Free Republic

The Italian health minister has proposed legislation that would require a health warning to be posted on screen whenever an actor or actress lights a cigarette. The proposal by the minister, Dr. Girolamo Sirchia, a surgeon, follows a report by Italian researchers that a cigarette appears on TV screens every seven minutes during primetime. Britain's Guardian newspaper quoted famed actor Giancarlo Giannini, himself a reformed smoker, as describing the idea as folly. "Anyone can go to the tobacconist to buy cigarettes while it will become impossible to enjoy a film in peace," he said.