Last night, Jeff and I went to see Bend It Like Beckham (a wonderful film, by the way). The pre-film features included a PSA on behalf of the Will Rogers Institute, “a national health organization dedicated to the support of lung research and developing new treatments and cures for pulmonary diseases and disorders.”

How to support the organization? Spokesperson Tommy Lee Jones, sounding like Brenda Vacarro after he dismounted from his polo pony, wheezed: “Purchase any large combo box here at the theater tonight, including a large popcorn, large soda and candy, and a percentage of the purchase price will result in a donation to the Will Rogers Institute.”

In the mid-1990s, it was purported that “a large [movie] popcorn contained 80 grams of fat even without any topping. Add a few squirts of melted butter, and the fat content went up to 130 grams. That’s equivalent to eight Big Macs, or your four-day saturated fat limit.” [source: eye weekly; July 17, 2002]. (Note: To be fair, since the publication of that report many if not all or most theaters have switched from coconut oil to canola oil for popping popcorn, dramatically reducing the amount of saturated fat.)

Mmmm… the popcorn’s not half as delicious as the irony.