Friday, September 30, 2011

Health Coalition Lobbies For Tobacco Tax Increase

The Maryland Citizens' Health Initiative has launched a campaign to raise taxes on all cigarettes for sale products in Maryland. Cigarette prices would increase by $1 per pack, and other cheap cigarette online taxes would increase at a corresponding rate.

More than 150 faith, community and health organizations have already endorsed the proposed tax, including the AARP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) of Maryland and the American Cancer Society.

The tobacco tax revenue would fund various state health-related programs, including tobacco-control programs and improved healthcare access for Maryland families.

"Not only is this good policy, it's good politics," said Vincent DeMarco, president of the Maryland Citizens' Health Initiative. "We all will benefit."

Tobacco lobbyist Bruce Bereano disagreed, and said the tax hike on tobacco is discriminatory and unwarranted.

"Smoking is legal and lawful among adults in Maryland," Bereano said. "If that's going to continue and be left as a personal decision among adults, then let's stop hassling and intimidating and jerking around adult smokers. Enough is enough."

Maryland last raised taxes on non-cigarette tobacco in 1999. Cigarette taxes have been raised several times since then, most recently by $1 in January 2008.

The tobacco tax campaign comes only a few months after the Health Initiative successfully lobbied to raise the tax on alcohol in April.

DeMarco said raising the cost of tobacco saves both lives and money. Smoking rates in Maryland declined by 32.6 percent between 1998 and 2009, which was double the national average.

DeMarco said the decrease in smoking cigarettes saved more than 70,000 lives and hundreds of millions of dollars in health care costs.

The current tax increase would not be the end of the campaign. Tobacco tax advocates would like Maryland to become a smoke-free state.

Bereano contended that raising the tobacco tax actually costs the state money because smokers leave the state to buy tobacco.

"It's not going to stop smoking cigarettes in Maryland ... [The smokers] are just going to be driven further from the state of Maryland to buy their smokes, and they'll buy their bread and butter and other things there," he said. "Maryland will lose revenue, it makes no sense fiscally."

Bereano said the people who may get hit hardest by the tax are people in cities who don't have personal transportation and cannot go elsewhere to buy tobacco.

DeMarco said the Health Initiative will continue to advocate for the tobacco tax if the legislature does not pass the increase in next year's session.

"If the legislature doesn't pass it, we are ready to make this a top issue in the 2014 election," DeMarco said.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Famous Actors Part VII

Celebrity Actors Smoking Part VII



Here we have the seventh part of selected pictures with Hollywood Famous Actors smoking cigarettes. Enjoy the collection of photos with Celebrities Smoking Cigarettes.


1. Jean Claude Van Damme Smoking Cigarette

jean claude van damme smoking

Celebrity Jean Claude Van Damme Smoking Dunhill Fine Cut White Cigarette

About Jean Claude Van Damme : Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg (born 18 October 1960), professionally known as Jean-Claude Van Damme, is a Belgian martial artist and actor, best known for his martial arts action films, the most successful of which include Bloodsport (1988), Kickboxer (1989), Double Impact (1991), Universal Soldier (1992), Hard Target (1993), Timecop (1994), and JCVD (2008). He is known as "The Muscles from Brussels", "JCVD" and "Van Damage".

After studying martial arts intensively from the age of ten, Van Damme achieved national success in Belgium as a martial artist and bodybuilder, earning the "Mr. Belgium" bodybuilding title. He immigrated to the United States in 1982 to pursue a career in film, and achieved success with Bloodsport (1988), based on a story written by Frank Dux. He attained subsequent box office success with Timecop (1994), which grossed over $100 million worldwide and became his most financially successful film.

Van Damme was born in Sint-Agatha-Berchem, Brussels, Belgium, the son of Eliana and Eugène Van Varenberg, who was an accountant and owned a flower shop. He began martial arts at the age of ten, enrolled by his father in a Shotokan karate school. His styles consist of kickboxing, Shotokan karate, Muay Thai and Taekwondo. He eventually earned his black belt in karate. He started lifting weights to improve his physique, which eventually led to a Mr. Belgium bodybuilding title.


2. James Franco Smoking Cigarette

james franco smoking

Celebrity James Franco Smoking Kent Convertibles Cigarette

About James Franco : James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author, painter, performance artist and professor at New York University. He left college in order to pursue acting and started off his career by making guest appearances on television series in the 1990s. Franco landed a lead part on the short-lived cult hit television program Freaks and Geeks and later achieved recognition for playing the titular character in the TV biographical film James Dean (2001), for which he was awarded a Golden Globe Award. He achieved international fame with his portrayals of Harry Osborn in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy.

Franco is critically acclaimed as an actor. He has done both dramatic and comedic work in projects and has appeared in an eclectic range of projects since the 2000s, ranging from period to contemporary pieces, and from major Hollywood productions to less publicized indie films, as well as fantasy movies to biopics and soap operas. Other notable films include Pineapple Express, a stoner comedy that earned him his second Golden Globes nomination, the Harvey Milk-biopic Milk (both 2008) as well as Danny Boyle's 2010 movie 127 Hours, about real-life mountain climber Aron Ralston's struggle to free his hand from a boulder. His performance in 127 Hours earned him nominations for many high-profile awards, including the Academy Awards, Golden Globe and SAG Awards.

Franco has hosted Saturday Night Live twice as well as the 83rd Academy Awards with Anne Hathaway. He volunteers for the Art of Elysium charity.

Franco is currently teaching a class at New York University about transferring poetry to film.


3. Jake Gyllenhaal Smoking Cigarette

jake gyllenhaal smoking

Celebrity Jake Gyllenhaal Smoking Kent HD Futura Cigarette

About Jake Gyllenhaal : Jacob Benjamin "Jake" Gyllenhaal (born December 19, 1980) is an American actor. The son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, Gyllenhaal began acting at age ten. He has appeared in diverse roles since his first lead role in 1999's October Sky, followed by the 2001 indie cult hit Donnie Darko, in which he played a psychologically troubled teen and onscreen brother to his real-life sister, actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. In the 2004 science-fiction film The Day After Tomorrow he portrayed a student caught in a cataclysmic global cooling event, alongside Dennis Quaid as his father. He then played against type as a frustrated Marine in Jarhead (2005). The same year, he garnered critical acclaim and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor as Jack Twist in the film Brokeback Mountain opposite Heath Ledger.

Gyllenhaal has promoted various political and social causes. He has appeared in Rock the Vote advertising, campaigned for the Democratic Party in the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, promoted environmental causes, and campaigned on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Gyllenhaal was born in Los Angeles, the son of film director Stephen Gyllenhaal and film producer and screenwriter Naomi Foner (née Achs). Maggie Gyllenhaal, his older sister and also an actress, appeared with Jake in the movie Donnie Darko. Gyllenhaal's father was raised in the Swedenborgian religion and is a descendant of the Swedish noble Gyllenhaal family. His last native Swedish ancestor was his great-great-grandfather, Anders Leonard Gyllenhaal. Jake Gyllenhaal's mother is from a Jewish family from New York City, and Gyllenhaal has said that he considers himself "more Jewish than anything else." On his 13th birthday, Gyllenhaal performed a "barmitzvah-like act, without the typical trappings", volunteering at a homeless shelter, because his parents wanted to instill in him a sense of gratitude for his privileged lifestyle. His parents insisted that he have summer jobs to support himself, and he thus worked as a lifeguard and as a busboy at a restaurant operated by a family friend.


4. Josh Hartnett Smoking Cigarette

josh hartnett smoking

Celebrity Josh Hartnett Smoking Kent HD Infina Cigarette

About Josh Hartnett : Joshua Daniel "Josh" Hartnett (born July 21, 1978) is an American actor and producer. He first came to audiences' attention in 1997 as "Michael Fitzgerald" in the television series Cracker. He made his feature film debut in 1998, co-starring with Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later for Miramax. That same year, he received an MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Breakthrough Male Performance. Hartnett gained fame for his role as Cpt Danny Walker in Pearl Harbor, and has starred since then for a variety of well-known directors such as Ridley Scott, Brian De Palma, Robert Rodriguez, Tran Anh Hung, Roland Joffé and Michael Bay.

Hartnett was born in San Francisco, California, and was raised mostly by his father, Daniel Hartnett (a building manager), and his stepmother, Molly (an artist) near Saint Paul, Minnesota. He has three younger half-siblings. He is of Irish ancestry and was raised Roman Catholic, attending Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Grade School, where he played Adam Apple in an eighth grade production of "Krazy Kamp". He later attended Cretin-Derham Hall High School before switching to South High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from which he graduated in June 1996.

Hartnett was active in sports as a child, especially football, and did not entertain the thought of becoming a performer, until an injury left him unable to participate on the athletic playing field. A relative encouraged him to audition for a stage production of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn and to his surprise, he won the part of Huckleberry Finn. Now in love with the stage, he went on to star in a slew of high school plays.

Hartnett got his first job at a local video store. He had also worked at McDonald's and Burger King for a short time before getting his start in acting at Youth Performance Company in Minneapolis. He became a vegetarian at the age of 12 but ate meat during the shooting of The Black Dahlia for his role as a boxer.

After finishing high school, a move to New York to attend the prestigious Conservatory of Theatre Arts & Film at SUNY Purchase did not go as well as he had hoped for, and a year later at age 19, Hartnett found himself in California. Shortly after arriving in Los Angeles, he caught an improbable break, landing a part in the short-lived but acclaimed drama Cracker, on ABC. Although the series was cancelled after sixteen episodes, Hartnett had made a name for himself. He then began to focus on feature film work.


5. Jason Statham Smoking Cigarette

jason statham smoking

Celebrity Jason Statham Smoking Kent HD Neo Cigarette

About Jason Statham : Jason Statham (born 12 September 1967) is an English actor and former diver, known for his roles in the Guy Ritchie crime films Revolver, Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Statham appeared in supporting roles in several American films, such as The Italian Job, as well as playing the lead role in The Transporter, Death Race, Crank, The Bank Job and War (opposite martial arts star Jet Li). Statham also appeared alongside established action film actors Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Jet Li and Dolph Lundgren in The Expendables. He normally performs his own fight scenes and stunts.

Statham was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, the son of Eileen (née Yates) and Barry Statham, a lounge singer. He moved to Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, where he chose not to follow his father's career working the local market stalls, and decided to pursue the arts. He grew up with Vinnie Jones, alongside whom he would later go on to act. Jones introduced him to football, and Statham went on to play for the local grammar school (1978–83), which he had attended since the age of eleven, but his real passion was diving. He practised daily in perfecting his diving techniques – in particular, he finished 12th in the World Championships in 1992. He was also a member of Britain's National Diving Squad for twelve years.

Statham's life in the media began when he was spotted by a talent agent specialising in athletes while training at London's Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. Afterwards, he became a model for the clothing brand French Connection.

6. Keanu Reeves Smoking Cigarette

keanu reeves smoking

Celebrity Keanu Reeves Smoking Kent Nanotek Infina Cigarette

About Keanu Reeves : Keanu Charles Reeves (born September 2, 1964) is a Canadian actor. Reeves is perhaps best known for his roles in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Speed, Point Break and the science fiction-action trilogy The Matrix. He has worked under major directors, such as Stephen Frears (in the 1988 period drama Dangerous Liaisons); Gus Van Sant (in the 1991 independent film My Own Private Idaho, also written by Van Sant); and Bernardo Bertolucci (in the 1993 film Little Buddha). Referencing his 1991 film releases, The New York Times critic Janet Maslin praised Reeves' versatility, saying that he "displays considerable discipline and range. He moves easily between the buttoned-down demeanour that suits a police procedural story and the loose-jointed manner of his comic roles."

In addition to his film roles, Reeves has also performed in theatre. His performance in the title role in a Manitoba Theatre Centre production of Hamlet was praised by Roger Lewis, the Sunday Times, who declared Reeves "...one of the top three Hamlets I have seen, for a simple reason: he is Hamlet." On January 31, 2005, Reeves received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. A 2006 ET online survey placed him in the "Top Ten of America's Favorite Stars".

Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon, the son of Patricia Bond (née Taylor), an English costume designer/performer, and Samuel Nowlin Reeves, Jr., a geologist and Hawaiian-born American of English, Irish, Portuguese, Hawaiian, and Chinese descent. Reeves's mother was working in Beirut when she met his father. Reeves' father worked as an unskilled labourer and earned his GED while imprisoned in Hawaii for selling heroin at Hilo International Airport. He abandoned his wife and family when Reeves was three years old, and Reeves does not currently have any relationship with him.

Reeves moved around the world frequently as a child and he lived with various stepfathers. After his parents divorced in 1966, his mother became a costume designer and moved the family to Australia and then to New York City. There she met and married Paul Aaron, a Broadway and Hollywood director. The couple moved to Toronto; they divorced in 1971. Reeves' mother married Robert Miller, a rock promoter, in 1976; the couple divorced in 1980. She subsequently married her fourth husband, Jack Bond, a hairdresser, a marriage that broke up in 1994. Grandparents and nannies babysat Reeves and his sisters, and Reeves grew up primarily in Toronto. Within a span of five years, he attended four different high schools, including the Etobicoke School of the Arts, from which he was later expelled. Reeves stated he was expelled "...because I was greasy and running around a lot. I was just a little too rambunctious and shot my mouth off once too often. I was not generally the most well-oiled machine in the school. I was just getting in their way, I guess."

Reeves excelled more in hockey than in academics, as his educational development was challenged by dyslexia. He was a successful goalie at one of his high schools (De La Salle College "Oaklands"). While Reeves dreamed of becoming an Olympic hockey player for Canada, an injury ended his hopes for a hockey career. After leaving De La Salle College, he attended an anarchistic free school (Avondale Alternative), which allowed him to obtain an education while working as an actor; he later dropped out, never obtaining his high school diploma.

In January 2011, on the BBC program 'The One Show', he spoke of his English ancestry, via his mother, mentioning his happy watching of 'The Two Ronnies' comedy show amongst others when younger, and how his mother imparted English manners that he still has today.

7. Kevin Spacey Smoking Cigarette

kevin spacey smoking

Celebrity Kevin Spacey Smoking Kent Nanotek Neo Cigarette

About Kevin Spacey : Kevin Spacey, CBE (born Kevin Spacey Fowler; July 26, 1959) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and crooner. He grew up in California, and began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television. He gained critical acclaim in the early 1990s, culminating in his first Academy Award for The Usual Suspects (Best Supporting Actor), followed by a Best Actor Academy Award win for American Beauty (1999). His other starring roles in Hollywood include Seven, L.A. Confidential, Pay It Forward, and Superman Returns in a career which has earned him several Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. Since 2003, he has been artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London.

Spacey was born in South Orange, New Jersey, the son of Kathleen Ann (née Knutson; December 5, 1931 – March 19, 2003), a secretary, and Thomas Geoffrey Fowler (June 4, 1924 – December 24, 1992), a technical writer and data consultant. He has two older siblings: a sister, Julie, and a brother, Randy. He attended Northridge Military Academy, Canoga Park High School (in tenth and eleventh grades), and then Chatsworth High School in Chatsworth, Los Angeles, where he graduated valedictorian of his class. At Chatsworth High, he starred in the school's senior production of The Sound of Music, playing the part of Captain Georg von Trapp, opposite Mare Winningham's character, Maria.

While in high school, he took on his paternal grandmother's maiden name, "Spacey", originally a Yorkshire name, as his acting surname. Several reports have incorrectly suggested that he took his name in tribute to actor Spencer Tracy, combining Tracy's first and last names. He had tried to succeed as a stand-up comedian for several years, before attending the Juilliard School in New York City, where he studied drama, between 1979 and 1981. During this time period, Spacey performed stand-up comedy in bowling alley talent contests.

8. Kevin Costner Smoking Cigarette

kevin costner smoking

Celebrity Kevin Costner Smoking Kent Nanotek Futura Cigarette

About Kevin Costner : Kevin Michael Costner (born January 18, 1955) is an American actor, singer, musician, producer, director, and businessman. He has been nominated for three BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Awards, won two Academy Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. Costner's roles include Lt. John J. Dunbar in the film Dances with Wolves, Jim Garrison in JFK, Ray Kinsella in Field of Dreams, Robin Hood in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Crash Davis in Bull Durham, Robert "Butch" Haynes in A Perfect World, Frank Farmer in The Bodyguard and Eliot Ness in The Untouchables. Costner also founded the band Modern West, and has performed with the band since 2007.

Costner was born in Lynwood, California, the youngest of the three sons (the middle of whom died at birth). His mother, Sharon Rae (née Tedrick), was a welfare worker, and his father, William Costner, was an electrician and later utilities executive at Southern California Edison. Costner's paternal heritage originates with German immigrants to South Carolina in the 1700s; he also has English and Irish ancestry, and has said that one of his ancestors had "married a Cherokee woman". Costner was raised Baptist. He attended Cabrillo Middle School and Villa Park High School. Costner was not academically inclined. Rather, he enjoyed sports, took piano lessons, wrote poetry and sang in the First Baptist Choir. He has stated that a viewing of the film How the West Was Won at the age of seven had "formed" his childhood.

Spending his teenage years in various parts of California as his father's career progressed, Costner has described this as a period when he "lost a lot of confidence", having to make new friends often. Costner lived in Orange County, then in Visalia (Tulare County), attending Mt. Whitney High School, and then back to Ventura, graduating from Buena High School in 1973. He went on to earn a B.A. in marketing and finance from California State University, Fullerton, in 1978.


9. Kirk Douglas Smoking Cigarette

kirk

Celebrity Kirk Douglas Smoking L&M Red Cigarette

About Kirk Douglas : Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch, December 9, 1916) is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past (1947), Champion (1949), Ace in the Hole (1951), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Lust for Life (1956), Paths of Glory (1957), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), Spartacus (1960), and Lonely Are the Brave (1962).

He is No.17 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time. In 1996, he received the Academy Honorary Award "for 50 years as a creative and moral force in the motion picture community."

Douglas was born Issur Danielovitch in Amsterdam, New York, the son of Bryna "Bertha" (née Sanglel) and Herschel "Harry" Danielovitch, a businessman. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Gomel, Belarus. His father's brother, who emigrated earlier, used the surname Demsky, which Douglas's family adopted in the United States. In addition to their surname, his parents also changed their given names, to Harry and Bertha. Douglas grew up as Izzy Demsky, and legally changed his name to "Kirk Douglas" when entering the Navy during World War II.

Coming from a poor family, as a boy, Douglas sold snacks to mill workers to earn enough to buy milk and bread. Later, he delivered newspapers and worked at more than forty jobs before becoming an actor. He found living in a family of six sisters to be stifling, stating, "I was dying to get out. In a sense, it lit a fire under me." During high school, he acted in school plays, and discovered "The one thing in my life that I always knew, that was always constant, was that I wanted to be an actor."

10. Kurt Russell Smoking Cigarette

kurt russell smoking

Celebrity Kurt Russell Smoking L&M Blue Cigarette

About Kurt Russell : Kurt Vogel Russell (born March 17, 1951) is an American television and film actor. His first acting roles were as a child in television series, including a lead role in the Western series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (1963–1964). In the 1970s, he signed a ten-year contract with the Walt Disney Company, where he became, according to Robert Osborne, the "studio's top star of the '70s". In 1979, Russell was nominated for an Emmy Award for the made-for-television film Elvis.

In 1983, he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture for his performance opposite Meryl Streep in the 1984 film, Silkwood. During the 1980s, Russell was cast in several films by director John Carpenter, including anti-hero roles such as former air force hero-turned robber Snake Plissken in the futuristic action film Escape from New York, Antarctic helicopter pilot R.J. MacReady in the horror film The Thing (1982), and truck driver Jack Burton in the dark kung-fu comedy/action film Big Trouble in Little China (1986), all of which have since become cult films.

In 1994, he had a starring role in the military/science fiction film Stargate. In the mid-2000s, his portrayal of U.S. Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks in Miracle (2004) won the praise of critics. In 2006, he appeared in the disaster-thriller Poseidon, and in 2007 Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof segment from the film Grindhouse.


Thank You For Reading Our Blog, Have A Nice Day And See You On The Next Famous Actors Part !


Surgical Anaesthesia as a Metaphor for Liberalism


The invention of surgical anaesthesia is an incredibly gloomy story in which ordinary scientific squabbling over who gets credit for a discovery was raised to an abnormally high pitch, until practically everyone involved had met a tragic and in some cases rather gothic end.

One character turns to drugs, throws sulfuric acid at a whore on the streets of New York, and commits suicide by opening his femoral artery in his jail cell -- after self-administering a vial of chloroform he had smuggled in.

Our hero spends most of the mid-19th century trying to make money from his invention, but he can't so much as get credit for it thanks to the connivances of a monomaniacal nemesis, who ruins our hero's reputation, foments petty lawsuits against him, and robs him of a $100,000 reward that Congress had for decades told our hero he could expect to receive from them any day. And just when our hero finally gives up the fight -- having lost his patent, his practice, and his last dime -- our villain places a gloating article in a New York medical journal, claiming the invention of anaesthesia for himself. Our hero flies to New York, in order to convince the medical journal to print his rebuttal, but drops dead in the frenzy of writing it.

His nemesis falls victim to the curse soon thereafter: When he spies a monument erected to our hero, he falls into a four-day raving fit and is finally committed to a Massachusetts asylum, where he lives out his few remaining years.

It reminds me of a heist movie where everything goes wrong (except for the last act of the story where our hero and villain die, which is not a heist movie but the plot of Amadeus in bizarrely accurate detail): The prospect of a big pay-off drives everyone to extremes and some to insanity, and in a fit of greed and madness they pick each other off until one man, at most, is left standing.

Every heist movie has the same moral: Gold, in sufficient quantity, is guaranteed to drive ordinary men to hysteria. Which is where the metaphor for liberalism comes in. Is it possible that the prospect of abolishing pain is just as much an invitation to obsession and madness as the prospect of stealing a million dollars from a bank? The men in this story didn't just think they were developing a chemical that would facilitate surgery; they thought they were abolishing suffering. (Books on the anaesthesia controversy include such titles as Triumph over Pain, Victory over Pain, and 'We Have Conquered Pain'.) Maybe that delusion is where they went wrong, and where a certain type of politics goes wrong, too.

Our first test case is Horace Wells, the man who disfigured a whore in broad daylight and then killed himself after being arrested for it. He had two reasons to consider himself the inventor of anaesthesia, which he was not: He had shared a dental practice with the real inventor, our hero William Morton, several years before Morton came to prominence; and he had in his youth experimented with laughing gas in dental surgery, even giving a demonstration in Boston of its efficacy as an anaesthetic. The demonstration failed, which both embarrassed him and put an end to his experiments. (It is pictured in the cartoon above. The puking man is most definitely not anaesthetized.)

The author of this book on this story says that when Wells heard of Morton's invention, he progressed from "I could have invented that" to "I should have invented that," and finally to "I did invent that." Upon convincing himself of that conclusion, he moved to New York to start conducting experiments with chloroform, which he hoped would supplant Morton's ether, and to make friends with journalists who could push his claim.

I have mentioned that Wells became a drug addict. It is perhaps more important to explain that he developed his addiction through his experiments with chloroform -- he was using himself as a guinea pig to determine the right dosage, and the habit grew on him. Wells wasn't facing a surgeon's scalpel, but he had left his family behind in Connecticut, lost his livelihood, and, in his view, been robbed of the fame he deserved. Why shouldn't chloroform ease his pain as well as the pain of his patients?

It did, well enough, until the side-effects of his addiction led to his bizarre assault on a prostitute, landed him in prison, and drove him to suicide. (His farewell note was addressed to his wife: "My character, which I have ever prized above everything else, is gone. My dear, dear wife and child, how they will suffer. I cannot proceed. My brain is on fire.") And when he had settled on suicide, chloroform made it painless. The abolition of pain had unforeseen consequences.



Our villain is the most interesting character in the story, as usual. Dr. Charles T. Jackson (pictured above) might be familiar to you as the man who famously sued Samuel Morse for allegedly stealing his idea for the telegraph. I assume that the Morse lawsuit was a real education for Jackson in how to steal a man's invention, because by the time he got around to claiming credit for ether, he was a real pro at it -- he scarcely put a foot wrong in his tussles with Morton. His most ingenious ploy was stealing the ledger from Morton's dental practice and then sending bills to all Morton's patients, even the ones that had already paid. Morton lost all his customers and gained a reputation for crookedness, which robbed him of his source of income as well as, of course, diminishing his credibility in the anaesthesia fight.

Jackson then scoured every medical journal he could find for articles on ether and visited the authors personally to convince them to press their claims in Congress, which had decided to give a $100,000 reward to the inventor of anaesthesia -- partly in compensation for voiding the patent on it in order to make anaesthesia available to army surgeons in the Mexican-American war. Morton had already filed his patent on ether at the time Congress invalidated it, but he didn't contest Congress's action, out of a sense of patriotic duty. (This came back to bite him later, when he tried to claim the congressional reward: If you invented ether, why didn't you sue us back in 1846?)

At one point, in 1849, Congress seemed ready to grant the $100,000 reward to Jackson, but Jackson made what he called a "fine gesture of renunciation" and told Congress that he didn't want the money, just the credit. In the end, his gesture raised more suspicions than it suppressed and ultimately undermined his claim, but it does suggest that his preoccupation with ether was less self-interested and more purely obsessive.

Jackson ended up an addict, too, but not to chloroform, just alcohol -- he was drunk when he saw the monument to Morton that pushed him over the edge. But the principle is the same: If a medicine kills pain, why not use it all the time?



Our hero Morton is more sympathetic than Jackson or Wells, but no less obsessive -- which is all the more surprising given that he was a very ordinary man, the furthest thing from a tortured genius you could imagine. But anaesthesia worked its alchemy on him, too -- even when every possibility of reward had been closed and he had settled into life as an impoverished gentleman farmer, with his pawned equipment and his house donated by a well-wisher, he was frantic to rebut Jackson's claim to the credit. He worked on his rebuttal with such a frenzy that it killed him. Surely that indicates something beyond the usual desire of a scientist to go down in history.

I certainly don't mean to say that the desire to ease pain is in and of itself pathological -- though it is entertaining to read the statements of the doctors who did feel that way at the time. A member of the French Academy of Sciences, when told of Morton's innovation, wrote that "the new method conflicts both with sound reason and with moral sensibility," and compared it to operating on "people dead drunk" and then to operating on corpses. The man who first gave chloroform to women during childbirth was a Scotsman, and his fellow Calvinists condemned him for violating Genesis 3:16 ("In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children"). Eventually the man, James Young Simpson, resorted to exegesis himself: "The word used in the Hebrew, and translated by 'sorrow' in the 16th verse . . . means 'toil, labor and trouble,' not 'physical pain.'"

What I do mean to say is this: A long time ago, James Poulos described liberalism as the idea that "the purpose of politics [is] to reveal and institutionalize the needlessness of human suffering." While it seems to me that liberals have given up on the perfectability of man, they still cling to the related idea that all suffering is needless. You can detect it in their rhetoric all the time -- if someone is suffering somewhere, there must be something we can do about it. I'm not yet sure what that means, but if the first men who ever felt that they had the abolition of pain within their grasp went utterly mad from the attraction, it must mean something.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Health Groups Urge N.J. To Spend More On Smoking-cessation Programs

A coalition of health groups is urging New Jersey to dedicate more cigarette tax revenue to programs that help people quit smoking cigarettes.

The groups say less than 1 percent of the billion dollars a year New Jersey gets in cheap cigarettes revenue from taxes and as part of a national settlement with cigarettes store companies goes toward smoking cigarettes-cessation programs. They're pushing for funding for those programs to be increased by $30 million a year.

"We believe there's a moral obligation to the smokers," said Blair Horner, vice president of advocacy for the American Cancer Society in New Jersey. "It's simply not fair to keep asking them--15 percent of the public we're talking about roughly--to pay more and more and then offer them no way to quit."

Dr. Fred Jacobs, former state Health Commissioner who now chairs the anti-tobacco coalition NJ Breathes, said it's an easy choice.

"If the government won't act to protect the health and safety of the people it serves, than what exactly is the role of the government at all?" he said Wednesday.

If more of the current revenue is not directed to stop smoking cigarettes efforts, the health groups recommend increasing the state's cigarette tax by a dollar a pack to help fund those programs.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Risotto with Meatballs and Not-So-Great Pumpkin

The grocery store had two kinds of pumpkin: with jack-o-lantern face painted on, and without. I got one without, but even those were stocked next to bouquets of flowers on one side and candles on the other, which raises the question of whether the pumpkins were being sold as food or as decoration. "What the hell, I'm not going to die from eating a decorative pumpkin" was my ultimate conclusion. "And if I do, it'll be a medical mystery for everyone at the hospital. They can send my story to the guys who write House."

The recipe I used is here, though I threw in some unscripted cinnamon sticks, as you can see. (It was a good decision.) The only problem was that I overcooked the rice -- it devolved into mush, whereas if I'd taken it off the heat a little sooner, you'd be able to tell one grain from another. If anyone knows the secret of timing your risotto, don't be shy.

The Death of Manolete, the Death of Bullfighting

Barcelona has held its last bullfight, so now seems like a good time to consider A Matador's Mistress (2008, dir. Menno Meyjes; original Spanish title Manolete).

How can it be that this film sank without a trace? I pay some attention to Adrien Brody's career, and I know for damn sure that many men pay rapt attention to Penelope Cruz's. The bullfighter Manolete is still a big, legendary deal in Spain, and Adrien Brody really does look uncannily like him. (Brody says that when he walked the Cordoba streets in costume, people would call out to him, "Manolete, good luck today!") But until last week, I'd never heard of this film.

I blame the title -- both the American (A Matador's Mistress) and the British (The Passion Within), which, I suppose, were thought necessary because Anglophones can't pronounce "MAN-oh-LETT-ay." But "A Matador's Mistress" sounds like something that should have a sweaty-looking Fabio on the poster, his pectorals busting out of a sequined jacket.

If they were going to insist on retitling the film for American release, they might at least have picked something with the word "death" in it, because that's what the movie is about. This is young Manolete's new manager, laying down the rules for his new prospect:
"No women."
"No women?"
"Because women make you love life."
"And that's bad?"
"In our line of work, yes."
And there's this line from Penelope Cruz, which was included in all the trailers:
"I'm just your mistress, death is your wife."
Which brings us back to the new bullfighting ban, because bullfighting has always courted extinction the way matadors court death. When your pastime is positively begging to be condemned as dangerous and irrational -- boxing is another good example, and come to think of it, so is smoking -- it's only a matter of time before the parliament of Catalonia bans your pastime. Nevertheless, danger sports keep springing up in one form or another, and they have always had their traditionalist defenders willing to praise something difficult to even justify -- perhaps because reactionaries, bullfighters, smokers, and boxers have something in common.

Unreasonable daredevilry, mental or physical, has its rewards. It cultivates agility, either of the kind displayed by Manolete or the kind displayed by defenders of irrational traditions (like Daniel Hannan here; apparently the MEP for south-east England loves euroskepticism and bullfighting). The bonds of brotherhood are always tightest among the unpopular and imperiled -- which is fine by me, because most of the time I'd rather have a brother than be a success. And there is usually some substance to the sport, or the tradition, that makes it attractive in the first place, apart from the allure of doom and danger. Bullfight is artful and symbolic, and beloved traditions usually are, too.

Manolete died in the arena, and bullfighting might be extinct by century's end. Both of those things are tragic, but neither one exactly bothers me. Something can be tragic and inevitable, or even tragic and appropriate.

P.S. Allow me to draw your attention to one particular shot: Adrien Brody holding Penelope Cruz's dachshund. It has been suggested that the woman in Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine had a ferrety character. Perhaps we can extrapolate from that.


Statewide Program Helps Mental Health Consumers Quit Tobacco

UNC researchers tested the implementation and impact of a model curriculum (“Learning About Healthy Living”) to promote wellness and motivation to quit cheap cigarette online use in psychosocial rehabilitation clubhouses. Results published in the September issue of BMC Public Health show that the curriculum, using support groups to motivate and share skills in clubhouses, helped clubhouse members cut down on cheap cigarettes use as well as advanced smoke-free policy change in the clubhouses. Further, the curriculum proved feasible to implement and, according to clubhouse staff, generated momentum for other healthful policies and practices (e.g., walking groups, sponsored YMCA memberships, tobacco-free areas).

“The results of this evaluation are really encouraging given that buy cigarette online use among those with serious mental health issues is so difficult to treat,” said Dr. Adam Goldstein, professor of family medicine and director of the UNC Tobacco Prevention and Evaluation Program, “this research has national potential for use in addressing tobacco among people living with mental illness.”

Through interviews with staff and surveys of 271 clients at nine clubhouses across North Carolina, researchers with UNC’s Tobacco Prevention and Evaluation Program examined the effectiveness of this model wellness curriculum, implemented by the North Carolina Evidence-Based Practices Center at Southern Regional AHEC. John Bigger, program director at the center, said, “We focused this project on positive sides of sharing strategies, strengths, and successes, -- important contributing factors in the curriculum’s national potential.”

Results also showed that technical assistance proved critical to the success of the intervention. “This project demonstrates the positive impact of university engagement with traditionally underserved and often neglected populations in our health system,” said Joseph Lee, project manager, at the UNC School of Medicine’s Tobacco Prevention and Evaluation Program.

Despite the successes, the evaluation showed substantial barriers still existed for the promotion of medications that could assist clubhouse members with tobacco cessation. For instance, staff reported barriers due to complicated and limited insurance coverage of nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cigarettes cessation.

The North Carolina Health & Wellness Trust Fund (HWTF) provided seed funding for the program and evaluation. The North Carolina Evidence Based Practices Center modified the curriculum, originally developed at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, to allow for broader dissemination and testing of outcomes in real world settings.

“This research shows that a structured group approach to promoting healthful living and tobacco cessation can be an important tool in addressing the high tobacco use prevalence among people living with serious mental illness. Revision, dissemination, and a randomized controlled trial evaluation of the model curriculum should now occur,” said Dr. Goldstein.

Monday, September 26, 2011

When I'm in Your Neighborhood, You Better Duck


That's not a very pretty picture. The Canadian gentleman who concocted the recipe -- duck quesadillas with cherry chipotle salsa and goat cheese -- has a much better one. But what my dish lacked in aesthetics, it made up for in amazing taste. This recipe is delicious, and even if you are a terrible cook, you should try it.


The recipe calls for rubbing spices only into the skin side of the duck, not the meat side. I was skeptical of half-measures, as usual, but it turned out fine.


The cherries were the real problem -- it turns out they have a season, and we are not close to being in it, which is why there were none for sale at Whole Foods, not for love or money. (I didn't actually offer love, but you don't really think it would have made a difference, do you?) Mr. CSB had a brilliant idea: use a can of maraschino cherries and a can of sour cherries, and they'll average out. He was absolutely right. The food processor, like love, covers a multitude of sins.

You Can Give Everybody Money, But You Can't Make Everybody Rich


From "The Secret History of Soviet Fashion," a book review:
The Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli was invited to open the Dom Modelei in Moscow, and was bewildered by the outfits on display: 'I was of the opinion that the clothes of the working people should be simple and practical, but . . . I witnessed an orgy of chiffon, pleats and furbelows.'
Eschewing her own surrealist tendencies, she designed a capsule collection for Soviet women -- a simple black dress, a covetable red coat, lined in black, with large pockets and a matching beret. It was entirely suitable for mass production, but the authorities dismissed it as being far too ordinary for Soviet women and moaned that the big pockets would attract the attention of thieves on public transport.
Shoulda stuck with those Soviet fabrics, Elsa.

Fashion is conservative insofar as it's one place where hierarchy can never be abolished. So here's my question: Would that sentence be more interesting if I had written "beauty" instead of "fashion"?

Nine Indicted In Maryland For Cigarette Smuggling

Maryland officials on Thursday announced the indictments of nine people accused of cigarette smuggling in connection with a stepped-up effort to cut down on the illicit cigarettes online trade.

In the last fiscal year, Maryland’s comptroller’s office arrested 115 people for cigarette smuggling, double the number it arrested the year before, as officials see more people resorting to profitable black-market sales.

“There is an explosion of cigarette smuggling going on,” said Maryland Comptroller Peter V.R. Franchot, whose office enforces state cigarette and buy cigarette online tax laws. “I’m not sure if it’s the bad economy or the fact that Virginia has the lowest tax rate in the country and Maryland has one of the highest.”

Cigarette taxes in Virginia are 30 cents per pack, while in the District and Maryland, taxes are $2.50 and $2 per pack respectively. Cigarette smugglers profit from buying large quantities of discount cigarette online in Virginia and transporting them to states where the tax is higher, selling them to stores or even from the trunks of their cars and pocketing the difference in price, Mr. Franchot said.

The nine people who were arrested in Maryland after crossing into the state from Virginia with thousands of packs of cigarettes store in tow face charges of possession, transport and conspiracy to transport unstamped cigarettes. The penalty for the crime is a maximum of two years in prison and a fine of $50 per carton of cigarettes, Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Angela D. Alsobrooks said.

Officials announced the indictments outside the Prince George’s County Courthouse in Upper Marlboro in front of a large display of previously confiscated online cigarettes at the county courthouse. The display drew stares from passers-by, some of whom asked if officials were giving the packs away.

The nine people indicted were arrested in five unrelated incidents in July and August. In total, 14,875 packs of cheap cigarette online were seized. Maryland would have collected $29,750 in taxes if the packs were sold in the state, officials said.

Though investigators have not tied the nine people to any large-scale smuggling ring, they said gangs are more frequently forgoing participation in the drug trade for the black-market cigarette trade.

“It’s too darn lucrative for these groups to ignore,” Mr. Franchot said.

The persons indicted on the cigarette smuggling charges are: Jose Gilberto Perez, 53, of Baltimore; Eredania Perez-de-Hernandez, 41, of Baltimore; Maoze Abdallh Ibrahim, 26, of East Orange, N.J.; Abdoulaye Akmoudou, 41, of Newark, N.J.; Alicia Walker, 34, of Bloomfield, N.J.; Livingus Agubu, 39, of New York, N.Y.; Felix Cruz, 46, of New York, N.Y.; Feby Pledger, 45, of Far Rockaway, N.Y.; and Bernard Cribbs, 58, of Far Rockaway, N.Y.

The announcement came the day after a Prince George’s County police officer pleaded guilty to his role in a separate large-scale cigarette smuggling case.

The U.S. District Attorney’s Office for Maryland said former Prince George’s County police officer Chong Chen Kim, 43, of Odenton was involved in a cigarette-trafficking scheme that moved more than 17 million discount cigarettes and contributed to a tax loss of $2,661,240. Four other men, including another former county police officer, also have pleaded guilty in the case.

Officials said the cases announced Thursday and the officers’ cases were not related.

Intoxicated Witnesses Are 'Better Than Their Reputation'

Does being intoxicated make you a less reliable witness? Apparently not. Does this come up a lot? Apparently so: "According to law enforcement, many witnesses are intoxicated either at the time of the crime, the interview, or both." Whether you abhor sobriety or just hate eye-witness testimony, you can join me (who hates both about equally) in being glad that the journal Law and Human Behavior is asking the questions that matter.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

The Maldives Are Quite Low to the Ground

The set-up:
The average elevation above sea level is four feet. I'm told by someone who was present that the former British Foreign Office minister Jeremy Hanley was on an official visit to the Maldives and asked what the highest point of the archipelago was. The head of the Maldivian reception committee looked the imposingly built Tory up and down and said, 'It's you, Minister.'
That's from Landfalls by Tim Mackintosh-Smith, published in paperback earlier this year.

The punchline:
When the Maldives cabinet met underwater, it was not because the island nation had disappeared
And that is a real live, no-fooling BBC photo caption from last week.

Illegal Cigarette Sales To Minors

It's a big problem for many states -- stopping the illegal sale of cheap cigarettes to minors. Wednesday, Arizona's attorney general gave us an update on how the program is doing.

Underage kids set up clerks to hand over cigarettes illegally as part of a sting operation called Counter Strike. It began in 2002 and Wednesday we got this year's results.

The kids who pose as underage cigarettes store buyers for the group have hit 2,000 stores across the state, and they try to get away with breaking the law.

"288 or nearly 15 percent failed because they sold cheap cigarette online to minors," said Attorney General Tom Horne.

Teens reported many cashiers didn't even check their ID. Others would glance at it, but didn't do the math and realize they were underage. Others would swipe it through the machine and sell it anyway.

Tom Horne says more rural stores failed the test than urban ones. But overall the failure rate has gone down since the program was initiated in 2002.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Arizona Underage Smoking A Problem In Rural Areas

A statewide inspection of retail discount cigarette online outlets found that on average, employees are selling to minors nearly 15 percent of the time, authorities said Wednesday.

The state Attorney General's Office released the numbers in a press conference Wednesday.

In Apache, Coconino, Gila, Graham, Greenlee, La Paz, Navajo and Pinal counties, the number was 25 percent or higher. In Maricopa and Pima counties, it was near the state average.

"Even selling to one child is one too many," Attorney General Tom Horne said, adding such illegal sales are a more significant problem in rural areas than urban ones.

For the 2011 fiscal year, inspectors went to just under 2,000 retail online cigarettes outlets in Arizona.

The office also released a new TV and radio public service Announcement that warns cigarettes store retailers of the punishment of selling to minors, a $300 fine personally issued to employees.

Volunteers under the age of 18 are asked to participate in such investigations.

Bertha Adame, 18, got involved because she thinks smoking cigarettes is a nasty habit and something that should be stopped.

Adame did the program when she was 16 and 17. She said that one time, she was able to get six buys of tobacco in just two hours.

Clinton Zeiner, now 18, joined the program when he was 16. He was able to buy tobacco multiple times.

"I was also an athlete. I used to think that this (tobacco use) is going to hurt our team in the long run," he said.

Zeiner said sometimes store employees would check his ID but not do the math for the birth date, while other times, the employees wouldn't even ask for ID.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Selling Tobacco To Minors

Retail outlets are failing when it comes to selling tobacco products to minors.

Wednesday, Attorney General Tom Horne released the latest results from statewide inspections.

For fiscal year 2011, nearly 2,000 outlets were inspected for possible violations. 14.6%, 288 locations, failed. In Apache, Coconino, Gila, Graham, Greenlee, La Paz, Navajo and Pinal Counties, the failure rate was 25% or higher. The remaining counties reflected the statewide average.

Attorney General Horne says the results are unacceptable.

"For every 20 minors that walk into a store in Arizona to buy cigarettes, three of them - without fake ID's or lying or even trying to hide their true age - will be able to buy cigarettes," he said.

To fight the problem, Attorney General Horne announced a new TV and radio Public Service Announcement that warns store personnel that they could personally be fined up to $300 for selling to underage buyers.

Since 2002 the Attorney General's Office has partnered with the Arizona Department of Health Services to develop and maintain the CounterStrike program. The program monitors retailer compliance with state laws that prohibit the sale of tobacco products to minors. Over 23,000 retail inspections have been performed since the program's inception.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

They Had Theology, We Have Zoning

In 1735, Anne Hutchinson and her husband started a home Bible-study group, which started small but grew to include about sixty people. This was noticed first by their neighbors, then by the state, neither of whom liked the idea of unlicensed preaching going on in a private home. (Also, she was a woman, a suspect characteristic if you are a Puritan.) She was hauled before a court, where the judges threw 1 Corinthians 14:34 at her: “Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says.” Hutchinson came back with the second chapter of Titus (“Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live . . . Then they can train the younger women”), but John Winthrop was unconvinced and her case was lost.

In 2010, Chuck and Stephanie Fromm started a home Bible-study group, which started small but grew to include about sixty people. This was noticed first by their neighbors, then by the state, neither of whom liked the idea of unlicensed preaching going on in a private home. (Also, they’re Christians, a suspect characteristic if you are a bureaucrat.) They were fined $300 when the code-enforcement officer threw municipal code 9.3-301 at them: “Religious, fraternal, and non-profit” organizations can’t operate in a residential area without a Conditional Use Permit (CUP), which needless to say costs money to obtain.

The Fromms came back with . . . in truth, I’m not sure what they’ll be able to come back with. Some other clause in the Capistrano city bylaws? It’s always a shame when your enemy gets to pick the battleground. Especially when he picks zoning regulations.

God go with you, Mr. and Mrs. Fromm. I sincerely hope you are not exiled to Rhode Island and scalped by Narragansett Indians.

Famous Actors Part VI

Celebrity Actors Smoking Part VI



Here we have the sixth part of selected pictures with Hollywood Famous Actors smoking cigarettes. Enjoy the collection of photos with Celebrities Smoking Cigarettes.


1. James Stewart Smoking Cigarette

james stewart smoking

Celebrity James Stewart Smoking Davidoff Gold Cigarette

About James Stewart : James Maitland "Jimmy" Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime Achievement award. He was a major MGM contract star. He also had a noted military career and was a World War II and Vietnam War veteran, who rose to the rank of Brigadier General in the United States Air Force Reserve.

Throughout his seven decades in Hollywood, Stewart cultivated a versatile career and recognized screen image in such classics as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Philadelphia Story, Harvey, It's a Wonderful Life, Shenandoah, Rear Window, Rope, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Shop Around the Corner, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and Vertigo. He is the most represented leading actor on the AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) and AFI's 10 Top 10 lists. He is also the most represented leading actor on the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time list presented by Entertainment Weekly. As of 2007, ten of his films have been inducted into the United States National Film Registry.

Stewart left his mark on a wide range of film genres, including westerns, suspense thrillers, family films, biographies and screwball comedies. He worked for a number of renowned directors later in his career, most notably Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Billy Wilder, Frank Capra, George Cukor, and Anthony Mann. He won many of the industry's highest honors and earned Lifetime Achievement awards from every major film organization. He died at age 89, leaving behind a legacy of classic performances, and is considered one of the finest actors of the "Golden Age of Hollywood". He was named the third Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute.


2. James Cagney Smoking Cigarette

james cagney smoking

Celebrity James Cagney Smoking Davidoff Gold Slims Cigarette

About James Cagney : James Francis Cagney, Jr. (July 17, 1899 – March 30, 1986) was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth among its 50 Greatest American Screen Legends.

In his first professional acting performance, he danced dressed as a woman in the chorus line of the 1919 revue Every Sailor. He spent several years in vaudeville as a hoofer and comedian, until he got his first major acting part in 1925. He secured several other roles, receiving good notices, before landing the lead in the 1929 play Penny Arcade. After rave reviews, Warner Bros. signed him for an initial $500-a-week, three-week contract to reprise his role; this was quickly extended to a seven-year contract.

Cagney's seventh film, The Public Enemy, became one of the most influential gangster movies of the period. Notable for its famous grapefruit scene, the film thrust Cagney into the spotlight, making him one of Warners' and Hollywood's biggest stars. In 1938, he received his first Academy Award for Best Actor nomination, for Angels with Dirty Faces, before winning in 1942 for his portrayal of George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy. He was nominated a third time in 1955 for Love Me or Leave Me. Cagney retired for twenty years in 1961, spending time on his farm, before returning for a part in Ragtime, mainly to aid his recovery from a stroke.

Cagney walked out on Warners several times over the course of his career, each time coming back on better personal and artistic terms. In 1935, he sued Warners for breach of contract and won; this marked one of the first times an actor had beaten a studio over a contract issue. He worked for an independent film company for a year while the suit was being settled, and also established his own production company, Cagney Productions, in 1942, before returning to Warners again four years later. Jack Warner called him "The Professional Againster", in reference to Cagney’s refusal to be pushed around. Cagney also made numerous morale-boosting troop tours before and during World War II, and was president of the Screen Actors Guild for two years.


3. Jeff Bridges Smoking Cigarette

jeff bridges smoking

Celebrity Jeff Bridges Smoking Davidoff Gold Super Slims Cigarette

About Jeff Bridges : Jeffrey Leon "Jeff" Bridges (born December 4, 1949) is an American actor and musician. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Otis "Bad" Blake in the 2009 film Crazy Heart.

Bridges is also a musician, a photographer, and an occasional vintner and a storyteller. He comes from a well-known acting family, and worked as a child with his father, Lloyd Bridges, and brother Beau on television's Sea Hunt. Some of his best-known films include Tron, Fearless, Iron Man, The Contender, Starman, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Jagged Edge, Against All Odds, The Fisher King, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Seabiscuit, Tron: Legacy, and The Big Lebowski.

Bridges earned his sixth Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Rooster Cogburn in 2010's True Grit.

Jeffrey Leon Bridges was born in Los Angeles, California on December 4, 1949. He was born into a showbiz family, the son of actress and writer Dorothy Bridges (née Simpson) and actor Lloyd Bridges. His older brother Beau Bridges is also an actor. He has a younger sister, Lucinda, and had another brother, Garrett, who died of sudden infant death syndrome in 1948. Growing up, Bridges shared a close relationship with his brother Beau, who acted as a surrogate father when their father was working. Bridges and his siblings were raised in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles. He attended University High School in Los Angeles. At age 14, Jeff toured with his father in a stage production of Anniversary Waltz.

After graduating from high school, Bridges journeyed to New York where he studied acting at the famed Herbert Berghof Studio.


4. Jeremy Irons Smoking Cigarette

jeremy irons smoking

Celebrity Jeremy Irons Smoking Davidoff Silver Super Slims Cigarette

About Jeremy Irons : Jeremy John Irons (born 19 September 1948) is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, and Richard II. In 1984, he made his Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing and received a Tony Award for Best Actor.

Irons's first major film role came in the 1981 romantic drama The French Lieutenant's Woman, for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor. After starring in such films as Moonlighting (1982), Betrayal (1983), and The Mission (1986), he gained critical acclaim for portraying twin gynaecologists in David Cronenberg's psychological thriller Dead Ringers (1988). In 1990, Irons played accused murderer Claus von Bulow in Reversal of Fortune, and took home multiple awards including an Academy Award for Best Actor. Other notable films have included The House of the Spirits (1993), The Lion King (1994), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), Lolita (1997), The Merchant of Venice (2004), Being Julia (2004), and Appaloosa (2008).

Irons has also made several notable appearances on television. He earned his first Golden Globe Award nomination for his breakout role in the ITV series Brideshead Revisited (1981). In 2006, Irons starred opposite Helen Mirren in the historical miniseries Elizabeth I, for which he received a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Since 2011, he has been starring in the Showtime historical drama The Borgias.


5. John Travolta Smoking Cigarette

john travolta smoking

Celebrity John Travolta Smoking Davidoff One Cigarette

About John Travolta : John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease. Travolta's acting career declined in the early 1980s and continued to deteriorate throughout the remainder of the decade. His career faced a resurgence in the 1990s with his role in Pulp Fiction, and he has since continued starring in Hollywood films including Face/Off, Ladder 49, and Wild Hogs. Travolta was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance in Get Shorty.

Travolta, the youngest of six children, was born and raised in Englewood, New Jersey, an inner-ring suburb of New York City. His father, Salvatore Travolta (November 1912 – May 1995), was a semi-professional American football player turned tire salesman and partner in a tire company. His mother, Helen Cecilia (née Burke, January 1912 – December 1978), was an actress and singer who had appeared in The Sunshine Sisters, a radio vocal group, and acted and directed before becoming a high school drama and English teacher. His siblings, Joey, Ellen, Ann, Margaret, and Sam Travolta, have all acted. His father was a second-generation Italian American and his mother was Irish American; he grew up in an Irish-American neighborhood and has said that his household was predominantly Irish in culture. He was raised Roman Catholic, but converted to Scientology in 1975.


6. Johnny Depp Smoking Cigarette

johnny depp smoking

Celebrity Johnny Depp Smoking Davidoff One Slims Cigarette

About Johnny Depp : John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol. Turning to film, he played the title character of Edward Scissorhands (1990), and later found box office success in films such as Sleepy Hollow (1999), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Rango (2011), and the Pirates of the Caribbean film series (2003–present). He has collaborated with director and friend Tim Burton in seven films, their most recent collaboration being Alice in Wonderland (2010).

Depp has gained acclaim for his portrayals of people such as Edward D. Wood, Jr., in Ed Wood, Joseph D. Pistone in Donnie Brasco, Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, George Jung in Blow, and the bank robber John Dillinger in Michael Mann's Public Enemies. Films featuring Depp have grossed over $3.1 billion at the United States box office and over $7.6 billion worldwide. He has been nominated for top awards many times, winning the Best Actor Awards from the Golden Globes for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and from the Screen Actors Guild for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. He also has garnered a sex symbol status in American cinema, being twice named as the Sexiest man alive by People magazine in 2003 and 2009.

Depp was born in Owensboro, Kentucky, the son of John Christopher Depp, Sr., a civil engineer, and his wife, the former Betty Sue Wells, a waitress. He has one brother, Daniel, who is a novelist, and two sisters, Christie (now his personal manager) and Debbie. The Depp family in the United States began with a French Huguenot immigrant, Pierre Deppe or Dieppe, who settled in Virginia around 1700, part of a refugee colony situated above the falls on the James River. The actor has also surmised that he is part Native American, saying in 2011, "I guess I have some Native American [in me] somewhere down the line. My great-grandmother was quite a bit of Native American, she grew up Cherokee or maybe Creek Indian. Makes sense in terms of coming from Kentucky, which is rife with Cherokee and Creek." More recently a hereditary connection between Depp and Queen Elizabeth II was discovered possibly making him her twentieth cousin.

The family moved frequently during Depp's childhood, and he and his siblings lived in more than 20 different locations, settling in Miramar, Florida, in 1970. In 1978, Depp's parents divorced. His mother married, as her second husband, Robert Palmer (died 2000), whom Depp called "an inspiration to me". He engaged in self-harm as a child, due to the stress of dealing with family problems. He has seven or eight self-inflicted scars. In a 1993 interview, he explained his self-injury by saying, "My body is a journal in a way. It's like what sailors used to do, where every tattoo meant something, a specific time in your life when you make a mark on yourself, whether you do it yourself with a knife or with a professional tattoo artist"


7. Jack Nicholson Smoking Cigarette

jack nicholson smoking

Celebrity Jack Nicholson Smoking Davidoff B&W Black Cigarette

About Jack Nicholson : John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is renowned for his often dark-themed portrayals of neurotic characters. Nicholson has been nominated for Academy Awards 12 times and won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice, for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and for As Good as It Gets, and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the 1983 film Terms of Endearment. He is tied with Walter Brennan for most acting wins by a male actor (three), and second to Katharine Hepburn for most acting wins overall (four). He is also best known for playing the famous villain Jack Torrance in The Shining and The Joker in 1989's Batman.

He is also one of only two actors nominated for an Academy Award for acting (either lead or supporting) in every decade from the 1960s to 2000s (the other being Michael Caine). He has won seven Golden Globe Awards, and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2001. In 1994, he became one of the youngest actors to be awarded the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award. Notable films in which he has starred include, in chronological order, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Chinatown, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Reds, Terms of Endearment, Batman, A Few Good Men, Hoffa, Wolf, As Good as It Gets, About Schmidt, Something's Gotta Give and The Departed.


8. Jude Law Smoking Cigarette

jude law smoking

Celebrity Jude Law Smoking Dunhill Fine Cut Black Cigarette

About Jude Law : David Jude Heyworth Law (born 29 December 1972), known professionally as Jude Law, is an English actor, film producer and director.

He began acting with the National Youth Music Theatre in 1987, and had his first television role in 1989. After starring in films directed by Andrew Niccol, Clint Eastwood and David Cronenberg, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1999 for his performance in Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley. In 2000 he won a Best Supporting Actor BAFTA Award for his work in the film. In 2003, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in another Minghella film, Cold Mountain.

In 2006, he was one of the top ten most bankable movie stars in Hollywood. In 2007, he received an Honorary César and he was named a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. In April 2011, it was announced that he would be a member of the main competition jury at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

Law was born in Lewisham, South London, the second child of comprehensive school teachers Peter Law and Margaret Heyworth; his father later became, according to Law, "the youngest headmaster in London". He has a sister, Natasha. Law was named after a "bit of both" the book Jude the Obscure and the song Hey Jude. He grew up in Blackheath, an area in the Borough of Lewisham, and was educated at John Ball Primary School in Blackheath and Kidbrooke School, before attending the Alleyn's School.


9. Joaquin Phoenix Smoking Cigarette

joaquin phoenix smoking

Celebrity Joaquin Phoenix Smoking Dunhill Fine Cut Blue Cigarette

About Joaquin Phoenix : Joaquin Rafael Phoenix (born October 28, 1974), formerly credited as Leaf Phoenix, is an American film actor. He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and his family returned to the continental United States four years later. Phoenix is from a family of performers, including his older brother, the late River Phoenix.

Phoenix has ventured behind the camera, directing music videos as well as producing movies and television shows, and has recorded an album, the soundtrack to Walk the Line. He is also known for his work as a social activist, particularly as an advocate for animal rights. On October 27, 2008, he announced his retirement from film in order to focus on his rap music career. However, the announcement turned out to be part of Phoenix's acting role in a mockumentary directed by Casey Affleck, I'm Still Here.


10. Jeremy Renner Smoking Cigarette

jeremy renner smoking

Celebrity Jeremy Renner Smoking Dunhill Fine Cut Dark Blue Cigarette

About Jeremy Renner : Jeremy Lee Renner (born January 7, 1971) is an American actor and musician. Renner appeared in films throughout the 2000s, mostly in supporting roles. He came to prominence in films such as Dahmer (2002), S.W.A.T. (2003), Neo Ned (2005), and 28 Weeks Later (2007). He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his starring role in the 2009 Best Picture-winning war thriller The Hurt Locker. The following year he appeared in the critically acclaimed film The Town. His work as "James Coughlin" in that film received a nomination for the 2010 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor plus nominations in the Supporting Actor category at the SAG Awards and the Golden Globes.

Renner was born in Modesto, California, the son of Valerie Cearley and Lee Renner. He has five younger siblings, his younger brother being born in 2011, making him a big brother at the age of 40. He graduated from Fred C. Beyer High School and attended Modesto Junior College.



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