00-NO SMOKING
SECRET agent James Bond may be licensed to kill - but he is no longer allowed to light up.After 19 films 007 has smoked his last cigarette. The movie legend will never again be seen with a fag in his hand. And Bond's car will have a sign on the dash asking passengers: "Please do not smoke".
Bond star Pierce Brosnan backs the move - even though he's a smoker himself. The actor didn't like portraying the spy as a slave to the weed because it set a bad example to youngsters.
In the last Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies, Brosnan arranged that only his hand was seen when Bond smoked.
It's a far cry from 007's first screen appearance when his hand-made cigarettes were a trademark.
Film director Cubby Broccoli arranged that Bond, played by Sean Connery, was lighting up when he was first seen.
Cubby remembered: "We see Bond's face for the first time. He takes a lighter to his cigarette and flicks the flame, then replies - to a query about his name - 'Bond, James Bond'."
And the spy's creator, Ian Fleming, portrayed 007 as a 60-a-day man in the books which formed the basis for the films. He smoked Morland cigarettes which were made specially for him.
Other Bonds have also lit up on screen. George Lazenby smoked in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Roger Moore also smokes cigars in real life and Timothy Dalton carried on the tradition in Licence To Kill.
But film bosses decided it was time to make James give up.
Health watchdogs have appealed to directors to cut back on smoking in blockbusters, especially those with teen appeal.
Doctors are worried that while smoking is banned in most British cinemas, the number of scenes featuring cigarettes has increased fourfold since 1990.
But Bond won't smoke in his new £70million movie, The World Is Not Enough, which is currently being filmed.
An insider said: "I don't think it will be mentioned that James has given up smoking.
"The idea is to let it be known by having a sign on the dash of his BMW sports car and he might go and sit in the no-smoking section of a restaurant.
"But I don't think he will be giving up his interest in champagne and beautiful women just yet."
