Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's is Not A 'Fun Fact'; E! Apologizes for Insensitive Mistake

By Daniel Distant, Christian Post Reporter Monday, January 13, 2014

Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's diagnosis was classified as a "fun fact" by the E! Entertainment Network in a graphic during the Golden Globes red carpet coverage Sunday. Those who saw the tidbit flash across their screens were understandably offended at the classification, and the social media backlash caused the network to apologize for the mistake.

Michael J. Fox was on the red carpet during the pre-award show when the graphic appeared, reading "Fun Fact: Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991." Some watching online around the country took pictures and posted in on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and the negative sentiment surrounding the graphic spread quickly.

"This is in no way a FUN fact," Amanda Lucci tweeted, which was retweeted over 7,000 times in only a few hours.

E! realized the situation and released a statement to The Hollywood Reporter apologizing for the crass move.

"We regret the insensitive classification of Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's diagnoses during our Eonline live stream. We understand the serious nature of the disease and sincerely apologize," they said.

Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1991, but didn't reveal the news publicly until 1998 during the third season of ABC comedy "Spin City." The next year he retired from the show, making guest appearances and doing voice acting for a variety of media, like video games, television shows and movies.

The 52-year-old actor attended the Golden Globe Awards because he was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series on "The Michael J. Fox Show." The comedy involves a news anchor who quit his job because of his Parkinson's diagnosis and complications of him returning to work four years later.