• Alan Alda has been living with Parkinson's disease for over three years, the actor revealed Tuesday in an appearance on CBS' This Morning. "The reason I want to talk about it in public is that I was diagnosed 3½ years ago, and I've had a full life since," he said. "I thought it's probably only a matter of time before somebody does a story about this from a sad point of view," he added, pointing out that one of his thumbs had been twitching in recent TV appearances. "But that's not where I am." Parkinson's is a movement disorder with symptoms that include muscle tremors and stiffness, poor balance and coordination. It affects over 1 million Americans, according to the American Parkinson Disease Association, including actor Michael J. Fox and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the longtime civil-rights leader. Alda, who made his name in the TV series M.A.S.H., said he went to the doctor after reading an article in The New York Times, by Jane E. Brody, which said that acting out one's dreams could be an early warning sign of the disorder. "By acting out your dreams, I mean I was having a dream that somebody was attacking me and I threw a sack of potatoes at them," Alda, 82, said in the interview. "But what I was really doing is throwing a pillow at my wife." Alda said he was also speaking out to reassure people that they do not have to be fearful after a diagnosis.
• Ten days after James Gunn, the director of Disney's Guardians of the Galaxy films, was fired after the resurfacing of offensive tweets from years ago, the lucrative franchise's cast has signed a letter urging the studio to rehire him. "We fully support James Gunn," began a statement signed by Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper and more. "We were all shocked by his abrupt firing last week and have intentionally waited these 10 days to respond in order to think, pray, listen, and discuss. In that time, we've been encouraged by the outpouring of support from fans and members of the media who wish to see James reinstated as director of Volume 3 as well as discouraged by those so easily duped into believing the many outlandish conspiracy theories around him." Disney fired Gunn from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 when some of his tweets from as far back as 2009, which included jokes about rape and pedophilia, started circulating online. Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn said, "The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James' Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio's values, and we have severed our business relationship with him." Representatives for Disney and Gunn did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the cast's statement.
A Section on 08/01/2018