The legislation passed 19 months ago, but few people, it seems, have taken note that chatting on your cellphone in a New York City movie theater is now illegal.
Three teenagers who had left the United Artists Court Street Stadium 12 theater in Brooklyn were unaware of the law last week when asked about it by a reporter. One of them offered a Clintonesque defense of the transgression she had committed inside. "OK, I picked up, but I only whispered," said Eva Davila, 15.
Even several owners and managers of movie theaters contacted last week were unfamiliar with the measure, which provides for a US$50 fine for talking on a cellphone in public performance spaces, including museums, cinemas and Broadway theaters.
But there is at least one movie theater where the managers are well aware of the law -- and their customers are getting well acquainted with it, too.
At the Cobble Hill Cinemas, an independently owned five-screen theater a few blocks down the road from the Court Street 12, the theater's prohibition of cellphone use is made clear by signs laden with exclamation points and tacked to every imaginable surface, along with other signs explaining the rules regarding outside food, bathroom use and smoking.
"Other theaters don't put up signs and don't do anything about it, which makes our job a lot harder," said Kathy Angotti, the theater's general manager. "It's a good law, and we try to enforce it. But I'm telling you, it's hard."
Hard, she said, because the city has provided no extra officers to issue tickets, leaving the theater's employees to try to hail an officer off the street or call 911 -- a measure that is both extreme and ineffective, because the offender is usually long gone by the time an officer arrives. Even when the police have arrived in time, she said, they have declined to issue citations.
A police spokesman, Detective Walter Burnes, said issuing tickets for cellphone use was not a priority for the department. The city has no record of any tickets being issued for cellphone use.
That does not bother Councilman Philip Reed, the sponsor of the law banning cellphone use in theaters. Reed, who represents East Harlem, readily admits that the law is unenforceable and that it would be foolish for the police to issue summonses. Rather, he said, the law was intended to "embolden the community," to make the public feel all right about saying, "You can't do that."
"Anyone talking on a cellphone is a significant disturbance when you've paid a lot of money to see a performance," Reed said.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg vetoed the law, arguing that it would be unenforceable, but the City Council overrode the veto. Still, Reed says the measure has been effective, citing anecdotal evidence about declining cellphone use in theaters. He also said that other big cities like Los Angeles and Chicago had called seeking advice on how to implement similar laws.
"It's like the pooper-scooper law: it's not enforced, but now that people know about it they clean up after their dogs," he said. "That's what's happening here, that's why there's been such a significant improvement in people's behavior. Like we say: You can have your phone on vibrate, look and see who's calling and, if it's so important, take your behind out of your seat, go outside and call them back."
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