WP: Michael J. Fox Says He Finds Validation In Public Interest on Stem Cells

[DeepModem Mom]

A Star Says He Finds Validation In Public Interest on Stem Cells
By Katherine Shaver
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 3, 2006; Page B04


Michael J. Fox campaigned for Senate hopefuls Benjamin L. Cardin, right, in Chevy Chase and James Webb in Arlington. (By Michael Williamson -- The Washington Post)

He has been called a faker by conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh, and he withstands the gazes of hundreds of people as his lips tremble, a hand shakes or a foot jerks in a wild spasm.

But when Michael J. Fox recently discovered that "stem cells" is one of the most frequently searched terms on the Internet, he said he knew entering the political fray was worth it.

"My immediate goal in this time when there's a lot of garbage flying around is to actually have a real conversation about embryonic stem cells," the actor said yesterday during a 10-minute interview before a political rally at a Holiday Inn in Chevy Chase. "To turn on my computer in the morning and see on AOL that 'stem cells' is the second-most-popular search, it's just -- wow -- that's all I could have hoped for."

Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, lent his star power yesterday to two Democratic candidates in hotly contested U.S. Senate races who support embryonic stem cell research: U.S. Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin in Maryland and James Webb in Virginia. Fox said that he has registered as a Democrat in New York so he can vote in the primaries but that he would otherwise be an independent.

Some in the crowds in Chevy Chase and Clarendon came in wheelchairs and with canes, saying they were attending their first political rally in the hope that bolstering embryonic stem cell research might someday cure them....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/02/AR2006110201591.html