Jennifer Aniston Under Fire for Saying "Retard" on Live TV
This morning on Live!, Jennifer Aniston was discussing her Barbara Streisand-inspired Harper's Bazaar photo shoot when, prompted by a, "You played dress up!" remark from Regis Philbin, responded with, "I do it for a living, like a retard." Video inside.
Here's the video:
[There was a video here]
Unsurprisingly, Aniston has already gotten flak for the remark, including from Peter Burns, CEO of The Arc (a nonprofit advocate for disabled persons), who called her remarks, "extraordinarily offensive and inappropriate."
Us Weekly, which received a statement form Burns this afternoon, adds the following:
Frankly, someone in her position ought to know better," he tells Us. "She is using language that is offensive to a large segment of the population in this country. We estimate that there are probably in excess of 5 million people in the country with intellectual disabilities, and when you think about all of them, their family members and friends, you're talking about tens of millions of people who find the use of that term to be really offensive. Every time folks hear that word, it kind of reminds them of all the discrimination and oppression they've experienced in their lives. Even if it wasn't intended to insult them, that is the effect of it."
No word from Aniston, or her representative, has yet been received.