The New York Times recently ran an important story, "Where There's Smoke, There's a Star," about how gossip magazines are increasingly including in their pages photos of celebrities — gasp! — smoking cigarettes.

With the article appearing only a couple of days after a London tabloid ran pictures of supermodel Kate Moss snorting cocaine, the notion of catching grown celebrities sucking on Marlboros seemed about as innocent as the paparazzi snapping Dakota Fanning chugging a juice box.

(Incidentally, Kate Moss apologized to the H&M clothing store for which she had a modeling contract because she violated their policy of only hiring those who are "healthy, wholesome and sound." If that's H&M's criteria, then, my goodness, can someone explain why it's hiring supermodels?)

Anyhow, I love the celebs-puffing-away pics and commend People, In Touch, the Economist and the rest of the gossip rags for featuring more of them in their pages.

As someone who only reads gossip magazines during pedicures, I couldn't care less about most "celebrity scandals." Big deal that Renee Zellweger and Kenny Chesney (who?) called it quits after four months of marriage. Celebrities occupy a different world than the rest of us, and in that world they're supposed to keep their marriages to under a year.

But catch an American sweetheart like Kate Hudson getting a nicotine fix, as a photo used to illustrate the Times' story did, and my heart beats a little faster, my breath gets a little shorter, my lungs blacken, and then I break out into a hacking, phlegm-filled cough. And I bet the same thing happens to women when they see the Times' smokin' photo of actor/environmental activist Leonardo "Think globally, smoke locally" DiCaprio.

Of course, I already know that all celebrities, with the exception of Ron Howard, smoke. But it's nice to see the physical evidence. Unlike cheating on a spouse with Angelina Jolie, smoking is only a wee bit naughty, and completely pedestrian, and, sue me, I find that kind of glimpse into a celebrity's private life irresistible. "So-and-so is just another dumb human!" Sometimes, I admit, I get a little sad when I find out that, say, Mary-Kate Olsen is a smoker, but it's an enjoyable sadness.

The good news is, we're likely to keep seeing these photos. One of the reasons, the Times story postulates, that the number of celebrity-smoking photos is on the rise is because of laws — in celeb-packed places like Los Angeles and New York — requiring people to smoke outside of bars and restaurants, where the paparazzi await. Heck, if I were mayor of a city where smoking in bars is still allowed, I'd be doing everything in my power to attract celebrities. And once I'd attracted the celebrities, I'd promote the heck out of my city to attract tourists: "Scranton — Where Celebs Come to Smoke Indoors!"

The bad news, though, is that, according to the Times, anti-smoking organizations are worried that when young people see photos of their favorite stars puffing, they, too, will want to become photographers and take pictures of celebrities smoking. Personally, I don't buy that.

Nor do I buy the idea that more kids will smoke if they know celebrities smoke. The way I see it is: If you take up smoking because you find out Kevin Federline smokes, well, then, you were going to take up smoking anyway. I know that if my son ever uses the "But Kate Hudson smokes" excuse on me, I'll snap back, "Listen, young man, maybe I'll buy that line if you star in a remake of 'Raising Helen.'"

Now, the last thing I want is for more kids - or even more adults - to take up cigarettes. That said, I do hope that anti-smoking groups aren't successful in shaming celebrities into quitting. And it'd be even more of a pity if celebs quit smoking out of fear that they'll be photographed by gossip magazines.

Why? Because the less celebs smoke, the longer they'll live, which means the longer we'll all have to wait for the glossy newsstand-only People magazine special-edition life retrospectives.

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(Mark Bazer can be reached at mebazer@yahoo.com.)

(C) 2005 MARK BAZER, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.