Disney cuts back on smoking

Mouse House CEO Robert Iger said that "we should avoid doing anything that could, in effect, encourage people, particularly young people, to smoke." Not that folks necessarily copy everything they see in the movies, Iger noted, but actors who appear in films and on TV "can become role models and kids can at times try to copy the behavior of role models." It's a nice public relations move, but is it just a coincidence that several weeks ago the Motion Picture Association of America said it would consider smoking when rating a film? Iger said that smoking in Disney-branded films would be “non-existent” and that the company would also “discourage” depictions of smoking in films made by its Miramax and Touchstone labels. Of course, there aren't any smokers in the Disney family films - "101 Dalmatians" villain Cruella De Vil being the exception. (FT, LAT)