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RALEIGH (AP) — Camera! Action! But no lights?

Debate on a bill to ban smoking at many work places in North Carolina was delayed in the Senate Health Care Committee on Wednesday because the motion picture industry worries the bill would prevent actors from smoking on screen.

The bill, which cleared the House three weeks ago, could bar smoking at many work sites, including film lots, the industry says.

Sen. Bill Purcell, D-Scotland, the committee's co-chairman, said he wanted to give the movie industry in Wilmington sufficient time to propose an amendment. The bill will be considered next week, he said.

The state is among the nation's leaders in generating film revenues.

"This is a big issue with the movie makers in North Carolina," said Purcell, adding that he had no problem. "The film industry is a very important industry to North Carolina."

Vans Stevenson, senior vice president of state government affairs for the Motion Picture Association of America, which sought the change, said the request is designed to ensure that "arts imitate life."

"We're only seeking a narrow exception for the actors," Stevenson said in a phone interview. California has a similar exception, he added.

The bill's chief sponsor, Rep. Hugh Holliman, D-Davidson, said Wednesday he wasn't taking a stand on a moviemaking exemption yet.

"We'll take a look at it. We'll see what it does," said Holliman, who tried unsuccessfully to pass similar smoking bans in 2005 and 2007.

Purcell said a new version of the bill expected before the committee would restore tougher restrictions on smoking that were deleted when the bill passed the House. A House provision to bar smoking in businesses or restaurants that employ or serve anyone under age 18 likely would be broadened, he said.

Purcell also said the definition of private clubs, whose patrons would be permitted to keep smoking, would be narrowed in an attempt to satisfy the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association, which doesn't support the House version of the measure.

North Carolina is still the nation's top tobacco-growing state, but that heritage still hasn't prevented legislators in recent years from raising tobacco taxes from 5 cents per pack to 35 cents and banning smoking inside state buildings and their own Legislative Building.

North Carolina has been the site for filming of such movies as George Clooney's "Leatherheads" and Will Ferrell's "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby." The television series "Dawson's Creek" was filmed in Wilmington, followed by "One Tree Hill."