Is Avatar Bad for Your Health?

This week I noted that obesity has passed cigarette use as our biggest national health threat. But there's a silver lining. Obesity caught up so quickly because cigarette use has actually decreased by 20 percent in the last 15 years. Something about our anti-cigarette policy is working, I wrote. Still, this seems like overkill:

The recent fuss over "Avatar," the James Cameron film in which the latest in cinematic technology meets the oldest argument in the movies: whether vice on screen encourages vice in real life.

In "Avatar," a character played by Sigourney Weaver smokes. Antitobacco advocates say on-screen smoking -- even by a character we're supposed to dislike, like Ms. Weaver's -- makes children pick up the habit. They have criticized the movie as a threat to public health.

Even the stiff New York Times editorial page throws up its hands and emits an audible sigh. I know, I know, the antitobacco activists have science behind their kvetching. I also recognize that any good public relations campaign requires a certain over-caffeinated peskiness. But still, did they see this movie? (SPOILER ALERT.) Sigourney Weaver plays a caddy futuristic biologist with all the worst lines in the movie, delivered with remarkable woodenness. It's one thing to complain about a film where a modern-day mobster smokes between his super-cool brushes with the law. That's sort of enviable. But trust me folks: Sigourney Weaver's cringe-inducing turn won't inspire anybody, and a little discretion won't kill you.