that glamorize drinking. And I don't expect that they will. That would hit too close to home.

No, cigarettes are an easier target. Pay no attention to the drunk guy behind the curtain!

And what will they target next, after they've started rating movies for cigarette use? Will they give a PG-13 to a Disney movie with a character who eats a cheeseburger? Will an otherwise 'R' rated movie get bumped down to PG-13, if the main character eats his vegetables instead of a big, fat, juicy steak?

There's a point where the rating system goes so far it becomes meaningless. I think they're crossing that line with their cigarette ratings. Let Hollywood's movie makers and movie stars get their own lives in shape before they start trying to manage ours.