A Lesson in Sensitivity for Hollywood
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Who should they have hired to do “Children of a Lesser God” if not Marlee Matlin? I myself have been pitching a movie of the week around town about the disability movement as a civil rights movement--a great story based on a true event.
I’m asked about putting Jaclyn Smith in a wheelchair. My response is that it would be insulting as well as counterproductive for the 43 million people with disabilities in America to have an able-bodied woman play a disabled civil rights activist in a movie about an event that changed history.
Yes, I am still pitching with my principles intact. Where are all those brave innovative producers who are supposed to fill this town? Why does bravery enter into this issue? Instead, dealing with reality is the issue--which makes one wonder whether reality is even part of or too optimistic a thought for Hollywood.
CHRISTOPHER TEMPLETON
Studio City
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