Happy Birthday Bob Hiltermann!

Deaf since the age of 4, Bob Hiltermann was born on this day (August 1, 1952) in Germany, the tenth of eleven children born. A bout with meningitis left him deaf but he wasn't diagnosed until the age of ten. Hiltermann learned ASL while attending Gallaudet University in Washington, DC and later formed MuSign (a Signing/Mime company). He acted with Marlee Matlin in Children of a Lesser God, was featured in See What I'm Saying and The Hammer, he created ASL videos called Shut Up and Sign and is drummer for Beethoven's Nightmare.

Marlee Matlin joins Battle of the Network Stars

Image from marleematlin.net

Oscar-Winner Marlee Matlin will join other celebrities tonight
for the reboot of The Battle of the Network Stars. A team of actors who played TV lawyers will face cast members who were on shows about the White House. The show orginally ran on ABC from 1976-1988. You can watch Battle of the Network Stars Thursday at 9pm, Eastern on ABC. Read more about the teams here.

Mocking Sign Language on the Jimmy Fallon show

During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, guest Jamie Foxx started doing fake sign-language to the camera.  The winner of both "DWTS" and "America's Next Top Model" Nyle DiMarco says it was disrespectful for Foxx to mock deaf people. Fellow Oscar winner Marlee Matlin tweeeted at Foxx, "I’d be happy to give you sign language lessons so you could be funnier." Here's a video posted by TMZ that shows what happened.