Better put out that cigarette, Catherine Zeta-Jones — these Utah teens won't stand for it.
Members of the Phoenix Alliance, Utah's anti-tobacco youth advocacy group, say they are tired of celebrities puffing away in youth-oriented movies.
"Have you noticed how much tobacco there is in films?" asked Courtney Moffett, 18. "Is it a coincidence? We don't think so."
In the '90s, leading characters lit up in more than nine of 10 films. And research shows that 1,070 kids start smoking every day because of celebrities smoking in the movies.
The Utah group is targeting Disney Studios, popular actors Zeta-Jones and Colin Farrell and executives at the Motion Picture Association of America with a letter-writing campaign aimed to get big tobacco out of Hollywood.
"We know we're influenced by celebrities," said 19-year-old Tenille Taylor, a member of Utah's Phoenix Alliance. "We look up to them, we idolize them.
"We want to tell them that they are this example, and they are affecting us."
Tuesday night marked the official opening of the "Tobacco and Hollywood: Behind the Scenes" campaign, scheduled to coincide with today's early morning premiere of "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King." Anti-tobacco group members planned to approach the more than 1,200 fans expected to wait in line at the the Ritz 15 theaters in West Valley City and ask them to sign postcards with anti-tobacco messages addressed to the Hollywood big shots.
Brandon Weeks, a 15-year-old member of the Phoenix Alliance, said the group needed as many youths as possible not only to write letters but to "educate our peers about the influence of tobacco and Hollywood and the industry's manipulation."
Through the letter-writing campaign, Phoenix Alliance members seek to pressure studios to remove any smoking references from movies that are rated G, PG and PG-13.
"Remember Cruella de Vil in '101 Dalmatians'? Last time I checked, this was a film for children," said Bree Williams, 18. "We will be encouraging them to use their celebrity power to be positive role models for teens and to stop smoking in movies."
The teens chose Farrell and Zeta-Jones as targets because they regularly smoke in their movies, and they are popular actors, Taylor said.
"Movie studios, actors and actresses need to realize that their behavior on screen is often imitated by teens," said Bre Debry, health program specialist with the Utah Department of Health. "We hope to persuade Hollywood . . . to stop promoting a product that kills every second regular user."
E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com