Upon my arrival in Los Angels I was told some horrible tragic news…
That Gordon Gray‘s two young daughters, ages 2 and 4, had contracted Batten, an extremely rare brain disease. Batten is a neurodegenerative disease that attacks the body destroying your mobility before then blindness sets in and then death. With children it occurs between 6 and 12 and so far there is no cure.
Who is Gordon Gray, you ask?
He’s the CEO of Mayhem, the company doing my King of Sting movie.
And I’m out here working with director David Jung on the script. We’re doing a rewrite of the first draft in coordination with Gordon’s staff at Mayhem. Social media giant Deadline broke the news yesterday.
Hundreds of celebrities got right on board to help fight for the girls lives with a new charity that will raise upwards of $10 million for research to Batten. It’s a fight to save the lives of these two little girls.
Many people have worked in Gordon’s films, but hundreds more just care.
The first to get involved were The Rock, Mia Hamm, January Jones, Mark Wahlberg, Channing Tatum and so many more.
Gordon’s films include Invincible, Miracle, Million Dollar Arm, The Rookie, Game Plan and many others. His daughters, Charlotte and Gwenyth are Gordon’s and his wife Kristen’s only children.
I’ve only met Gordon in meetings for our movie, but he seems to be a very nice person and has great respect within the industry. He continues on with his movies and his staff, while shaken, he’s still moving forward on various projects.
It just puts into reality that the lives of two little girls who are completely innocent come before anything else one can attain or invent with all of their hard work. I can’t even imagine what Gordon or his family is feeling right now.
god help those young girls…..
Battens disease, along with Tay- Sachs disease and several brain diseases, are suffered nearly exclusively by descendants of the Ashkenazi jewish people.
Medical authorities blame the centuries of exclusive in-breeding among the jews in Europe for these genetic diseases.
Battens disease is hereditary. No one “contracts” Battens. Those with Battens are born with it.
For those first four to eight years, kids with Battens are just like any other kid. Eyesight begins to wane, then mobility. There is some hyperactivity. By 15 or so, kids with Battens are usually immobile. Think about it, I’d a disease impacts your neurotransmitters, you eventually cannot swallow.
My sisters had Battens. I choose to remember her as she was before about age 8. She died at age 21.
Oh, and we’re not Jewish.