The city of Paris has banned posters of the actress Audrey Tautou in her new role as Coco Chanel because she is holding a cigarette.
Jump to full article: Electronic Telegraph (uk), 2009-04-22
Author: Henry Samuel in Paris
Intro: The transport authority's decision to remove the posters because they were "unhealthy and inappropriate" was condemned as "ridiculous" by Chanel fans and even by the man who drew up France's draconian anti-smoking laws.
The posters show Tautou as the chain-smoking French creator of the little black dress gazing sensuously at the camera in silk pyjamas, with a cigarette smouldering in her right hand.
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The ban comes days after a poster of Jacques Tati, one of France's most enduring comic characters, was altered to conform to French rules prohibiting the "direct or indirect" promotion of tobacco products. The actor-director's trademark pipe was replaced with a yellow windmill - a move which one cinema expert said would have made him "die laughing".
Roselyne Bachelot, the health minister, admitted that the rules were being taken too far. "We're getting pretty ridiculous with this," she said.
Even Claude Evin, the politician behind a 1991 anti-smoking law, said the ban should not extend to "cultural heritage".
There is already concern that another film due out later this year about Serge Gainsbourg, the Gauloise-puffing crooner, will fall foul of the no smoking rules. One of his songs is entitled God smokes Havana cigars.
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