Monday, May 9, 2005 | 8:26 a.m.
Smoking is a Hollywood cliche.
Want to show a rebellious teenager? Have him or her take a drag on a cigarette on a school campus.
Looking for a quick way to show a celebratory moment? Have an actor or actress light up a cigar at a party.
Tobacco smoke is also used as movie prop, especially in film noir, adding a sense of mystery to a scene or character.
"It's easy for an actor or a director to get their messages across with tobacco," Curt Mekemson, a longtime anti-smoking advocate, acknowledges.
What concerns Mekemson, however, is what's good for films and filmmakers isn't necessarily good for the audience.
In fact, Mekemson, author of "Hollywood Speaks Out on Tobacco" ($7.95, Grassroots Solutions Inc.) available through www.info@grassroots/solutions.org, said smoking in movies continues to be one of the driving factors behind teenagers picking up the addictive habit.
He cites a yearslong study by Dartmouth College that found movies play a significant role in influencing youth smoking.
"Up to 50 percent is directly attributable to movies, which means that a thousand kids start smoking every day, in part, because of tobacco (use) in films," Mekemson said in a phone interview from Sacramento. As a result, "about 100,000 of those kids will die (each year) from a tobacco-related disease."
Which is one of the reasons Mekemson said he felt compelled to research and write his book.
From Drew Barrymore, who started smoking at 9 1/2 and eventually quit two decades later, to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has a habit of flaunting his love of cigars even in nonsmoking areas "Hollywood Speaks Out on Tobacco" is chock-full of celebrity smokers candidly discussing their addictions and, in some cases, their attempts to quit:
Mekemson acknowledges it's difficult for celebrities to quit smoking, especially with "the culture of the entertainment industry (and) the fact they're often required to smoke in movies."
And the 62-year-old former pipe-smoker from Sacramento he quit the habit in the mid-'70s realizes he's fighting a difficult battle.
According to a study conducted by the Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down! Project, a group created in 1995 by the American Lung Association of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails, tobacco use in movies is increasing.
"All the education with the entertainment industry has had almost zero impact with the use of tobacco in films," Mekemsom states rather glumly. "And the amount of tobacco use in PG-13 films is on the rise.
"Tobacco use in movies is one of the last major areas we have to attack and ... that's what I'm trying to accomplish with the book."
Quite simply, Mekemson has concluded, Hollywood isn't listening to the pleas from anti-smoking groups.
"Hollywood is made up of studios and, for a variety of reasons, none of them have chosen to adopt policies and, in fact, are fairly resistant to it," he said.
It's a far cry from the major networks, which have uniformly adopted policies to limit smoking on television.
"The networks realize they have a public responsibility and that they reach almost everybody," Mekemson said. "With kids watching (their programming) it's just easier to get to them."
The film studios, however, maintain the use of tobacco is a creative choice for filmmakers and actors, one they don't wish to deprive.
Mekemson said some studios, though, are even more direct in their position of not restricting tobacco use in films.
"The industry is paranoid of anyone telling anyone else what to do," he said. "Imagine a director telling another director, 'I don't think you should use tobacco in your movie.' It just isn't done."
Instead, Mekemson said he and other groups have taken the fight to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which oversees film ratings.
As of now, tobacco use is restricted only from a rated-G film.
Mekemson and others, though, have been in talks with the MPAA about modifying the ratings, including issuing an R rating to any films featuring tobacco use.
The suggestion of changing the rating system hasn't been well-received in the industry, particularly by Jack Valenti, former president and chief executive of the MPAA.
"(Valenti's) attitude has been that protecting kids as far as content in movies is the responsibility of parents, is the responsibility of schools, is the responsibility of churches, is the responsibility of community groups, but is not the responsibility of Hollywood," Mekemson said. "So, therefore, we'll not be getting any rating change.
"He argues when enough people are concerned about the issue and contact the MPAA, they will consider the issue more seriously."
As Valenti said in a May 13 interview with NewsMax Wires: "I don't believe that whatever the director does ought to incite the intervention of the government in any form ... I've got to tell you I believe it is his right to tell the story as he chooses to tell it."
With the MPAA's refusal to get involved, the only other option for Mekemson and anti-smoking groups is to approach the government, "and we're not going there."
Meanwhile, Mekemson said he hopes that some group in the movie industry will get involved in the fight to limit tobacco use in films, particularly the Screen Actors Guild, especially since being required to smoke in a film puts the actor or actress at risk.
Ultimately, though, the anti-smoking movement in films will be successful.
"I think we'll win," he said. "I think the issue is too important with too many people becoming involved in it. We have a lot of folks across the nation who are interested in the issue and are willing to push it."
In the meantime, Mekemson will watch actors and actresses continue to light up in movies, affecting not only their own health but the health of many impressionable young viewers who may take up the habit because of what they see on the screen.
"A thousand kids today are taking their first puff as a result of tobacco use in the movies," he said. "I would like to see something happen relatively soon than go another 10 years and see another million kids smoke."
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