From www.aceshowbiz.com:

Here’s a very unofficial transcript of a scene from the upcoming film Tropic Thunder, in which Robert Downey Jr. (right) advises Ben Stiller on how to play a character with an intellectual disability. In the scene, the two men are actors discussing a fictional film called “Simple Jack.” (Note: Includes language that may be considered offensive.)

Stiller: There were times when I was doing Jack when I actually felt retarded. Like really retarded.

Downey: Oh yeah. Damn.

Stiller: In a weird way, I had to sort of just free myself up to believe that it was okay to be stupid or dumb.

Downey: To be a moron.

Stiller: Yeah.

Downey: To be moronical.

Stiller: Exactly.

Downey: An imbecile.

Stiller: Yeah. When I was playing a character.

Downey: When you was a character.

Stiller: Yeah, I mean, as Jack. Definitely.

Downey: It’s like working with mercury. It’s how science makes art form.

Stiller: Yeah.

Downey: You an artist.

Stiller: It’s what we do, right?

Downey: Everybody knows you never do a full retard.

Stiller: What do you mean?

Downey:  Check it out. Dustin Hoffman, Rainman, look retarded, act retarded, not retarded. Count toothpicks to your cards. Autistic. Sure. Not retarded.

You know Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump. Slow, yes. Retarded, maybe. Braces on his legs. But he charmed the pants off Nixon and he won a ping-pong competition? That ain’t retarded.

You went full retard, man. Never go full retard.

Earlier post here.

UPDATE: National rights organization prepares for boycott, protest

UPDATE 2: Screenings postponed as premiere looms; Boycott, protests planned

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You’ve seen the trailers. Tropic Thunder, a big budget summer comedy by DreamWorks Pictures, is due out August 13. But here’s something the trailers don’t point out: Ben Stiller plays a role that leans heavily on the term “retard.”

There are those who view the word “retard” as offensive and demeaning, and think it fuels social stigma against vulnerable people. And there are others, like perhaps the R-rated film’s star, director and lead writer Ben Stiller (at left in an image from one of the studio’s marketing websites), who may think the word is inoffensive and a good complement to the film’s other gags, stunts, explosions and gross-out jokes.

Already disability advocates are registering dismay about the language on the image above — “Once upon a time … There was a retard” — and conferring about how to address it. Let’s be clear: I haven’t seen the movie, and early reviews are scant. (Click here to see what Variety and the Hollywood Reporter had to say.) Here’s what I have been able to piece together:

Tropic Thunder is a testosterone-pumped action/adventure/comedy featuring mega-stars Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black as self-absorbed actors filming a war movie on location.

Stiller is Tugg Speedman, a fading action star who earlier failed badly in his bid for Oscar glory as “Simple Jack,” a man with an intellectual disability. “Simple Jack” is featured as a film-within-a-film, with Stiller outfitted in a classic institutional bowl haircut and bad teeth. It even has its own marketing website — the slogan is “What he doesn’t have in his head, he makes up for in his heart.” A satirical plot synopsis posted there quotes a critic as saying that Speedman’s Jack was “one of the most retarded performances in cinema history.”

Downey, as the more distinguished actor, gives Speedman advice on maximizing his chance for future Oscars: “Never go full retard.”  When the actors are taken hostage by real guerrillas who turn out to be Jack fans, they force Speedman to re-enact the role for their entertainment.

(more…)

By Alan Judd and Andy Miller in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Federal regulators declared patients at Georgia Regional Hospital/Atlanta to be in “immediate jeopardy” of physical harm after the hospital failed another recent inspection. The action followed the state’s recent implementation of a $3.4 million “turnaround” plan that was supposed to address persistently dangerous conditions.

The federal government gave the state three weeks to submit another plan to correct violations of patient-care standards. Georgia risks losing millions of dollars in Medicare and Medicaid funds if appropriate improvements are not made.

See earlier posts here and here.

From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

Cheyenne Blanton, 17, (photo left) pleaded guilty to committing seven felonies against Ashley Clark, 19, who has a mental disability and was “humiliated, terrorized and tortured” for hours according to prosecutors.

Blanton could be sent to prison for 59 years and pay fines exceeding $100,000 for charges that include aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, conspiracy, felonious assault, vandalism, and kidnapping.

Prosecutors said Blanton and her boyfriend, Joseph Nagle, showed Ashley a knife and threatened to kill her. “They shaved her head and eyebrows, placed her in a cold shower and made her walk in the snow, soaking wet and barefoot in freezing temperatures,” said a prosecutor.

Sentencing was set for Sept. 5. Blanton’s boyfriend, Joseph Nagle, also faces charges

See earlier posts here and here.

(Cincinnati Enquirer photo