Cape & Islands News

Younger Kennedys protest "Tropic Thunder" at Mall cinemas

Charge movie is insensitive to people with disabilities
30 protestors include Timothy Shriver

By JAMES KINSELLA

On Wednesday evening, about 30 people, including Timothy Shriver (shown on right in file photo), protested the screening at the Regal Cinemas at the Cape Cod Mall of "Tropic Thunder," a new movie that some have criticized as being insensitive to people with disabilities.

Shriver is the son of Eunice Shriver, the Kennedy family member who has taken up the cause of the disabled with the Special Olympics, which fosters athletic competition. He also is the brother of Anthony Kennedy Shriver, the founder of Best Buddies, which encourages one-on-one friendships between people with and without intellectual disabilities.

"While we understand and sympathize with these expressions of concern, Cape Cod Mall is not involved in the film in any way. The theater and not the mall determines the films that are played on its screens." Leo Fein

A Cape Cod Mall spokeswoman said the mall allowed the protest to proceed on mall property to ensure the protestors' safety, rather than force them onto the shoulder of heavily trafficked Route 28.

In a statement issued Wednesday evening, mall manager Leo Fein said: "While we understand and sympathize with these expressions of concern, Cape Cod Mall is not involved in the film in any way. The theater and not the mall determines the films that are played on its screens."

Dreamworks SKG, which has released "Tropic Thunder," describes the movie as one that satirizes Hollywood and its excesses.

Director and star Ben Stiller said, "We felt that as long as the focus was on the actors who were trying to do something to be taken seriously that's going too far or wrong, that was where the humor would come from."

In a report aired on CBS about a protest at the film's Hollywood premiere, Tim Shriver said, "We felt that the use of the word retard throughout the film 15 or more times is done without any regard of people with intellectual disabilities."