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Disease research benefits can be delicate affairs; one false step at an amfAR evening and an emceeing Sharon Stone can find herself addressing a roomful of black-ties sobbing into their sorbets. So we have to hand it to Wanda Sykes, who instead of tiptoeing around the subject at a recent Michael J. Fox Foundation benefit, decided to tackle it head on:

"She was onstage talking about duct-taping her uncle to a chair and she started imitating him, shaking a lot," a witness at the Waldorf-Astoria told Lowdown. "Everyone kind of hesitated and looked around before they laughed." Sykes' PR rep insisted: "She did tell an offbeat joke about him, but she didn't imitate him or act it out." The spy claims that Fox himself was laughing, but the actor's rep claimed ignorance.

Despite the arguably insensitive nature of the routine, we imagine it was Sykes and the Michael J. Fox Foundation who got the ultimate laugh, when guests added a guilt-reparative zero to their donation checks. Still, we cannot condone this sort of behavior. The last thing the next Alzheimer's Foundation of America fundraiser needs is Andy Dick's classic "Grandpa Pooped His Diaper" routine.