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Down Syndrome Voice Actress Lashes Back At 'Sympathy Seeking' Sarah Palin

by Tanya Thomas on Feb 22 2010 9:53 AM

Continuing the controversy about the animated sitcom remark on Down Syndrome, voice actor Andrea Fay Friedman (who suffers Down Syndrome) has fired back at Sarah Palin by saying the former Alaskan governor needs to chill out.

Friedman, 39, made the comment after Palin and her daughter, Bristol, lashed out at the show, which aired last Sunday, about a character with Down syndrome with whom another character becomes enamoured.

"I guess former Governor Palin does not have a sense of humour," the New York Daily News quoted Friedman as saying in an email to the New York Times.

"I thought the line 'I am the daughter of the former governor of Alaska' was very funny.

"I think the word is 'sarcasm'," she stated.

Gawker, a Web site covering the media industry, claims the report posted by the Times omitted a line from Friedman's letter.

"My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes," the omitted line from the letter allegedly read.

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The episode from Fox's 'Family Guy' was quickly condemned by advocates for the mentally disabled, including Palin, whose youngest son, Trig, has Down Syndrome.

In a subsequent appearance on Bill O'Reilly's television show, Palin said only "cruel, cold-hearted people" would make fun of the mentally disabled.

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Friedman denies her "Family Guy" role was meant to ridicule Trig.

"I was making fun of Sarah Palin, but not her son," she told the Times' ArtsBeat blog in a phone interview.

Source-ANI


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