Frankly, it doesn’t sound much like accepting a right to smoke.
Do Anne Jones and her cohorts have any right to demand Ms. Kidman not smoke in public? I say no, and that Ms. Kidman should tell her critics on this point to shove it.
Disclaimer: I am a cigar smoker.
She could never touch a cig again in her life, and she’s still be sssssmokin’!!!
Eh, sorry. I agree that they’re going overboard with this crap. There was a film a few years ago where Sissy Spacek played played a woman grieving because her daughter died, and people complained about her smoking!!! Dear lord, the character is grieving the loss of a loved one!!!
Well, they can’t stop her or anything, but they have the right to have an opinion on it. All they’re saying is that, since she’s a role model, her smoking in public might encourage other people to, and that would be bad. I don’t see anything wrong with that.
Captain:
I agree they have the right to demand, or say, anything they wish. My proprosition is that it’s not a reasonable demand.
My italics.
I think that’s bullshit. Nicole Kidman is an actress, not a role model and she has no resposibility to anyone other than herself. When she signed her contract for any of the films that she did there wasn’t a clause that said “Nicole Kidman agrees to be a good role model for the children and listen to every zealot with an agenda.” She could be a crack whore off screen if she wanted to, and no one would have the right to question that.
This sick fascination we have with wanting actors and actresses to be what we term “good role models” makes me crazy. These are people who are doing a job and getting a paycheck. Just because you know thier name doesn’t mean they have a responsibility to you. If that were true, then you would feel comfortable telling your boss about his filthy smoking habit, or your neighbor, or any one of a thousand people you may know simply by name. But you don’t, because it’s impolite to shove your nose into the affairs of others.
Besides the fact that if we want to criticize her for smoking shall we extend it to everything that someone thinks is wrong? No more violence, actors have a responsibility to show that violence doesn’t solve anything. No more drinking, there are, after all, alcoholics out there. No dying the hair, we should be happy with what Og gave us. The list goes on.
Though I recently quit smoking myself, I can’t stand people who feel like they have the right to comment on other people’s habits. If I came into your house and followed you around all day, how many bad habits could I find to criticize you for? I’d be willing to bet that it’s more than one.
Brick:
Let her do as she wishes and people will not give her business if they think the role model deal is important. No one seems to mind when Sean Penn does it.
PS: Cigar smoker. Me too!
hey wait a minute. Whys is an actress a Role model and should not be seen smoking a cigarette, but a cigar smoking actor like Arnold is cool?
I say that Anne Jones and her cohorts should get the icicles out of their collective asses and leave Kidman alone. She was in public and its not illegal. Anything that goes beyond that is totally up to Ms Kidman alone.
btw The anti-smoking people want Kidman to be an example to young poeple not to smoke. If she smokes, how hypocritical is that to ask her to ask young people not to do what she wants to do? Thtas like the time when Cybil Shepard was spokes-person for the Beef Industry (shes a vegetarian)
whats next? Michael Jackson as a spokesman against pedophilia?
Mario Andretti against speeding?
Marilyn Manson for… anything?
Agreed. But I have to say on the scale of not reasonable demands, anti-smoking activists and politicians demanding a celebrity not smoke gets a pretty low score, methinks.
Full disclosure: I am, as I type this post, violating the New York City smoking laws.
Sure. But all the GOOD unreasonable demands already had threads. 
I think the whole thing is ridiculous. IMHO, celebraties are some of the most fucked up people on the planet. Smoking? That’s got to be one of the smallest offenses that a good percentage of them are guilty of. Not that smoking is even an offense, mind you.
If we’re going to start dictating how celebrities should live their lives, maybe we can tell Jennifer Lopez to quit marrying and divorcing men as if it’s the same thing as dating, tell whoever happens to be in rehab this week to lay off the drugs and alchohol and tell Christina Aguielara (sp?) to quit wearing outfits that would make a crack whore blush.
And Manhattan, may I ask what law you’re breaking? You rebel, you. 
Ehh, a private group (not Australia) has asked a person to give up smoking. Nicole can say, “get to hell,” or “gimme them pacthes.”
Manhattan, since you’re breaking the law, can I post links to file-trading sites?
I agree with you. I’m an on-again-off-again smoker, and even when I am a non-smoker, I would never agree with that stance. She has no moral obligation to embody all that is good and pure any time another person may observe her. She’s a regular human being just like the rest of us and if she is legally entitled to have a cigarette where she happens to be, then it is her choice.
There are definitely bigger problems in the world than Nicole Kidman smoking in public, and this enthusiasm should be focused elsewhere, y’know?
That’s what I was thinking when I read the thread title ‘Australia Tells Kidman: No Smoking’
We did? When? Was there a memo? 
Yeah, but like other posters have suggested, they’re not really demanding anything. “Demand” implies that the demander has some sort of power over the demandee. So, for example, the government can demand I pay my taxes, or I go to jail. When I was a kid, my parents could demand I mow the lawn, or they’d smack me or send me to my room or just not feed me or whatver. Hostage takers can demand a million dollars or they’ll blow up the bus.
This woman is just making a request, because there’s not much it looks like she’ll do (or even can do) to Nicole Kidman if Nicole walks a mile for a camel. It’s on the same level of my mother telling me when I go home to visit “You should lose some weight.”, or me saying to you, “You should change your user name to Chicken of Bristol”. While both of these are great ideas, we don’t have to do them.
The point of the criticism in the media, at least in Australia, which has not been mentioned so far, is that Nicole Kidman has recently been prominant in fronting a breast cancer campaign in Pink Ribbon ].
Geez! It’s not like she’s the side-kick on SpongeBob SquarePants or anything. I say fuck 'em. I’m going out for a smoke.
I think that people put too much on role-models and the decisions they make. What ever happened to taking responsibility for your own actions? If I choose to smoke, it’s going to be because I choose to, not because some actress in a movie does.
(Although there are studies, for which I have no cite, which are saying that addictions like smoking may be hereditary.)
Criticizing Nichole Kidman for smoking makes about as much sense as criticizing Bill Clinton for cheating on his wife.
I think the current law is any tobacco smoking within a 3 mile limit of NYC is immediately punishable by death by firing squad.
As a non-smoker, I’ve applied to be on the firing squad, but have yet to get a response back.