FUNDRAISER’S ABOUT-FACE
Actress drew fire for promoting belief that vaccinations are linked to autism
Actress Jenny McCarthy has been dropped as the celebrity spokesperson for an Ottawa charity event next month.
The Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation has dropped its plans to bring Jenny McCarthy to Ottawa for its Bust a Move charity fundraiser next month.
Facing criticism after its announcement earlier this week that the event would feature the American actress and author known for promoting her belief linking childhood vaccinations to autism, the foundation announced Friday that Canadian fitness star Tommy Europe would replace her at the March 2 event.
Bust a Move raises funds for the foundation to support breast cancer programs in Eastern Ontario. McCarthy’s selection as the celebrity fitness trainer was made by a committee of breast cancer survivors, health care partners and community leaders who felt she had the star quality befitting the largescale fundraising event, said Linda Eagen, president and chief executive of the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation.
But the foundation was caught off-guard by the controversy surrounding their choice. Critics felt she was had no place at a fundraiser for medical research given her use of her celebrity to promote views considered dangerous by most of the medical establishment.
The foundation received dozens of emails blasting their choice. Opponents mounted a Twitter campaign using the hashtag #dropjenny, asking the charity to cut ties with McCarthy. Even Isra Levy, Ottawa’s medical officer of health, wrote a letter to the Citizen stressing the importance of vaccination in preventing diseases.
“To be honest, we didn’t expect this kind of response,” said Eagen, adding she thought the choice of McCarthy was made for all the right reasons.
“We recognized that she had some incredible talent to bring to this event.
“She is an energized woman who can bring excitement to hundreds of people who would be working hard that day.
“We didn’t select her based on her personal opinions. We really focused on her celebrity fitness instructor profile and we had hoped that’s what people would find exciting about her visit to Ottawa.
“When we started to get that (negative) feedback where people were talking about anything but cancer, we just decided to move away from that.”
McCarthy tweeted on Friday afternoon, “So-so sorry Ottawa! I had to pull out of event because of my new show taping conflict but will be back in a few months to make up for it!”
However, Eagen said the foundation had a signed contract with McCarthy and had to negotiate a financial settlement with her representatives to get out of the deal.
She declined to give the amount of the settlement, but said that none of the money raised for Bust a Move was going to “the logistics associated with the organization of the event.”
Eagen said she didn’t think the McCarthy controversy would cause any long-term harm to the foundation, and would not characterize the choice of McCarthy as a “misstep.”
“We have worked so hard for over 15 years in the community, and we’re behaving true to form here.
“We value the opinion of our community and we’re proud to work with our partners in the medical community,” said Eagen.
McCarthy has been outspoken in her views about autism and vaccinations.
Her son Evan Joseph was diagnosed with autism in 2005, but she has said in interviews that he is now in “recovery” and doing much better.
McCarthy has also claimed that her son was healed by experimental and unproven biomedical treatments, and she blames the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine for giving her son autism.
In a joint letter to the Citizen published Friday, Levy and Diane Twemlow, president of the Academy of Medicine Ottawa, talked about how vaccines have over the years saved many lives.
“The science behind vaccination is solid,” they wrote.
“There is overwhelming benefit in vaccination to prevent diseases that once killed or maimed and still have the potential to do so.”
“Ms. McCarthy regularly and publicly says vaccinations triggered her son’s autism. Her beliefs on things like chelation therapy, multivitamins and specific diets as methods to treat and cure autism have all been broadly dispelled and rejected by science,” reader Natalie Fraser wrote in a letter to the Citizen.
A press release the foundation issued Friday to announce the change did not acknowledge the criticism, and made only an oblique reference to the controversy, saying, “Since Tuesday’s announcement of the celebrity fitness instructor for the Bust a Move Ottawa, attention has shifted away from breast cancer awareness and fundraising.“
Hundreds of men and women participate each year in the day-long fundraiser at the Ottawa Athletic Club, which this year has a goal of raising $500,000.
More than $114,000 has been raised for this year’s event so far, the release said.
Last year, television fitness personality Richard Simmons was the celebrity spokesperson for the event, which raised about $350,000.