Michael J. Fox Searches For Hope
Walt Belcher - Tampa Tribune
Mar 10, 2009
ABC has teamed up with Michael J. Fox for an uplifting, feel-good TV special.
"Michael J. Fox: Adventures of an Incurable Optimist," on May 7, will follow the actor as he travels the globe exploring what it means to be an optimist and what makes people happy.
Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, has been optimistic that a cure might be found for his illness.
Fox supports President Barack Obama's executive order Monday overturning the ban on federal funding for research involving human embryonic stem cells.
"I could not be more thrilled to see President Obama live up to his commitment to get politics out of science. We have seen, for the past eight years, how much damage the opposite approach has done to science and patients," Fox said in a statement released to "Access Hollywood."
"Now that the president has taken this critical action, I am excited by the prospect of American scientists carrying human embryonic stem cell research forward toward better treatments and cures that will affect countless millions of lives."
Fox, who was diagnosed 16 years ago, said he sees more hope in the fight against Parkinson's with Obama in the White House.
The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research has raised nearly $140 million for research in combating the disease.
Fox's TV special was in the works before Obama's order. On the special, Fox will visit Bhutan, a Himalayan nation that monitors its "gross national happiness." He also will visit the homes of people that have not let difficulties get in the way of happiness. The special will also look at what cutting-edge science has to say about the nature of optimism.
"The same joyous spark that Michael J. Fox shared with us during his acting career shines through in this compelling look at the transformational power of optimism," Victoria Dummer, co-head and senior vice president for ABC Entertainment's alternative series, specials and late night, said in a prepared statement.
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