New York Magazine’s Daily Intel column writes a letter to Madonna advising the pop icon to excise the term “retarded” from her vocabulary. She used it a while back in a description of ex-husband Guy Ritchie, then dropped it again several times in an interview in the current Rolling Stone (cover at left).

Says Daily Intel, the word “doesn’t make you sound hip and young, it makes you sound old and out of touch.”

An excerpt:

Not to get all preachy and PC on you, but we think maybe it’s time for you to stop using the word “retarded” so much. We know, we know, you don’t mean to malign developmentally disabled people. It’s just an expression! But really, at the end of the day, it’s just not that cool of an expression …

… your kids Lourdes, Guy, David, and Mercy James are probably hearing the word at home, and might go on to use it in school – which is where, if they were normal kids, they might run into other children who are actually developmentally disabled, whose feelings might be hurt, which is one of the main reasons there’s a backlash against that word. Thankfully for your kids and those kids, the Ritchie-Ciccone brood doesn’t go to public school …

AND ONE MORE THING: Here’s what Guy Ritchie has to say about Madonna in the current issue of Esquire: “I still love her … but she’s retarded, too.”

Whoopi Goldberg: ‘It’s none of your business …’

From ABC News (with video of discussion on ABC’s The View):

John Travolta’s first public acknowledgement that his son had autism and a seizure disorder has drawn mixed reactions within the autism community, with some offering support and others criticizing him for not speaking out sooner.

Travolta’s statement came during court testimony last week in the trial of two people who are charged with attempting to blackmail him.

Said Wendy Fournier, president of the National Autism Association,

“…  I’ve read some things that really bother me — basically that they should have come forward sooner, said Fournier. “Everybody handles autism in the best way that they can and for whatever personal reasons they had, they chose not to make it public.

“Just because you have a child with autism and you’re a celebrity, it does not automatically mandate you to be a spokesperson for the disorder,” she said. “I feel bad for them, I really truly do.”

Speaking on The View, co-host Whoopi Goldberg said celebrities are under no obligation to become advocates for causes like autism. “This is not the way to get people to come out and say, you know, I’m going to take a stand,” she said. “It’s none of your business until somebody wants to make it your business.”

See also: National Autism Association maintains support of Travoltas despite Whoopi Goldberg’s mistaken comments — press release

From the [UK] Telegraph, Los Angeles Times: The Envelope Blog, Associated Press:

Testifying in the criminal trial of two people who allegedly plotted to extort $25 million from him, actor John Travolta publicly acknowledged for the first time that his son had autism. Travolta is a member of the Church of Scientology, which does not recognize autism as a condition.

Jett Travolta died last January after a seizure while the family was vacationing in the Bahamas.

“He was autistic,” Travolta told the court. “He suffered from a seizure disorder.”

UPDATE: Magazine editor calls Travolta’s testimony a “jaw-dropping revelation”

Rosemary Black writes in the New York Daily News that celebrity couple Katherine Heigl and Josh Kelley are among a growing number of parents who choose to adopt children with disabilities rather than wait for a healthy baby. Their 10-month-old daughter Naleigh was born in South Korea.

Cory Barron, foundation director at the St. Louis-based Children’s Hope International adoption agency, says that this year so far, 62 percent of the children placed by that agency have special needs, as compared to 13 percent in 2005. It’s due, he says, to the fact that the wait for healthy children grows ever longer.

… While it can seem like a wonderful idea to give a home to a special needs child, experts warn that it’s not a decision to make lightly. Some of the children’s medical issues, like  heart disease and cerebral palsy, can require lifelong care and drain a family’s financial and emotional resources.

Related stories here and here.

(AP photo/New York Daily News)

From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette:

Delegates at the 2009 AFL-CIO convention this week endorsed resolutions calling for greater representation of people with disabilities in popular entertainment, as well as greater diversity and disability advocacy among member unions.

Actor and disability advocate Robert David Hall spoke in favor of the resolutions, challenging unions to support the IAMPWD disability rights campaign that was launched last year by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and Actors’ Equity Association.

The campaign calls for broad changes in the entertainment industry, including realistic and proportionate portrayals of people with disabilities, and employment of performers with disabilities in disabled roles.

“We know that realistic portrayals of people with disabilities can change hearts and minds around the world,” said Hall, a regular on NBC’s CSI.

(Photo from IAMPWD.org)

Appearing on The Ellen Degeneres Show, actress Katherine Heigl announced that she and husband Josh Kelley are adopting a baby girl with disabilities from Korea. With video.

“She has special needs. She’s a special needs baby, and because of that things all moved so much faster,” Heigl said. “You know, they wanted to get her to us as quickly as possible.”

(Photo from website of The Ellen Degeneres Show)

From the Boston Globe (with video) and elsewhere:

“If I (had) never met Rosemary, never known anything about handicapped children, how would I have ever found out? Because nobody accepted them anyplace,” she told National Public Radio in 2007.

International champion for people with developmental disabilities and Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, 88, died this morning at a hospital in Hyannis, Mass. Shriver was the fifth of nine children in the Kennedy clan which included President John F. Kennedy and Sens. Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy.

Mrs. Shriver was credited with changing the public’s perception of people with intellectual disabilities by publicly acknowledging her sister with developmental disabilities, Rosemary, and founding the Special Olympics in 1968.

Her family said in a statement, “Her work transformed the lives of hundreds of millions of people across the globe and they in turn are her living legacy.”

‘‘My sister, Rosemary, is retarded,” she wrote in Parade magazine in February 1964. ‘‘But I cannot help her with pity – or serve with sorrow the 5 1/2 million others like her. Only by facing the facts and resolving to meet the challenge head-on can something be done. Only if we broaden our understanding can we help the mentally retarded to escape into the sunlight of useful living.”

In a statement, President Obama described Mrs. Shriver as “an extraordinary woman who, as much as anyone, taught our nation –and our world — that no physical or mental barrier can restrain the power of the human spirit.”

See also:

Remembering Eunice Kennedy Shriver — The Atlantic

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Founder of Special Olympics, Dies at 88 – New York Times

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Founder of Special Olympics, Dies at 88 – Washington Post

Eunice Kennedy Shriver Dies At Age 88 – By Joseph Shapiro on National Public Radio

Eunice Kennedy Shriver Dies at 88 – Wall Street Journal

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, JFK’s sister and champion for the mentally retarded, dies at 88 – Los Angeles Times

Eunice Kennedy Shriver dies – CNN

JFK’s sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver dead at 88 – MSNBC

Eunice Kennedy Shriver dies at 88 – USA Today

Statement from Special Olympics on death of Eunice Kennedy Shriver – Boston Globe