Screen Smoke
Thank you for your article on Hollywood’s glamorizing of smoking (“Force of Habit,” Sept. 5). A friend of mine had told me that every Hollywood film has smoking somewhere in it. I hadn’t noticed it before, but it is true. Of the 50 or so new films I’ve seen so far this year, only two showed no smoking.
Unfortunately, your article contained one omission that I think is significant. While you praise Walt Disney Pictures for being the best studio regarding the portrayal of smoking, you failed to point out that in Disney’s 1992 film “Newsies” children themselves were shown smoking, apparently to convey the idea that they were “tough”--and these were the good guys!
As long as Hollywood continues to sell the idea that smoking equals toughness, the battle to protect our children’s health will be a difficult one.
J.D. AHMANSON
Sherman Oaks
Only good movies
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