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Working Girl Melanie Griffith Raises Smoking Girl, Dakota Griffith
By Todd Seavey
She was a deceived porn actress in Body Double, a prostitute on Miami Vice (and in Stormy Monday), and a Louise Brooks-influenced woman on the wrong side of the law in Something Wild, but the real evidence that actress Melanie Griffith is trouble may be the photo that Us Weekly just ran of her lighting up her seventeen-year-old daughter Dakota's cigarette:
http://www.usmagazine.com/blog/2006/08/03/melanie-griffith-and-her-daughter-are-totally-smokin/
Americans are understandably annoyed by nosy busybodies, but cigarettes are one health threat worth fearing -- indeed, the leading preventable cause of premature death -- so we can't help noting that if, like about half of young smokers, Dakota continues the habit for decades to come, Mom will have helped cut her daughter's life expectancy by an average of seven years. At first, that might not sound like a big number to some people, but as teens ought to realize better than anyone, you can do a lot and have all sorts of interesting experiences in a seven-year span -- if you're not dead, of course. Wheezing with emphysema doesn't help much either.
Dakota might want to check out our site for teens about smoking, http://TheScooponSmoking.org or our book Cigarettes: What the Warning Label Doesn't Tell You -- Information Tobacco Companies Don't Want Teens to Know About the Dangers of Smoking -- and Mom might want to take a look at the version of the book tailored for adults.
Griffith always seemed far more convincing playing ditzy characters like the secretary in the remake of Born Yesterday or the mistress in Bonfire of the Vanities rather than the legal-strategizing landlady heroine in the pro-property-rights thriller Pacific Heights or the cunning secretary-turned-spy in Shining Through. This may be clinching evidence that the ditzy roles come more naturally to her.
Despite cigarette companies' claims to have stopped marketing to kids, it's worth keeping in mind that some 80% of new smokers in the U.S. start in their teens. At a time in their lives when few of us would contend humans' ability to gauge long-term vs. short-term costs and benefits is at its peak, many teens are making a choice that, because of cigarette's addictive strength, will determine the timing and often horribly painful circumstances of their demises years later.
By definition, that's a hard message to get out without sounding like a killjoy -- and Melanie Griffith's not making it any easier.
Todd Seavey is Director of Publications at the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH.org , HealthFactsAndFears.com).
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