No butts

The Motion Picture Association of America's ratings board has announced it will now factor in the amount of cigarette smoking in a movie when it doles out it G, PG, PG-13, R or NC-17 ratings.

The board will use three criteria when determining whether a movie's rating is affected by its cigarette content: 1) Is the smoking pervasive? 2) Does the film glamorize smoking? and 3) Is there a historic or other mitigating creed?

This means that a whole lot of movies are going to have to be re-rated under the board's new stance. For example, guaranteed to now get the adults-only NC-17 label are:

Basic Instinct

Wild at Heart

Bridget Jones's Diary

All French movies

Comments

[Brian Feldman]

So I'm guessing that the quitting of the smoking didn't quite work out for you then, Rene?

Come on - all of the movies you've picture above are already rated R or, in the case of "A bout de souffle," unrated, so this new MPAA cigarette policy won't affect them one bit and you know it. MPAA won't be doling out any NC-17s solely for that, its not even mentioned in their statement, nor should they.

I can see it being more of an issue with older films like "Ghostbusters" (PG) and more recent ones like "Déjà Vu" (PG-13), both of which 'glamorized smoking.'

[ReneRodriguez]

I was kidding about the NC-17 ratings, Brian. But sadly, you are right about the smoking thing: My battle to quit continues.