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Is it too early in the presidential campaign to start focusing attention on the candidates' spouses? If the candidate is Barack Obama, the answer, apparently, is no.

Two major newspapers feature front-page profiles Friday of Michelle Obama, the wife of the Illinois senator and top contender for the Democratic nomination.

USA Today describes Michelle Obama as "candid" and "unscripted" – on the campaign trail and off. She tells the newspaper she wants her charismatic husband's supporters to know he's not the "next messiah, who's going to fix it all."

She dismisses criticism that some of her earlier campaign speeches included what some observers called "emasculating" comments about her husband – like his inability to make his bed – although she no longer repeats those anecdotes.

And she says she hasn't thought much about what kind of first lady she'd be. "I survive this stuff by not getting too far ahead," she says.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post looks at Michelle Obama's decision to take a timeout from a busy and successful career to be at her husband's side during his White House run.

In an interview with the Post, the 43-year-old Princeton and Harvard-educated lawyer, now a vice president at the University of Chicago Hospitals earning $275,000 a year, says the prospect of not working is "a bit disconcerting. But it's not like I'll be bored."

The Post points out that Michelle Obama isn't the only political spouse drawing attention early in the campaign – Elizabeth Edwards and Ann Romney have had turns in the spotlight for their battles with breast cancer and multiple sclerosis, respectively. And Hillary Clinton's husband seems to garner a fair bit of press, too.


Hollywood Snuffs Out Smoking

The Motion Picture Association of America's announcement that depictions of smoking will now be a factor – along with sex, violence and adult language – in determining a movie's rating (possibly making a PG-13 film R-rated, for example) lit a fire under writers at the nation's top newspapers.

"WARNING: Smoking may be hazardous to your movie rating," is The New York Times' lead in its front-page story on Hollywood's move to de-glamorize onscreen smoking.

USA Today takes a similar tack: "Smoking isn't only bad for your health. If you're a filmmaker, it may be bad for your movie."

"Movies and cigarettes used to go together like Bogie and Bacall," says the Los Angeles Times.

"Put it out, sweetheart – Hollywood kicks the habit" is the Washington Post's headline, in another Humphrey Bogart reference.

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