This week I noted that obesity has passed cigarette use as our biggest national health threat. But there’s a silver lining. Obesity caught up so quickly because cigarette use has actually decreased by 20 percent in the last 15 years. Something about our anti-cigarette policy is working, I wrote. Still, this seems like overkill:
The recent fuss over “Avatar,” the James Cameron film in which the
latest in cinematic technology meets the oldest argument in the movies:
whether vice on screen encourages vice in real life.In
“Avatar,” a character played by Sigourney Weaver smokes. Antitobacco
advocates say on-screen smoking — even by a character we’re supposed
to dislike, like Ms. Weaver’s — makes children pick up the habit. They
have criticized the movie as a threat to public health.
Even the stiff New York Times editorial page throws up its hands and emits an audible sigh.
I know, I know, the antitobacco activists have science behind their
kvetching. I also recognize that any good public relations campaign
requires a certain over-caffeinated peskiness. But still, did they see
this movie? (SPOILER ALERT.) Sigourney Weaver plays a caddy futuristic
biologist with all the worst lines in the movie, delivered with
remarkable woodenness. It’s one thing to complain about a film where a
modern-day mobster smokes between his super-cool brushes with the
law. That’s sort of enviable. But trust me folks: Sigourney Weaver’s cringe-inducing turn won’t
inspire anybody, and a little discretion won’t kill you.
