Cigarettes and Hollywood: Where do you draw the line?

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I’ve been the first to criticize Hollywood for dragging its feet when it came to taking smoking out of the movies. If you go back six or seven decades, it’s probably fair to say that Hollywood’s glamorization of smoking has caused untold millions of impressionable moviegoers to take up smoking and end up in an early grave. But times have changed. Virtually every one of today’s studios has become far more vigilant about not depicting smoking in films that appeal to younger audiences (meaning ones rated PG and PG-13) as well as announcing in the end credits of the films that no one accepted product placement for any tobacco products.

The industry’s most outspoken anti-smoking advocate has been Warner Bros. chairman Alan Horn, who has made it clear to filmmakers, even when their films are still in script form, that he frowns on any depiction of smoking. (Horn is so strict that Warners insiders wonder whether the studio chief managed to take the pipe out of Robert Downey Jr.’s mouth for the studio’s upcoming version of ‘Sherlock Holmes.’ So it’s especially ironic to see the news that an arm of the American Medical Assn. intends to lodge an official complaint with Warners and its parent company over what the health advocacy group called ‘disturbing images of specific cigarette brands’ in the studio’s current youth-friendly hit, ‘He’s Just Not That Into You.’

As someone who has especially strong anti-smoking views, having lost my favorite uncle to lung cancer, I’m happy to see a largely smoke-free world and am a big supporter of groups who keep an eye on any infractions from media conglomerates. But I’m worried that in this case, the AMA has gone too far in singling out Warners about ‘He’s Just Not That Into You.’ First off, no one ever smokes in the film, which is rated PG-13. While it’s true that you can clearly see packs of Natural American Spirit Light cigarettes during the film, a spokesman for the cigarette company says the studio never contacted them about using the product and insists that it never sent out any cigarettes.

Even more important, the character in the film who is seen with the cigarette packs -- played by Bradley Cooper -- is portrayed as a utter sleazeball, not only cheating on his wife but actually having sex with her while his girlfriend (whom he was about to have sex with) is stashed in a closet. His wife, played by Jennifer Connelly, ends up dumping him as much for lying about his smoking habit as for lying about cheating on her.

Still, the mystery remains: If no product placement was involved, how did those pesky American Spirit cigarettes get into the movie? The question is complicated by the fact that the movie was put into production by New Line Cinema but released by Warner Bros. after it absorbed New Line last year. So the people involved with overseeing props -- like packs of cigarettes -- at the time of filming were from a different studio than the people in charge of policing the finished film for cigarette-related transgressions. My sources say it’s possible that the person who viewed the finished film -- studio policemen not being the hippest people in the room -- may have thought that American Spirit was an invented product, not an actual brand.

I’d be curious to hear your take on this issue. If no one is seen smoking in the movie and the guy who owns the smokes is a loser, is the AMA overreaching its own policing abilities, turning a ticky-tack foul into a furor? Or should cigarettes be treated like any other harmful drug and given no wiggle room? I think Warners is getting a raw deal. But I confess that this is one of those issues where my basic libertarian notions about free speech are in conflict with my support for health advocacy groups. As longtime blog readers might have noticed, there are some things that I’m very sure of -- the Oscars were dull, Jeffrey Katzenberg is a nutty 3-D crusader and the Cubs will finally make it to the World Series this year -- but this time I’m stumped. When it comes to cigarettes, where do you draw the line?