Politics: J'accuse!

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movi...eut/index.html

WASHINGTON (Hollywood Reporter) -- Hollywood lobbyists will be busy this week as lawmakers examine smoking on film . . .

The entertainment industry has been under considerable pressure to rein in indecent broadcasts on TV and radio, and now may face the same criticism for depictions of smoking.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nevada, pushed for the hearing [in the Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday] after several recent meetings between anti-smoking advocates and entertainment industry executives.

Hollywood's top lobbyist, Jack Valenti, is scheduled to testify along with LeVar Burton, co-chair of the Directors Guild of America's social responsibility task force, Madeline Dalton, associate professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School, and Stan Glantz, professor of medicine at UC San Francisco School of Medicine.

Dalton wrote a recent study claiming that smoking in movies entices young people to pick up the habit. Glantz is one of Hollywood's leading social critics who pushes for R ratings for movies in which the actors light up.

While Motion Picture Assn. of America chief Valenti has worked to get the anti-smoking message out, his trade group says it's a filmmaker's right to have the characters smoke or not.

Not clear what side LaVar is on, but I'm all for any rule, voluntary or otherwise that keeps him out of movies and off my TV screen.