WASHINGTON, D.C., May 11 (UPI) -- Motion Picture Association of America chief Jack Valenti told a U.S. Senate panel only filmmakers should decide whether people smoke in movies.
Valenti spoke Tuesday to members of the Senate Commerce Committee investigating the impact smoking has on minors, The Hollywood Reporter said.
Explaining how smoking was necessary to accurately portray characters in such period movies as "Saving Private Ryan" and "Schindler's List," Valenti argued: "We ought not judge actions in one age by the standards of another age, which is also why it's difficult to restrain storytelling today when the movie is set in a different time."
According to an advance copy of his testimony, Valenti also said he could find no evidence to support claims tobacco companies pay filmmakers for illegal product placement shots of their brands of cigarettes and insisted the MPAA encourages directors not to use specific brands and logos in their movies.
