HOLLYWOOD BURNING OVER SMOKING INDUSTRY: `R' RATINGS NOT NEEDED.

Byline: Lisa Friedman Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Stamping out smoking in the movies is an unrealistic goal, Hollywood leaders will tell a Senate panel today as it investigates the impacts of lighting up on film.

Movie industry officials also plan to resist calls to impart an ``R'' rating on films that show smoking, saying it will water down a system meant to warn parents against graphic sex, violence and illegal activities like drug use.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., requested the hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee on the heels of a Dartmouth University study linking the portrayal of smoking on film with the likelihood that children will pick up the habit.

``The link between movie characters smoking and young children being influenced by that behavior is unquestionable. The goal of this hearing is to determine the best way to empower parents to deal with that situation as they see fit,'' he said in a statement.

Vans Stevenson, senior vice president for the Motion Picture Association of America, said industry leaders have met with anti-smoking advocates, as well as with a group of attorneys general from across the country interested in curbing on-screen smoking.

Stevenson said MPAA President Jack Valenti will tell the Senate panel the studio association's role is to ensure that moviemakers clearly understand the concerns of anti-smoking advocates - not to impose rules about what can or can't go into a film.

``Smoking is a matter of creative expression. People smoke, and that is an element that is sometimes depicted on screen. ... Can you imagine a World War II movie without smoking? My God, they used to put cigarettes in mess kits,'' Stevenson said, adding, ``We're not in the business of telling people how to tell stories.''

In addition to Valenti, a representative from the Directors Guild of America and the author of a University of California, San Francisco, study about the impact of smoking on film will testify.

The Dartmouth study tracked 3,549 adolescents between the ages of 10 and 14 and found what it called ``strong evidence'' that viewing smoking in movies promotes smoking among teens.

``Exposure to movie smoking was positively associated with sensation seeking and rebelliousness, and inversely associated with school performance,'' the report noted, and found that slightly more than half the teens who started smoking since the beginning of the study did so as a direct result of movie influence.

Hollywood leaders have challenged the methodology of the study, however, and plan to oppose any move to impose a special rating system for smoking.

Smoke Free Movies, an advocacy group, has blasted the MPAA for its position. The group maintains that an ``R'' rating would allow moviemakers to retain artistic control while giving parents a tool to protect children from images of smokers.

Lisa Friedman, [phone]

lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com