"I was sad, but it was either that or...the movie wouldn't have been made, literally."

Damon W. Root | February 20, 2009

Over at his Liquidity Preference blog, Reason.com contributor Jacob Grier brings word that Watchmen director Zack Snyder snatched the demon tobacco from the hands of character Laurie Juspeczyk, also known as the Silk Spectre:

Where were Laurie's smokes, Zack?

"Yeah, Alan hates smoking. Alan Horn—the head of the studio—that's his biggest, biggest thing. The Comedian can smoke, because he might be a bad guy, he's the bad guy, but that's it. That was the line that he drew."

But aren't those kind of a small plot device for the character to watch her go on and off the wagon?

"I was sad, but it was either that or...the movie wouldn't have been made, literally."

Read the rest here.

In November 2005, Matt Welch denounced HarperCollins for airbrushing the cigarette out of the hands of illustrator Clement Hurd for the 60th anniversary edition of Goodnight Moon. In 2003, Jacob Sullum looked at whether eliminating cigarettes from movies actually slashes smoking rates.