A pressure group over in the U.S. has lead to a revelation from James Cameron which was spotted by superannuation. The character played by Sigourney Weaver smokes cigarettes on screen and ‘The ‘Smoke Free Movies initiative’ has described this as ‘like someone just put a bunch of plutonium in the water supply’. In a statement over the weekend, Cameron said he had never intended Weaver’s character, Grace Augustine, to be ‘an aspirational role model’ for teenagers.

“She’s rude, she swears, she drinks, she smokes,” stated Cameron. “Also, from a character perspective, we were showing that Grace doesn’t care about her human body, only her avatar body, which again is a negative comment about people in our real world living too much in their avatars, meaning online and in video games.”

Wise words there from James Cameron, creator of “James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game” on PS3, Xbox, PC, DSI, Wii and PSP. If I follow his thinking, that makes Avatar the first game ever that, if you play it, you are criticising yourself for playing the damn thing. It’s virtual self-flagellation.