Remote patrol weekend

About 10 years ago, Joseph Epstein wrote an essay complaining that nobody ever smoked in the movies anymore (to say nothing of movie theaters). Since then, of course, Hollywood has begun lighting up again, so we shouldn't be too surprised at the arrival of "The Last Cigarette," a habit-forming comic documentary from director Kevin Rafferty ("Atomic Cafe") at 8 tonight on TLC. "The Last Cigarette" is basically a clip reel of dozens and dozens of nicotine scenes from old films. Rafferty then works the montage around a notorious tableau: the 1994 congressional hearing in which executives of all the top cigarette makers testified under oath that smoking was neither addictive nor all that bad for you. The result is a deliciously savage attack on tobacco toleration. At one point Rafferty changes course slightly, flipping between old educational movies on the dangers of smoking and the more glamorous depictions of Hollywood. But through clever editing, it's the instructional films and their clunky messages that wind up looking sophisticated. A neat trick. @ART CAPTION:A pregnant woman smoking is one of the images used in "the Last Cigarette." @ART:Photo >>>