"Inside The Actor's Studio" and the hypocrisy of the movie industry Johnny Depp, resident of France and long-time critic of the US, was the guest today. I programmed it into my Replay mostly because someone at a gathering yesterday mentioned that the one with Mike Myers had been really good and talking about it gave us all a chance to poke fun at everyone's favorite pompous ass, James Lipton. Anyway, Depp walks out and mumbles something to the effect of 'I apologize in advance for the poison I am about to ...' whatever he finishes with while he lights up a thin dark cheroot. Meekly, almost revently, Lipton demurs, "You may." Where are the gasps of horror? Where is Rob Reiner, with his claims that pedophilia, murder, drug use, incest and gratuious violence are all okay te smoking should be banned from film? Why did no one in the audience shout down Johnny Depp for daring to smoke? No one else in the Actor's Studio can smoke ... why can he? Instead, Lipton is practically fawning over Depp ... he's so avant-garde for daring to smoke when everyone in America is bludgeoned with advertisements against smoking. Do I have a point? Maybe. Depp has no problem telling us everything that's wrong with America, how Bush is so awful and that's why he lives in France ( though he moved there during the Clinton years ) yet apparently smoking is where France is so superior. Even worse is that any student caught smoking inside the school would be ejected, ridiculed, subjected to all manner of shrill hysteria about the evils of second hand smoke. Where are the protectors of the poor students in the audience? Aren't we afraid they will perish? Don't even get me started on Jon Favreau's "Dinner For Five" ... where five famous types get together and stun us with their insights and then light up cigars at the end of every episode ... inside Pinot in Hollywood, which is a restaurant in the state where no one is allowed to smoke in restaurants, that being sunny California.