EIC talks addiction depiction
Council aims to show realistic view of substance abuse
Addiction experts from the EIC, a nonprofit advocacy group, are holding meetings with studios and production houses all over town to help creative types accurately depict drug, alcohol and tobacco use in movies and on TV.
Briefings, set to wrap by the end of August, have either already occurred or are scheduled with 20th Century Fox Television, WB, Tribune Entertainment, Imagine Television, Paramount Network TV, Warner Bros. TV, ABC, Studios USA, MTV, Disney Channel, E! Entertainment and Walt Disney TV, among others.
The Fox meetings, for instance, are with writing and producing staff of "King of the Hill" and "The Pretender"; at Columbia TriStar, "Dawson's Creek"; and at DreamWorks, "It's Like ... You Know."
"We're bringing in experts on addiction to educate creative people on how addiction works and the effects of different kinds of substances, psychologically and physiologically, so they know how to apply it," said Larry Deutchman, an EIC spokesman. "We're not here to tell them what to create or how to create it."
On July 15, EIC held a meeting at the headquarters of the National Assn. of Broadcasters in Washington with reps of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Addiction, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and other orgs.
Also joining the brainstorming session were Matt Kunitz, supervising producer of the MTV series "The Real World," and Liz Frillici, a consultant for "The Montel Williams Show."
"This effort is an excellent way for the entertainment industry to respond proactively and work in partnership with the scientific and advocacy communities to the benefit of our audiences," said EIC president Brian L. Dyak.
