From National Public Radio:

Guest-starring in a recent episode of the Fox sitcom Glee, actor Zach Weinstein played a high school student who was paralyzed in an accident. Unlike many actors who play people with disabilities, Weinstein actually has the disability his character displays on TV.

Michael Patrick Thornton, who appears in a wheelchair on the Grey’s Anatomy spinoff Private Practice, also shares a disability with the character he portrays. Thornton had a spinal stroke in 2003.

“Do they consider us equally for parts?” Thornton says, “Obviously no, because disabled actors are so underrepresented on stage and screen.”

Film history is full of nondisabled actors who have gotten kudos for playing characters with disabilities. Among them: Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot, Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump, Tom Cruise in Born on the Fourth of July, and Jon Voight in Coming Home.

(Photo of Zach Weinstein from NPR)

From the BBC, Washington Post, Miami Herald:

Monica & David, a documentary about the romance and marriage of two young adults with Down syndrome, has won the top documentary prize at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival.

The film was directed by the female subject’s cousin, Miami’s Alexandra Codina, and was chosen from among 30 documentaries to receive a $25,000 prize.  It is scheduled to premiere on HBO in October.

From the jury’s statement:

“Monica & David takes an incredibly intimate situation and beautifully translates it in a way that makes you think about your own life. It’s a clear and observant look at a family and the purity of love, fueled by an organic sense of the sadness, joy and everyday humor that fill this epic journey that is life.”

An excerpt from the festival’s program notes:

… an intimate, year-in-the-life portrait of two childlike spirits with adult desires as they prepare for their fairy tale wedding and face the realities of married life afterward. Taking immense pride in their new roles as husband and wife, David wants to bring home the bacon, and Monica wants to fry it in the pan. They want babies of their own. But their unique circumstances still have them living with Monica’s mother and husband. How will this unique family face its challenges and move forward?

… along with their story is one of two different mothers who sacrificed and struggled against an intolerant world to provide for their children.

The official trailer is here.

In this week’s episode of Fox’s ‘Glee’, cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch)  instructs her Cheerios squad on the preferred method for losing weight: Bulimia. Here’s the dialogue from her scene with Cheerio Becky Jackson (played by actress Lauren Potter, who has Down syndrome).

Becky (standing on a scale): I lost two pounds, coach.

Sue: Well, Becky, you are assimilating beautifully. Instead of being different and an outcast, you’re just like every other teenage girl in America: sadly obsessed with vanity. Hey, before you know it, you’ll be leaving little baggies of upchuck in your parents’ linen closet.  Congrats. I’m proud of you, kid.

Becky: Thanks, coach.

Freelancer Anne Miller, writing in the Washington Post, says ‘American Idol’ contestant Dave Pittman is part of of a rising movement of people with Tourette’s syndrome who are putting a public face on the disorder.

Pittman, a singer from Arkansas, performed a four-minute audition on national television earlier this year but failed to make it to the final rounds after he forgot some song lyrics. He has now embarked on a motivational speaking tour.

Among other people who have Tourette’s: Brad Cohen, a teacher who was featured in the TV movie “Front of the Class;” political cartoonist and author Jeff Koterba; New York City Council member Jumaane Williams; and Miller’s husband, Michael Davoli. An excerpt:

Now that we’re married, people with Tourette’s or parents of kids with Tourette’s sometimes put Michael on a bit of a pedestal: He got through school, he has a good job and he married. That’s probably the biggest concern of Tourette’s sufferers and their relatives: Will their life be normal?

At a recent public appearance, Koterba met a mother and her young daughter with Tourette’s. The woman asked Koterba if her daughter would have a normal life. It broke his heart, Koterba recalled. “No,” Koterba told the girl. “You’re going to have a great life. An amazing life. A creative, beautiful, wonderful life.”

See also:

• Dave Pittman’s ‘American Idol’ fame helps children with Tourette syndrome — Baxter Bulletin [Mountain Home, Arkansas]
• ‘American Idol’ singer isn’t hampered by Tourette’s syndrome — Washington Post

(Fox photo from the Washington Post)

Writing in the [UK] Sunday Times, columnist India Knight hails a mother of a 5-year-old with Down syndrome who challenged Scottish standup comedian Frankie Boyle over a comedy routine. Boyle, who is known for his crude humor, referred to “Mongoloids” who have bowl haircuts and are “destined for an early death”. He recently piloted a television show in Britain called “Deal with this, Retards.”

Boyle, Knight says,

… isn’t even enough of a man to offer up an apology. Sharon Smith, on the other hand, is a heroine – for standing up for her daughter and, by extension, for the growing number of children with Down’s, for pointing out to Mr Hilarious that the verbal equivalent of kicking the spastic around the playground won’t do any more.

See also:

• Making light of disability — BBC
• Frankie Boyle criticized for Down syndrome jokes — BBC

By Alan Sepinwall, [Newark] Star-Ledger

NBC’s new drama “Parenthood,” premiering Tuesday night, features a family whose son is diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. It’s among an increasing number of television shows that are trying to depict characters with the disorder, and is one of the first to acknowledge the diagnosis. An excerpt:

… the storyline – a personal one for one of the show’s creators – has the potential to be a breakthrough in how television depicts characters with a condition that’s increasing in prevalence, both nationwide and in New Jersey.

“I am always happy when I see characters on TV who are portrayed with Asperger’s, when it’s done correctly,” says Lori Shery, president and co-founder of ASPEN, a national Asperger support and education group based in Edison. “We need to change the cultural perception.”

See also:

Off-kilter characters: TV shows feature kids (and adults) with what looks like Asperger’s — Ellen Gray in the Philadelphia Daily News

By Lisa de Moraes in the Washington Post:

Actor Patrick Warburton, who voices a character in “Family Guy,” told TV critics Wednesday that he objected to the show’s recent gag about Sarah Palin.

“I know it’s satire but, personally, that [joke] bothered me too,” Warburton said on a conference call to promote his other primetime show, CBS’s sitcom “Rules of Engagement,” which returns for a fourth season on March 1. (On “Family Guy” Warburton does the voice of the wheelchair-bound police officer, Joe.)

“I know that you have to be an equal-opportunity offender, but there are some things that I just don’t think are funny.”

Earlier posts here.