Disney Smoking - Disney has announced a ban on smoking from all the studio's PG 13-rated future productions.
The ban, which would include Marvel, LucasFilm and Pixar films, prohibits new characters from smoking. But an exception would be made if smoking was part of the cultural and historical background of a real-life figure being portrayed.
"We are extending our policy to prohibit smoking in movies across the board," Disney CEO Bob Iger told shareholders at the studio's general meeting.
"For instance, we've been doing a movie on Abraham Lincoln, he was a smoker, and we would consider that acceptable."
"But in terms of any new characters that are created for any of the films, under any of those labels, we will absolutely prohibit smoking in any of those films."
Iger was asked by shareholder Stanton Glantz, a professor of medicine at the University of California, if he will support the introduction of a mandatory R rating like the UK's 18 certificate for movies that features smoking.
"I think it would be a little presumptuous of me to commit to doing that today without getting a little bit more of a flavor or perspective on the dynamic that exists at the MP AA on the subject," he said.
"I'm just not well versed in that. I don't know what positions the other studios have even taken about this."
However, Iger agrees that depiction of smoking in movies made specifically for minors was "a serious issue," adding that he will present the matter to the board if the MPPA (Motion Picture Association of America).
Some famous Disney characters who have been depicted smoking in the past include Creulla de Vil in 1961's '101 Dalmatians', who is remembered for her long cigarette holder, as much as her furs which she was obsessed with.
The caterpillar in 1951's Alice in Wonderland also is famously portrayed taking puffs from a hookah pipe.
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