Actor Michael Douglas suspects throat cancer caused by HPV contracted during oral sex
Michael Douglas told The Guardian newspaper that he contracted the human papillomavirus through oral sex, which then led to his throat cancer.
“Without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus,” he told the British newspaper in an interview.
The link between oral sex, HPV and cancer has been receiving more attention in recent years.
HPV is a virus that’s transmitted through sexual contact — genital or oral. There are more than 40 types, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and approximately 79 million Americans are currently infected. Most people have no symptoms.
“HPV is so common that nearly all sexually active men and women will get at least one type of HPV at some point in their lives,” the CDC’s website states. “In most cases, the virus goes away and it does not lead to any health problems. There is no certain way to know which people infected with HPV will go on to develop cancer.”
Douglas’ publicist told CNN that the actor did not intend to point to HPV as the sole cause of his throat cancer, but was suggesting it as one possible cause.
He also told the paper that the stress of his son Cameron’s legal problems may have triggered it, too. His son is serving ten years in prison for heroin possession.
HPV is thought to cause 1,700 oropharyngeal, or throat, cancers in women and 6,700 oropharyngeal cancers in men each year, according to the CDC. Tobacco and alcohol use may play a role in who develops cancer from the virus, the government agency notes.
A 2011 study found that the proportion of oropharyngeal cancers related to HPV increased from 16.3% to 71.7% between 1984 and 2004. Data presented that same year at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting suggested HPV was overtaking tobacco as the leading cause of oral cancers in Americans under the age of 50.
Angelina Jolie makes first post-surgery public appearance
At the premiere of “World War Z” in London, star Brad Pitt and his fiancée, Angelina Jolie, were feeling “great” — if not also a little emotional.
Sunday’s event marked Jolie’s first public appearance since she revealed in May that she’d had a preventive double mastectomy this year, and the press wanted to know how she’s been since her New York Times op-ed about her choice went viral.
“I feel great,” Jolie told the BBC. “I feel wonderful, and I’m very, very grateful for all the support. It’s meant a lot to me.”
The 37-year-old actress previously said she decided to have the double mastectomy followed by reconstructive surgery after learning she carries a mutation of the BRCA1 gene, which sharply increases her risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer. Jolie’s mother, Marcheline Bertrand, died from ovarian cancer in 2007.
Part of the response to Jolie’s story has been an ongoing discussion about women’s health, something that “means the world” to the actress.
“After losing my mom to these issues, I’m very grateful for it,” she told the BBC. “I’ve been very moved by support of the people.”
So, too, has Pitt. The 49-year-old, who’s raising a family of six with Jolie, said that her decision still makes him “a little emotional.”
“Because of the act itself, what she did for our family, and then telling her story to others,” he told the BBC, “what it means to others has really surprised me. She’s a very special woman.”
Pitt and Jolie, who strolled the red carpet in a black Yves Saint Laurent gown, also brought their sons Maddox, 11, and Pax, 9, to check out their dad’s new zombie action film. “World War Z” is set to open June 21.
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Actress Jean Stapleton, known as Edith Bunker on “All in the Family’ passes over the weekend
Actress Jean Stapleton, best known for her role as Archie Bunker’s wife in the groundbreaking 1970s sitcom “All in the Family,” has died, her son said Saturday.
She was 90 years old.
Her son John Putch told CNN about her passing and, along with his sister Pamela Putch, wrote an obituary saying that she “passed away peacefully of natural causes” on Friday at her New York City home “surrounded by friends and her immediate family.”
“No one gave more profound ‘how to be a human being’ lessons than Jean Stapleton,” said Norman Lear, who produced and directed “All in the Family.” “Goodbye Edith, darling.”
The daughter of an opera singer and businessman, Stapleton grew up on Long Island and in New York City. It was there during the early 1940s, while working as a typist for the British War Ministry Office, that she began her career in theater.
Stapleton made it to Broadway in the production “In the Summer House” in 1953, the same year of her television debut on the daytime drama “Woman With a Past.” Other big stage roles followed, including in “Bells Are Ringing” and “Damn Yankees.”
She also did more and more television, including appearances on shows such as “Philco TV Playhouse” and “Dr. Kildare.”
Her breakout role was as Edith Bunker, the conscience of “All in the Family” as the kindhearted foil to husband Archie, played by the late Carroll O’Connor.
“All in the Family” was one of television’s most popular shows as it broke ground while tackling a host of social issues such as racism, sexuality, life and death. Edith Bunker, played by Stapleton, for instance revealed that she had breast cancer on the show, a rare occurrence at the time.
“I just loved doing it from the very beginning,” Stapleton told CNN in 2001, shortly after O’Connor’s death.
She won three Emmy awards — in 1971, 1972 and 1978, in addition to five other nominations in which he she fell short — for her performance in that Lear-helmed show.
“Jean was a brilliant comedienne with exquisite timing,” said Rob Reiner, who played the Bunkers’ son-in-law referred to as “Meathead” on the show. “Working with her was one of the greatest experiences of my life.”
Stapleton kept busy after the show went off in the air in 1979 and kept on racking up more accomplishments. Those include Emmy nominations in 1982 for playing Eleanor Roosevelt in the CBS miniseries “Eleanor, First Lady of the World” and in 1995 as Aunt Vivian in a guest spot on the ABC comedy “Grace Under Fire.”
“RIP Jean Stapleton,” tweeted fellow TV comedy veteran Roseanne Barr, “a great actor whose range was unbelievable, deep and majestic.”
In 2002 she was chosen for the Television Academy Hall of Fame, joining the likes of Tim Conway and Bob Mackie in that organization’s 15th induction class.
Her most recent on-screen credits, according to the IMDB website, are from 2001 when she appeared in the film “Pursuit of Happiness” and the TV movie “Like Mother Like Son: The Strange Story of Sante and Kenny Klimes” along with Mary Tyler Moore.
And after “All in the Family,” she continued working in theater, including a nationwide tour as Roosevelt in her one-woman show “Eleanor: Her Secret Journey,” the Broadway revival of “Arsenic and Lace” and Obie Award performances in Harold Pinter’s “Mountain Language” and “The Birthday Party.” Her final stage appearance was in “The Carpetbagger’s Children” a few blocks from her home in New York, to which she returned permanently in 2002.
Calling her “our collective Mother, with a capital M,” John and Pamela Putch — Stapleton’s two children with her husband William Putch, whom she married in 1957 and who died in 1983 — said “her devotion to her craft and her family taught us all great lessons.”
“In her own words, she was an ‘actress,’ not a celebrity,” they wrote in her obituary. “The play always came first.”
CNN’s KJ Matthews contributed to this report.
