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Oscar-Nominated Film Lauded By Stuttering Foundation

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) –- The Oscar-nominated film, "The King's Speech" is garnering plenty of praise and recognition.

And among those clapping the loudest for the film is the Stuttering Foundation.

The organization has taken out full-page ads that say "Stuttering gets the Royal treatment," applauding the movie, which dramatizes King George VI's struggles with stuttering.

KCBS' Patti Reising Reports:

"The stutterer is always portrayed as the comic character," said Jane Fraser, president of the Stuttering Foundation. "For years in plays, in movies and in TV shows."

Fraser said that's not so now, because in "The King's Speech," the stutterer is portrayed as the hero.

"The most crucial thing for us is to have the person who stutters, played by Colin Firth, be just truly representative of what people who stutter go through and what they fear," she said.

If response to the foundation's website is any indication, the movie has provided comfort and inspiration to thousands of people who stutter.

"22,000 kids downloaded our video this month," Fraser said. "A normal month might be 5,000."

Fraser's group is rolling out public service announcements capitalizing on the movie's popularity and trying to point people in the right direction to where help is available.

Click here for the Stuttering Foundation website.

(© 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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