At this year's 71st Golden Globes, Leonardo DiCaprio and Julia Louis-Dreyfus were filmed smoking e-cigarettes at different times during the ceremony, and a group of U.S. senators are rallying against the televised depictons which they claim "glamorize" smoking, Reuters reports.
E-cigarettes are battery-powered vapor devices that simulate tobacco smoking. Some contain a mix of nicotine and flavorings, and some analysts predict that within a decade, they may outpace the traditional cigarette on the market.
The electronic smoking present at the Golden Globes, which aired Sunday night on NBC, prompted four Democratic U.S. senators to come together and pen a request to disallow e-cigarettes from public broadcasts, at least where the awards show is concerned.
"The Golden Globes celebrates entertainers who are an influence on young fans," they wrote. "We ask the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and NBC Universal to take actions to ensure that future broadcasts of the Golden Globes do not intentionally feature images of e-cigarettes. "Such action would help to avoid the glamorization of smoking and protect the health of young fans."
The letter was signed by Dick Durbin of Illinois, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Edward Markey of Massachusetts.
