Jim Carrey Apologizes to Family After Posting Photo of Autistic Boy Without Permission

Jim Carrey knew it was no laughing matter when a family from Oregon called him out for using a photo of their autistic son without their permission on Wednesday, July 1. The actor and comedian took to Twitter the next day to apologize — unintentionally shedding light on a good cause in the process.Carrey, 53, went on a Twitter rant earlier in the week over California’s new vaccine legislation, which eliminates vaccine exemptions for personal or religious reasons. He and ex Jenny McCarthy are among a very vocal community of celebrity parents who say that vaccinations could contain mercury or other poisons associated with autism.

“California Gov says yes to poisoning more children with mercury and aluminum in mandatory vaccines,” he tweeted earlier this week. “This corporate fascist must be stopped.”

In one tweet, the Truman Show actor included photos of several children, presumed to have been affected by vaccines. Among them was Alex Echols, whose family was not too happy to see their son’s image used in such a public realm without their permission.

“Please remove this photo of my son,” his mother Karen tweeted on Wednesday. “You do not have permission to use his image.”

Alex’s aunt, Elizabeth Welch, also chimed in on social media, adding that though Alex did have autism, he was diagnosed prior to being vaccinated, and actually had a condition known as tuberous sclerosis, or TSC. Carrey apologized and removed the image Thursday.

“I’d like to apologize to the Echols family and others for posting a pic of their kids w/o permission,” he wrote. ”I didn’t mean to cause them distress.”

Karen replied positively, and even suggested that maybe the snafu could lead to something good after all.

“We appreciate the apology,” she wrote. “If you feel so inclined, a shout out for tuberous sclerosis awareness would be awesome! IAMTSC.”