It's taken decades of work by health activists, but the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) finally agrees: tobacco is harmful to kids' health. The cabal that runs the ratings system announced it'll weigh the presence of smoking when awarding NC-17s, Rs and PG-13s. It might sound proactive, but the MPAA's decision comes after ceaseless foot-dragging and equivicating, and doesn't go as far as most activists hoped. A recent Harvard study recommended all movies featuring smoking receive an automatic R. More context on that at Slate.
Even Hollywood insiders have been lobbying. In 2002, shlock-scriptmeister Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct, Showgirls) acknowledged his own culpability after being diagnosed with throat cancer:
With Jack Valenti in that Hollywood Conference Room in the Sky,the MPAA seems to be caving a bit more to public pressure. First, new chief Dan Glickman opened up the MPAA's ratings process (an eensy bit). Now, he relents to health advocates. It's good news for the world, but one wonders: will studio chiefs, who many suspect are in bed with Big Tobacco, sit still while their fiefdom's walls slowly crumble? Anyway, time will tell whether the MPAA's anti-tobacco actions have any reprecussions onscreen. For now, smoking remains as heavy in the movies as it has anytime in the last 50 years. See how this week's studio films treat cigarettes here.
