Although celebrities have increasingly become identified with various diseases, most of those who have been public figures have not had any readily identifiable impairments--think Betty Ford (breast cancer), Norman Schwarzkopf and Bob Dole (prostate cancer), Pamela Anderson (hepatits C) or Lance Armstrong (testicular cancer). Clark's willingness to appear on television with an evident impairment is utterly admirable, making a strong statement that stroke survivors should not be embarrassed about their situations.

Television is too infrequently willing to show people who are less than completely fit and beautiful. Clark continues in the tradition of actors Kirk Douglas and Patricia Neal, both of whom continued to act after their strokes, and Michael J. Fox, who has remained in the public's eye despite his severe Parkinson's disease.

Barron H. Lerner, MD, PhD
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Author of "When Illness Goes Public: Celebrity Patients and How We Look at Medicine" (Johns Hopkins, 2006)

Her publicist Heidi Schaeffer tells TMZ that Candice suffered a bout with high blood pressure and was hospitalized "for a few days" for observation as a precaution. She is now on medication, is back at work and is just fine.

Candice Bergen Did NOT Have a Stroke