Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | Celebrity | August 7, 2024
I apologize for the unwieldy nature of this collection of stories, and there are no plans to start a column tracking celebrity medical stories, but it felt natural for me to combine the following:
Colin Farrell, the beloved actor who will be starring in Max's The Penguin this fall, is launching the Colin Farrell Foundation to provide support, advocacy, and programs for adults with intellectual and mental disabilities. Farrell is doing so on behalf of his son, James, and he's talking for the first time about the fact that he has Angelman Syndrome.
For the unfamiliar, Angelman Syndrome is a genetic condition that causes delayed development, problems with speech and balance, mental disability, and sometimes seizures. People with Angelman syndrome often smile and laugh frequently, hence the name.
When those with Angelman turn 21, they lose access to special education classes and other safeguards that are put in place for them. James will turn 21 soon, and Farrell wanted to create the foundation to "do something in the realm of providing greater opportunities for families who have a child with special needs, to receive the support that they deserve, basically the assistance in all areas of life."
I cannot pinpoint the exact date when Farrell transformed from the hard-drinking bad boy into the man he has become today, but I suspect that his son James has played a role in that (I'd also like to believe that working with Martin McDonagh helped, too).
Elsewhere, Daisy Ridley has revealed that she has Graves' disease, an autoimmune disorder that involves overactivity of the thyroid -- it often results in symptoms that make one feel "tired but wired," and in her case -- as she tells Women's Health -- symptoms include racing heart rate, weight loss, fatigue, and hand tremors. She's gone gluten-free to help treat it.
Finally, I'm heartbroken to write that Billy Bean -- the second baseball player ever to come out as gay (and not to be confused with Billy Beane, the Moneyball guy) -- has died at the age of 60. Bean became Major League Baseball's first Ambassador for Inclusion in 2014. He would later become MLB's senior vice president of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Bean died after a year-long struggle with leukemia -- the aggressive form of leukemia my son had -- thirty years after his partner, Sam, died of a cardiac arrest from AIDS-related complications. Talk about a life that was both blessed and cursed.
The same form of leukemia, AML also took former The Bachelor contestant Hailey Merkt last week at the age of only 31. May she and Mr. Bean rest in peace.
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