Caveat: its not State Censorship unless the govt requires these new
movie ratings. If (and only if) a theatre is free to show rated, or
unrated
movies as it sees fit, then it is merely another PC fringe making their
mark,
pissing on the movie screen.
If the rating is *required* by the state ("Parental Advisory" ---cf
Zappa's
_The Mothers of Prevention_ album featuring Tipper Gore and Shithead
Helms)
then some folks need killin' (tm).
We await PETA requesting "Carnivory" labels on movies... just to see how
they rate _Silence of the Lambs_
http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/News/03/12/films.tobacco.ap/index.html
Study: Factor tobacco into movie ratings
New report criticizes tobacco product placement in
films
March 12, 2002 Posted: 11:39 AM EST (1639 GMT)
SACRAMENTO, California
(AP) --
Citing a new study that
examines the
ties between Hollywood and
cigarette
makers, health advocates
are calling
for the film industry to
incorporate
tobacco as a factor in
determining
movie ratings.
The study, published
Tuesday in the health
journal Tobacco Control,
says cigarette
companies aggressively
pursued product
placement in films in the
1980s and
"undertook an extensive
campaign to hook
Hollywood on tobacco by
providing free
cigarettes to actors."
Study co-author Curtis
Mekemson, a
health and environmental consultant who specializes in
tobacco content in movies,
said, "What it confirms is what we have suspected for
quite some time -- that when
stars light up in films ... that can have a powerful
influence on people."
The study reviewed more than 1,500 previously secret,
internal tobacco industry
documents made public through a landmark 1998 tobacco
settlement. Under the
agreement, the four largest manufacturers -- Philip
Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Brown
& Williamson and Lorillard -- pledged to make payments
for 25 years to reimburse
public costs of treating sick smokers.
Before that, under public and government pressure, the
film industry adopted a
voluntary ban on direct tobacco placement payments in
1989.
Still, tobacco use was featured in nearly 85 percent of
the top 25 highest-grossing
movies released each year from 1988 through 1997,
according to a study released
in 2001 by Dartmouth Medical School.
The current film ratings system is administered by the
Motion Picture Association
of America. A Los Angeles-based ratings board takes
into account theme, violence,
nudity, language, sensuality, drug abuse and other
elements when assigning a
rating.
--
Trade with all, make treaties with none, and beware of foreign
entanglements.
-George Washington
