Cast Member, A Title To Be Proud of

Twitter, the global phenomenon de jour – has been credited in many sources as having been the broken the story of the tragic death of Cast Member Austin Wuennenberg in the WDW Monorail accident of July 5, 2009. Certainly the news of this terrible accident has been all over the Micro-Blogging site in the last 48 hours.

As many of you know I am a keen user of Twitter - know on the service as @Afterthemouse – I even have a tool set-up to monitor the use of certain key words related to the site, primarily the phrase “Disney Cast Member”, in fact this was how I for one first heard the terrible news.

After the first flurry of people telling their friends the news came a second, and for me disturbing, stream of tweets. This group of 140 character long comments were attacking, berating and challenging Disney and it’s spokesperson Mike Griffin (vice president of public affairs at Walt Disney World) on the use of the title Cast Member in relation to the deceased Austin Wuennenberg in there official statement*

I for one an immensely proud of having been known as a Cast Member and always will be. Disney has no nomenclature for the deceased, nor should it. The term ‘Cast Member’ comes from a person who is or was a pert of the show – did anyone say Farrah Fawcett was no longer a Charlie’s Angles Cast Member after her passing? Erm – no, so who should the late Mr Wuennenberg’s title be taken from him?

Is Disney just some Mickey Mouse** company who’s choice of words is so callus as to be demeaning to a deceased colleague? I think not, it feels more like doing honour to a departed friend by using a coveted title.

Again, on behalf of the community, our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of our fellow Cast Member Austin Wuennenberg.

*Statement from Disney:
"Today, we mourn the loss of our fellow cast member. Our hearts go out to his family and those who have lost a friend and coworker. The safety of our guests and cast members is always our top priority. The monorail is out of service and we will continue to work closely with law enforcement to determine what happened and the appropriate next steps."
- Mike Griffin, vice president of public affairs at Walt Disney World

**Yes I did mean to use that terrible old chestnut of a pun.