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Charles Brackett ca. 1945: Hollywood diarist and Billy Wilder's co-screenwriter (1936–1949) and producer (1945–1949). Q&A with 'Charles Brackett Diaries' editor Anthony Slide: Billy Wilder's screenwriter-producer partner in his own words Six-time Academy Award winner Billy Wilder is a film legend. He is renowned for classics such as The Major and the Minor, Double Indemnity, Sunset Blvd., Witness for the Prosecution, Some Like It Hot, and The Apartment. The fact that Wilder was not the sole creator of these movies is all but irrelevant to graduates from the Auteur School of Film History. Wilder directed, co-wrote, and at times produced his films. That should suffice. For auteurists, perhaps. But not for those interested in the whole story. That's one key reason why the Charles Brackett diaries are such a great read. Through Brackett's vantage point, they offer a welcome – and unique – glimpse into the collaborative efforts that resulted in...

The founder of Blu Cigs, battery-powered electronic cigarettes that mimic the look and feel of traditional cigs and deliver vaporized nicotine to users, believes he's discovered an innovation that could help his company compete with R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris.

Jason Healy, president of the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company, and his team have spent about a year developing the "Smart Pack," a first-of-its-kind e-cig pack which features unique ID technology that detects nearby e-smokers. Before, e-cig packs were meant simply as a portable charging device for the glowing blue-tip devices. Now, when a fellow user is "vaping" (not smoking) within a 50-foot range, the Smart Pack will notify both parties, potentially prompting a social interaction. What's more, the company has designed the products for seamless integration with social networks like Facebook and Twitter, essentially making the Smart Pack the Foursquare check-in for the nicotine-addicted consumer.

"Customers were always telling us...

WWE star R-Truth is taking serious heat for lighting up a cigarette on " Raw " last night ... in front of a row of kids -- and now, the biggest anti-smoking activist on the planet is Demanding he apologize. The drama began when Ron "R-Truth" Killings hit up the audience for a smoke ... and actually Lit Up right in front of them ... including several children. But the on-screen cig-fest didn't sit so well with anti-smoking activist Patrick Reynolds...

Gore Verbinski’s Rango opened Friday and topped the weekend box office with a total of $38 million in tickets sales, while receiving extremely positive reviews from critics nationwide. What the filmmakers didn’t expect was for the animated film to cause a stir. “The film includes at least 60 instances of characters smoking”, said Kori Titus, CEO of the Sacramento-based non-profit Breathe California, “and that isn’t acceptable”.

According to USA Today, One of Breathe California’s projects is “Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down!” — in which trained young people and adults analyze films’ tobacco content. According to Kori Titus the only other animated film on par Rango’s continuous smoking was 101 Dalmatians, with about 60 instances of Cruella De Vil smoking.

“A lot of kids are going to start smoking because of this movie,” said Stanton Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California-San Francisco.

Is the red-band trailer the new Joe Camel? The cartoon character allegedly used for years as a means to lure kids to cigarettes was retired in 1997 after a suit was brought against R.J. Reynolds claiming that sales of Camels to underage kids had skyrocketed since the Us introduction of the ad character in 1988. Now some are saying that red band trailers effectively target underage audiences for R-rated films in much the same way that Joe Camel was used by R.J. Reynolds. Cigarettes and R-rated movies: same dangers, right? The New York Times reports that, starting with a Federal Trade Commission report in December, there is increasing concern over the audience that red band trailers is really reaching. That report criticized "explicit and pervasive targeting of young children," and lax age-gate policies. Red-band trailers were originally cut to be shown in front of some R-rated, Nc-17 and unrated movies, but as...