It took some time for the news to make it here from Australia, but the Daily Mail reports that Ryan Gosling — star of The Nice Guys (R, Time Warner) — told a Sydney radio show that "I smoked myself out" in the film and "never want another cigarette again!"
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Last week, US District Judge Richard Seeborg ruled against the plaintiffs in the national class action lawsuit that claimed that the MPAA ratings were a form of commercial speech that did not warrant First Amendment protections.
The MPAA, studios and theaters argued successfully that the movie ratings were “opinions” and not subject to restrictions on commercial speech that were designed to protect...
The first hearing on Forsyth v. MPAA et al. — the class action lawsuit alleging that the MPAA, member studios, and NATO's ratings system defrauds parents by giving movies with smoking PG or PG-13 ratings — took place in federal court on Friday, October 28, in federal court in San Francisco.
The hearing was on the defendants’ motion to dismiss the suit. As summarized in...
An ad summing up the five Smokefree Movies policy goals – (1) R rating films with smoking (with two limited exceptions), (2) Certification of no payoffs for smoking, (3) Require anti-smoking ads, (4) Stop identifying brands, and (5) End subsidies for movies with smoking – is running in Variety and Hollywood Reporter tomorrow, October 11, 2016.
This ad, together with earlier ads on the...
Every two years, 180 nations meet for the Conference of the Parties (COP) to review progress and problems in implementing the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and develop new guidelines and protocols.
Implementing guidelines for FCTC Article 13 (Advertising and Promotion)...
The hearing, previously scheduled for October 27, has been moved to October 28, 2016, at 1:30 pm in Federal Court in San Francisco.
Learn more about the case here.
Baby can breathe easier. The latest Bridget Jones episode, Bridget Jones's Baby (R, Comcast, 2016), is smokefree. That's a sharp change from 2004's Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, when Renee Zellweger and seven smoking co-stars delivered 570 million tobacco impressions to domestic moviegoers.
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The latest re-make of The Magnificent Seven (Sony) is "Rated PG-13 for extended and intense sequences of Western violence, and for historical smoking, some language and suggestive material.”
On September 15, 2016, the defendants filed the final brief responding defending themselves against allegations that their ratings system defrauds the public by representing it as something that parents can rely on to select appropriate movies for their kids.
Hollywood Reporter published a good story summarizing both sides' arguments, which is available...
All These Sleepless Nights — Rated R for language and smoking throughout, drug use and some sexuality/graphic nudity. Rating certificate #50675. Source: MPAA Rating Bulletin #2442 (14 September 2016)
