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Disney’s Smoking Ban Leaves Cruella De Vil Without Her Famous Cigarette Holder
By Mikelle Leow, 01 Jun 2021
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Image via Walt Disney Studios
Cruella de Vil of 101 Dalmatians fame might be the opposite of a do-gooder, but smoking is no longer one of her numerous vices.
As Disney enforced a ban on onscreen smoking in 2007, the live-action Cruella film has no place for the iconic cigarette holder owned by the villain in the original animation.
“That is not allowed in 2021,” the movie’s leading star, Emma Stone, shared with the New York Times. She jokingly expressed her challenges at “not [having] that cigarette holder” in the origin story.
The antihero was almost always with her cigarette holder, so taking it away was bound to give fans secondhand withdrawals. Stone herself felt like something was missing. “I was so excited to have that green plume of smoke in there, but it was not possible,” she told the Times. “I don’t want to promote smoking, but I’m also not trying to promote skinning puppies.”
Similarly, Netflix has banned portrayals of smoking in PG-13 and TV-14 programs, “unless it’s essential to the creative vision,” to prevent the habit from being normalized among young viewers.
These decisions echo the sentiment of the Truth Initiative, a campaign condemning the glamorization of tobacco in shows and films. “As Big Tobacco reinvents itself with electronic products to lure young people to a lifetime of addition, the entertainment industry should not be complicit and must do more by implementing policies that can limit ongoing tobacco exposure,” shared Truth Initiative CEO Robin Koval in a statement obtained by Variety.
You’ll now be able to catch Cruella with her cigarette-free hands in theaters and on Disney Plus Premier Access.
“Fifteen! Fifteen puppies. How marvelous!”
Posted by Cruella de Vil on Tuesday, January 7, 2014
“Anita, you’re such a wit!”
Posted by Cruella de Vil on Friday, November 8, 2013
Posted by Cruella de Vil on Wednesday, September 16, 2015
[via Yardbarker and Variety, images via Walt Disney Studios]
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