The Sheila Variations

Imagine -- Gilda without a cigarette. Nonsense.

Oh, and let's be happy no-one's yet suggested that we go back and digitally remove all the cigarettes from all the movies, like the guns in E.T. Yeah, people would look pretty funny sucking on walkie-talkies.

It's ridiculous. It drives me nuts.

Hopefully, future generations will look back on this time, and laugh in awe at how puritanical it was - in the same way it seems strange to me now to realize that actors and actresses in the 20s and 30s, if they were doing a love scene, in a bed, had to (by regulation, by law) keep one foot on the ground a piece.

Hopefully, this is a phase of puritanical buffoonery which will be heartily laughed at in the future.

Like in Giant, when Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor were in bed reading, they had separate beds. How more prudish can you get -- not allowing a MARRIED COUPLE to be seen in the same bed.

I thank god every day that I was born in the age of cheap porn.

I am laughing, just imagining God dealing with that daily prayer.

"Okay, Emily, I get it, I get it. You're grateful for cheap porn, my child. I understand. You are most most welcome."

Yes, apparently he thought I was a bit out of line when I prayed for free porn, so I've tried to be a little more reasonable about things.

Congress needs a hobby. Don't they have anything better to do?

It's been the trend for ages to minimize smoking in movies. We don't need legislation over it. Many directors and writers usually limit smoking for the evil, despicable characters so we know they're evil and despicable. On Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Spike was the only one who was able to smoke because he was an evil vampire. Once they made him not evil, he stopped smoking.

You don't really notice the lack of smoking in modern movies until you watch a movie that's more than 40 years old. I've seen movies where people smoke so much that I get emphysema just from watching.

heh.

nobody is ruining adult fun for me lately.

ok, that was smarmy. but i'm a cad. i admit it.

More nonsense from the smoking nannies. Alcohol prohibition failed, marijuana prohibition is failing and all these bastards can think about is tobacco prohibition?

"Cheap porn"? You actually pay?

Bill, the free stuff is all grainy and out of focus, the characters aren't believable, the plot lines too banal...

Bill, I loved your comment in your post: "I didn't ride a motorcycle off a cliff after seeing Goldeneye."

Er ... plot lines?

"Fast forward" commands were designed strictly for plot lines.

Jimbo:

I know, man, I've SEEN!

Your fetish outfit was ... I just don't have any words, actually.

Actually, you probably wouldn't call it a "fetish outfit" because ... you're a guy and all ...

Mark:

Once they made him not evil, he stopped smoking.

It used to be that smoking was a symbol for: "okay, this person is a very cool slightly bad rebel"

Now it's: "This person is a loser and evil incarnate."

Not to be totally trivial here (oh well, you just brought up Buffy, so I feel entitled): Sex and the City started going down the tubes when Carrie quit smoking and got her act together.

Plot lines? You mean the critical setup of "I'm here to clean your pool, Mrs. Smith!" or "I'm glad you invited your best friend to go out with us, dear."

It's not all grainy and out of focus.

So I'm told.

For those of you who are curious about Jimbo's fetish outfit, here's the link. (It's kind of not work-safe.)

Spike stopped smoking? I can't say I ever noticed.

Here's one for you. Nassau County prohibits smoking in covered seating areas OUTDOORS (yes, I'm shouting) at Belmont Park race track. Said covering is hundreds of feet above our heads and totally open to the front for half a mile (it's a race track, that's how I know how far it is). Of course, track officials don't enforce this law because their best customers sit outside in box seats that are covered. This is a race track we're talking about, where adults go to GAMBLE, DRINK and SMOKE with other adults.

Michael: Wow. No smoking at a race track. Outside.

The whole world's gone insane.

Shout away.

Michael,

For a decade the city hasn't allowed smoking in the open-air Shea or Yankee Stadiums, you have to go out to the exit ramps in order to light up.

What if Bette Davis hadn't smoked in All About Eve??? I would never have groen up to be the well-adjsuted homosexual i am today. Damn the smoke Nazis

Emily's right about the children mantra, but all of the commetns are assuming that the science of second hand smoke is valid. Not true. The EPA meta-study that was used to underwrite the policies of the various states is NOT valid science. See the section Law and Truth at Numberwatch:

http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/2003%20October.htm

The EPA changed its criterion for statistical significance in the middle of the study. If a drug company did that for a registration study, the FDA would laugh them out of the advisory board meeting. Evidently, if their pre-determined conclusion is politically correct, EPA "scientists" are not held to the same standards of evidence as the rest of the scientific community. Now that the meta-study is "fact", publication bias will keep papers that refute the conclusion out of peer-reviewd journals for quite some time to come.

Don't get me wrong, I'm about as anti-smoking as they come. I support the ban in restaurants and workplaces. But that is based on personal bias, not fear of cancer. I love that fact that I don't have to sit in a restaurant where the air is blue, which was pretty common when I was a kid. But if you go to a bar, you pretty much expect smoke. Don't like it, don't go. I really upset by the fact that my particular political position won the day because someone faked the study. It devalues the utility of science in future debates.

Quote: I'm an ADULT and I like movies that, occasionally, are geared towards ADULTS. Because I am an ADULT and I get to CHOOSE. I am so SICK of this entire culture fretting, day and night, day and night, about the children the children the children the children the children the children. Jesus. They're ruining the ADULT fun for everyone. /Quote

- Thank you Emily! THANK YOU!!

- Jon