HOLLYWOOD MOVIES FAIL TO SHOW NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES OF SEX, DRUG USE: STUDY

LONDON (AP) - Hollywood might be bad for your health, a new study
says.

A team of medical researchers has found plenty of sex but only one
reference to condoms among the top-grossing films of the past two
decades, concluding that blockbuster movies paint a worryingly
consequence-free view of sex and drug-use.

Australian researchers who studied 87 of the biggest box-office hits
since 1983 found they contained no depictions of unwanted pregnancy or
sexually transmitted disease. Drug-use also tended to be portrayed
"without negative consequences," they reported in a study published
Monday in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.

"The social norm being presented is concerning, given the HIV and
illicit drug pandemics in developing and industrialized countries,"
said Dr. Hasantha Gunasekera of the School of Public Health at the
University of Sydney, the study's lead author.

The researchers studied a September 2003 list of the 200 most
successful movies of all time as ranked by the Internet Movie Database
on the basis of world box-office takings. They excluded animated
features, films with G and PG ratings, and movies released or set
before the start of the AIDS pandemic in 1983.

Of the 87 movies remaining, 28 contained sex scenes - a total of 53
scenes in all.

Only one film - the 1990 romance Pretty Woman, in which Julia Roberts
plays a prostitute - contained a "suggestion of condom use, which was
the only reference to any form of birth control."

"There were no depictions of important consequences of unprotected sex
such as unwanted pregnancies, HIV or other STDs," they added.

The sexiest film - in quantity, if not quality - was the 2001 comedy
American Pie 2, which contained seven episodes of unprotected sex in
which the "only consequences were social embarrassment."

The 1992 thriller Basic Instinct had six sex scenes, no birth control
and no "public health consequences" - although "other consequences"
included death by ice pick.

Suave super-spy James Bond also was rapped for his promiscuity. The
2002 Bond adventure Die Another Day contained three episodes of sex -
"all new partners, no condoms, no birth control, no consequences at
all" - but at least no drug use.

Eight per cent of the films studied contained depictions of marijuana
use, and seven per cent other non-injected drugs, the researchers said.

Just over half the marijuana scenes - 52 per cent - showed use of the
drug in a positive light. In the other 48 per cent of cases it was
depicted in a neutral light with no negative consequences.

Characters smoked tobacco in 68 per cent of the films and got drunk in
32 per cent.

Only a quarter of the movies - including spooky drama The Sixth Sense
and Tom Hanks survival adventure Cast Away - were entirely free of
behaviour such as unprotected sex, drug use, smoking and drinking, the
researchers said.

"The most popular movies of the last two decades often show normative
depictions of negative health behaviours," the authors concluded. "The
motion picture industry should be encouraged to depict safer sex
practices and the real consequences of unprotected sex and illicit
drug use."

Gunasekera said "there is convincing evidence that the entertainment
media influences behaviour."

But some experts said the issue was more complex than the study
suggested.

"Hollywood doesn't depict anything with any of its consequences," said
Adam Smith, a writer with film magazine Empire. "Its job isn't to be a
social or moral guardian. It's fiction."

"I don't think you can pinpoint Hollywood as responsible for sexual
immorality in the post-AIDS era," said Paul Grainge of the Institute
of Film and Television Studies at the University of Nottingham.

"Hollywood responds to social mores as well as creates
them."