Salma Hayek – Smoking
December 30, 2008 by Tom
By now, I’m sure you’ve seen the photos of Ugly Betty executive producer Salma Hayek smoking with her baby nearby while after-Christmas shopping. Needless to say, they’ve caused quite an uproar.
Part of me says, “A Hollywood celebrity smoking? Who woulda’ thunk it?”. Hollywood has a long tradition of smokers, many of whom are considered legends.
And, whose business is it anyways? This is NOT Michael Jackson holding his infant son over a balcony railing. Heck, it’s not even Miley Cyrus riding around without a seat belt. In America, smoking tobacco is not yet illegal.
Yet, there’s another part of me, the ex-smoker and parent, who says, “Someone needs to give Salma a tsk-tsk, if only to protect little Valentina.” America has a strong puritanical streak, and, although it’s no longer focused on sexuality, it can come out when issues like smoking or environmentalism come up. We are not above putting a scarlet “S” on someone.
Exposing a child to second-hand smoke is not the wisest of parental policies.
Also, I’ve seen Eric Mabius quoted on some entertainment blogs as hating to work with Salma because of the smoking, but I can’t confirm that through major media sources. But, it wouldn’t surprise me, if true.
But, then I come back around to thinking it’s none of my business. 
On another note, isn’t little Valentina absolutely beautiful?
i am a non-smoker myself but i don’t really get all this hoo-ha over selma lighting up. besides, she isn’t the only one snapped up with a cigarette in their mouth. there used to be an old photo of a younger michael urie smoking a cigarette. though i hope he has since given up the habit.
The older I get the more disgusting I find cigarette smoke, but in that photo Salma isn’t right up in the baby’s face. If she were holding the baby and smoking, or smoking while driving in a vehicle with the windows rolled up, I would find it to be much worse.
Big news: Some People Smoke.
Sorry, I’m not trying to be snarky towards you particularly (esp since you’re kind of sitting on the fence), it’s just everyone making a big deal out of this as if it’s a criminal offence when 30 years or so ago, like, half the population smoked.
I don’t like smoking: I don’t choose to smoke and I think choosing to smoke is a bad decision to make. I think we should try to encourage people not to take it up. But it’s their choice. I don’t like this do-gooding culture where we stigmatise smokers as if she had forced the cigarette into her little girl’s mouth and added some heroin for good measure. I agree with the above comment that this doesn’t even count as passive smoking, the smoke was blowing away.