No Butts About Examples

The L.A. Times Morning Report (“Hillary vs. Julia,” Aug. 2) about Hillary Rodham Clinton’s column asking the motion picture industry to “join the campaign” to reduce smoking among young people is a request that offers great possibilities. Your newspaper’s calling attention to this adds encouragement. Young people look up to heroes and emulate them by mimicking them. When young girls see Julia Roberts smoking cigarettes, as she did throughout “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” their identification with this is that smoking will make them look like Julia Roberts. I remember myself being very impressed with the beautiful movie stars when I was young, and when they smoked I thought it made them look suave and sophisticated. Think of it, the motion picture industry can save millions of lives by one small act, eliminating smoking of cigarettes in films when it is irrelevant to the plot. This is not an act of censorship but being responsible, and it would make a good impression on us.

SHEILA HOFF

Rancho Palos Verdes