Sacré Bleu! France Lets Sartre Smoke

Members of the French parliament approved new exceptions to a draconian anti-smoking law that had advertisers scurrying to censor old photographs. A public outcry gradually mounted as famous figures—Charles de Gualle's culture minister André Malraux, the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, the iconic comic character Jacques Tati—appeared in posters without their trademark cigarettes. MPs said they wanted to counteract the extensive way the country's anti-smoking law had been interpreted. The bill that summarized its purpose with typical French eloquence: "The falsification of history, the censorship of works of the mind, the denial of reality must remain the heinous marks of totalitarian regimes."