Actor Michael J. Fox continues to be a class act and a study in positive thinking. With the upcoming release of his new memoir, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future,” Fox shares his point of view on how the diagnosis of Parkinsons’ disease actually made him a better husband, father and overall human being. The cover of the book is a wry take on his “Back to the Future” movies – an image of an overturned skateboard and two sneakered feet stretched out on the ground – an homage to his skateboarding Marty McFly character.

Michael J. Fox says that being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease was the best thing that ever happened to him.

That’s the stunning admission the beloved actor makes in his upcoming book, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future…” according to a publishing source. The book is being released by Hyperion this month.

Before being stricken with Parkinson’s in 1991, Michael says he was a “schmuck” who drank too much and cruised through life in the fast lane.

The dreaded Parkinson’s diagnosis shortly after his father’s death sent him into a downward spiral of depression, he reveals in the book.

For a while, Michael drank and took his medications at the same time, trying to mask his pain. But eventually, the boozing isolated him from his wife Tracy and their four children, leaving him feeling even more hopeless.

He drank so much, he started experiencing toxic side effects, he reveals.

After hitting rock bottom, Michael realized he wasn’t going to die soon. He says he was forced to be a better person, and credits the disease with turning his life around.

In the book, Michael, 48, points out that he’s not the eternal optimist people often believe him to be.

He views himself as a realist, saying that while life delivered him a catastrophe, the disease brought him a richer life.

[From The National Enquirer print version, April 19, 2010]

Wow, I had no idea that Michael J. Fox was a big drinker. He sure did a good job hiding it. Suddenly, his performance in “Bright Lights, Big City” makes a lot more sense to me now. I am looking forward to reading this book, because I’m a huge fan, and also because I think his story is very inspiring. Anyone who has been dealt a tough break in life can look at him as an example of someone who is trying to make the most of it.

One of my favorite stars of the 80s, Michael J. Fox, is making a return to television after a long absence. The “Family Ties,” “Back to the Future” and “Spin City” star left the spotlight after he went public with his diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease in 1998. Since then, he’s been keeping busy with voiceover work and the occasional guest starring role, as well as his ongoing work to raise money for Parkinson’s research. This new special will focus on the positive, and is titled “Michael J. Fox: Adventures of an Incurable Optimist.”

The Michael J. Fox special, which airs Thursday, May 7, at 10 p.m., will follow the actor as he looks to spread his positive attitude to others during a time of economic turmoil.

Fox, who first revealed in 1998 that he suffers from Parkinson’s disease, will travel around the world for the special, including the Himalayan nation of Bhutan — described as a “modern-day Shangri La.”

While traveling, Fox will interview both famous and everyday people on how they conjure up optimism and hope.

Vicki Dummer, ABC’s co-head of alternative series, specials and latenight, called the special a “compelling look at the transformational power of optimism.”

In recent years Fox has turned his attention to his foundation, which focuses on Parkinson’s research, and he just wrote the book “Always Looking Up,” which hits bookstores March 31.

[From Variety]

Michael J. Fox is just one of those guys you never heard a bad word about – even before his illness. He has been married to actress Tracy Pollan for 20 years, and lives in Vermont with his family. His situation really makes you wonder why bad things happen to good people. Since being diagnosed, Fox has been an outspoken advocate for research for Parkinson’s. I really do hope they find a cure in our lifetime. He is a role model for staying positive in the face of tragedy.

Here’s Marty McFly himself, Michael J. Fox with wife Tracy Pollan at a Parkinson’s research benefit last year. Photos: WENN.

The characters that Michael J. Fox has portrayed have always been popular. Even if they weren’t lovable, most of us couldn’t help but like him. In Family Ties, Alex P. Keaton was his parent’s, and sisters’, biggest nightmare, but when push came to shove, he had a heart. The role propelled him to 80′s teen superstar, even though he was over 21 when he started playing the high school uber-Republican. Marty McFly, his character in the Back to the Future franchise, started out as kind of a goofy jerk, but ended up a hero. And Fox’s Mike Flaherty in Spin City was certainly more likeable than his successor, Charlie Crawford, played by Charlie Sheen.

So, after years of being the good guy in everything, Fox is enjoying his turn as a bad guy in Rescue Me. Fox takes on an even bigger challenge physically, playing paralyzed. Michael was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease almost 20 years ago, a degenerative nerve disorder which can cause tremors.

“The funny part is me playing a paralyzed guy because I am the opposite of paralyzed,” he tells Entertainment Tonight in an interview airing this evening. “It’s tricky just to even just to be still.”

The character is a far cry from the good guys Michael usually plays on screen, which will be another stretch for the veteran actor, one he’s looking forward to.

“[Dennis Leary] called me up and described [the character],” he says. “He is really dark and misanthropic. He’s bitter and nasty. It’s really fun.”

[From OK! Magazine]

Many actors have said how much more interesting it is to play complexly negative characters but it has to be especially fun for someone like Fox. Having been typecast his entire career as the annoying but lovable guy next door, it could be cathartic to play a jerk, release his inner demons in character, so to speak. Only, Michael J. Fox doesn’t seem to have inner demons.

Although the beloved actor has been struggling with the disease for a long time, Michael has remained optimistic about his condition, saying he’s “pretty good all things considered,” and penning Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist, due out this spring.

“If you’re never down you’ll never know how good it feels to be up,” he tells ET. “It’s a great ride and I wouldn’t change a thing. I love my life for whatever difficulties there are.”

[From OK! Magazine]

Fox could rightfully feel bad about the hand he’s been dealt, so you have to respect the indomitable spirit he seems to have. Michael and his wife, Tracy Pollan, whom he met when she played his girlfriend on Family Ties, have four kids who grew up watching their father fight Parkinson’s. I’m sure they had alot to do with Fox’s choice to look at things in the most positive light.

Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991 and established the Michael J. Fox Foundation to support research for the disease. He is an ardent and outspoken advocate for stem cell research as a means to cure Parkinson’s and other diseases.

Michael J. Fox, his wife of 20 years, Tracy Pollan, and their daughter Schuyler Frances, 13, are shown at a benefit for the Michael J Fox foundation on 11/5/08. They have three other children: son Sam, 19, daughter Aquinnah who is Shuyler’s twin, 13, and daughter Esmé, 7. Credit: WENN.

Both Celebitchy and I grew up watching “Family Ties” and were excited to see the cast have their first reunion in 18 years this morning with Matt Lauer on the “Today Show.” The actors were clearly happy to see each other and very much at ease, and it was interesting to hear the stories of how each was cast. I think I must have missed a lot of the premise of the show, which I guess is fair since I was 8 when it went off the air. I had no idea the parents were supposed to be really liberal with fairly conservative kids. To me they were just boring, regular adults. Though I did have a crazy crush on Alex P. Keaton. I think I had a thing for blazers with elbow patches for years as a result.

The cast reunited to help producer/creator Gary David Goldberg promote his new autobiography “Sit, Ubu, Sit: How I Went From Brooklyn To Hollywood With The Same Woman, The Same Dog, And A Lot Less Hair.” Goldberg was also the creator and producer of Michael J. Fox’s “Spin City,” and before that, one of my favorite shows that no one’s ever heard of “Brooklyn Bridge.” Fox and Goldberg discussed their strained relationship on “Spin City,” with Fox explaining that it was uncomfortable for him to go from the father-son type relationship they had on “Family Ties” to a relationship where they were equals, like on “Spin City.” He said he and Goldberg made the conscious decision to work through it because they were important part of each other’s lives, and hearing them describe it sounds like they really are talking about family.

Goldberg also noted that he didn’t want to cast Fox for “Family Ties” because he played the character a little too snaky in his first audition. His casting director insisted Goldberg let Fox audition one more time, and luckily the second time he was great. Goldberg also noted that the show was originally supposed to focus on the parents and the kids were supposed to be more ancillary figures. However after the fourth episode, it became clear to Goldberg that the audience really loved Fox, and the show’s focus shifted to the kids.

Matt Lauer didn’t touch on the rueful mistake of adding youngest son Andy Keaton to the cast. The kid went from a baby to a five year old in two years. I’d say that’s about when “Family Ties” jumped the shark. Brian Bonsall, the actor who played Andy, was arrested last year after he poured a drink on his girlfriend while she was sleeping, then put her in a chokehold. You can see why NBC chose not to mention him. They kept the interview light and heartwarming, and it was fun to watch the cast, who clearly enjoy each other.

Michael J. Fox has a new interview with Esquire in which just his quotes and not the interviewer’s questions are published. He comes off as confident and insightful about the price of fame and the trials of life. He says that we focus on the wrong things in society by picking on Paris and Lindsay but that he understands why we need gossip to escape from the seriousness of life:

I see Us magazine and People magazine and all these tabloids — they have the same story over and over again. It’s the same every week, and I get all kind of smug about it, and I think, Come on, really? You care about this shit? But then cut to me going, “Get outta the corner! Get the f@*#in’ puck up! What the f@*# are ya doing?” It’s tough to stay off the subject of the fact that we’re all gonna die. We all need our subject changers. That’s what it all comes down to….

When I see pictures of Lindsay Lohan in the car or Paris Hilton — the level of glee and the level of viciousness — wow. We’ve got a war goin’ on. We’ve got people dying. And we’re all up in arms about this girl.

I have such empathy for all these young women. I was there, and I did all that crap. We’d rip it up, y’know? And we never got busted on any of that stuff.

“She deserves it” and “Who does she think she is?” Who does she think she is? She doesn’t think — she doesn’t know what she had for breakfast this morning. Who gives a shit? Relax, everybody. Calm down.

[From Esquire.com via Fark]

Fox also spoke candidly about his young wild years and about how he had to give up drinking and partying as it was too self destructive. As for his battle with Parkinsons, he says he’s accepted it and that he can’t complain. He also doesn’t care at all what he looks like and says it doesn’t matter. He spoke briefly about how Rush Limbaugh criticized him last year for campaigning for stem cell research by saying he didn’t take his medication. Fox said that was just how show business goes and that he didn’t fight back with Limbaugh because “Limbaugh is ripping himself apart well enough for all of us.”

I can’t always control my body the way I want to, and I can’t control when I feel good or when I don’t. I can control how clear my mind is. And I can control how willing I am to step up if somebody needs me.

That’s one of the things the illness has given me: It’s a degree of death. There’s a certain amount of loss, and whenever you have a loss, it’s a step toward death. So if you can accept loss, you can accept the fact that there’s gonna be the big loss. Once you can accept that, you can accept anything. So then I think, Well, given that that’s the case, let’s tip myself a break. Let’s tip everybody a break.

My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations.

Acceptance is the key to everything.

Which isn’t to say that I’m resigned to it, or that I’ve given up on it, or that I don’t think I have any effect on the outcome of it. It’s just that, as a reality, I get it.

Who gives a shit how it looks? It doesn’t matter. I look like what I look like.

[From Esquire.com]

There was an article in this week’s National Enquirer titled “Michael J. Fox losing ground in battle with Parkinsons,” which annoyed me to no end. They focused on a statement he made about how he can’t raise his glass to his mouth without effort and consulted Parkinson’s experts who said that he will probably need a walker soon, based on eyewitnesses who say he has trouble walking. It takes courage to admit that you need a walker or a wheelchair and to accept your condition. I have an autoimmune disorder that is now in remission and I have used both a walker and a wheelchair in my life. If that’s what it takes to get out of the house, you should use an assistive device, there’s no shame in it. Kudos to Fox for talking candidly about his disease and saying that he’s accepted what he can’t change and works on what he can. He seems to have a great attitude and I love how outspoken he is about everything.

Michael J. Fox is shown out with his wife Tracy Pollan at the Time Magazine most influential people of the year party on 5/8/07, thanks to PRPhotos.