Nicole smokes up a storm
2003-05-21 08:54
Sydney - Anti-tobacco groups were fuming with Oscar-winning Australian actress Nicole Kidman on Wednesday after she publicly lit up during a press conference at the Cannes film festival.
Kidman shared a cigarette with her Dogville co-star Stellan Skarsgaard while promoting her new movie at the European festival.
Anti-smoking groups said the image of Kidman smoking was a free advertisement for the tobacco industry and glamorised the habit.
"It's worth millions to the tobacco industry to have celebrities smoking," Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) chief executive Anne Jones said.
"It's unfortunate that she smoked at a media conference that potentially went to hundreds of millions of people around the world."
Jones said Kidman, who is in the running for the Cannes best actress award for her role in Dogville, was a role model for young women around the world and she should think carefully before smoking in public.
"She does have a right to smoke, but what I'm just saying is that smoking in front of millions of people contains this unfortunate association between smoking and glamour and success," she said.
Australian Democrats politician Lyn Allison said Kidman should use her profile to discourage young women from smoking and said called on the federal government to fulfil a promise to introduce legislation requiring all films depicting smoking to carry a warning. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA