DEPP THREATENS TO BREAK SMOKE BAN

DEPP THREATENS TO BREAK SMOKE BAN

November 17, 2005

JOHNNY DEPP has vowed to defy any smoking ban imposed in Britain and attacks similar enforcements in his native America.

The actor, who is thought to have a home in the south of England, has cut down on his nicotine habit, but believes smokers should be allowed to quit on their own, without being alienated.

He threatens, "I'll come over and have a smoke-a-thon. They've taken that whole pretzel and stretched it into as absurd pretzel as I've ever seen.

"Obviously it ain't good for you, and I don't condone it or recommend it, but everyone has to find their own way out of it. The idea of bludgeoning people and telling them that if they smoke they are awful is ludicrous."

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Harrelson versus Depp in battle of the smoking ban

By Guy Adams
Published: 05 December 2005

Having divided the House of Commons, the debate over smoking in public is causing friction between some of the biggest "names" in Hollywood.

A few weeks back, Johnny Depp told a New York newspaper he'd "come over and have a smoke-athon", if any ban went through. "The idea of bludgeoning people and telling them that if they smoke they're awful is ludicrous," he said.

Now Woody Harrelson, who is starring in the West End play Night of the Iguana has weighed in on behalf of the health police.

Although he has previously endorsed campaigns to legalise marijuana, Harrelson, above, has adopted a hardline approach to tobacco, and has refused to join colleagues in London venues where it's permitted.

His first-night dinner at the Meridian this evening will be tobacco-free and journalists wishing to interview him are banned from lighting up.

As a result, the actor has been invited to become patron of the Roy Castle Lung Foundation, a leading pressure group in favour of the ban. "He is keen on healthy living," a spokesman for Harrelson's play said. "He's a vegan, cycles round London and his clothes are made out of hemp.

"He lives in Hawaii, in a solar-powered commune where they grow their own food. He likes to practise his beliefs and doesn't like smoky environments so we've had to be mindful of that."

The pressure group ASH reckons: "Woody's clearly got more brains than Johnny Depp."

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