Doctor lays off employee with cancer

• A letter from the doctor to employee was posted online


• The doctor is now getting threats, and is distraught, his lawyer says


• The doctor's intentions were to help the woman collect unemployment benefits, he says


• Now, an online battle could be brewing between supporters of both sides

(CNN) -- A Pennsylvania oral surgeon who laid off a cancer-stricken employee had good intentions -- aiming to help the woman get unemployment benefits and focus on her treatment -- but now he is getting threats and verbal attacks on social media, according to the doctor's lawyer.

"Dr. (George) Visnich put (employee Carol Jumper) on layoff status so this poor woman didn't have to worry about showing up at work after going through chemo, and would still have a source of income," Larry Kelly, Visnich's family attorney, told CNN. "He never fired her. Ever."

In a handwritten letter to Jumper dated the day of the layoff, Visnich wrote: "You will not be able to function in my office at the level required while battling for your life. Because of this, I am laying you off without pay as of August 11, 2014."

Visnich also assured Jumper her job awaits her whenever she is ready to return to work, Kelly said.

But the letter became public and quickly went viral.

A Facebook identified as Rose Lerini reportedly posted a photo of the letter on Facebook, triggering a social media uproar. It's unclear what relationship she has to Jumper or Visnich, and attempts to reach Lerini were unsuccessful.

Multiple attempts to reach Jumper on Friday also were unsuccessful.

Kelly said Visnich and his family are distraught.

The doctor -- who has oral surgery offices in the western Pennsylvania towns of Aliquippa, Chippewa, and New Castle -- is receiving hateful phone calls, emails, and threats, and being called "heartless," "brutal," "soulless," and other names on social media, he said.

"This poor man is being tortured unnecessarily," Kelly said. "The guy tried to do something to help this woman in the best way he knew how, and this is his payback."

According to the Pennsylvania Unemployment Compensation Law, a person who is or becomes unemployed qualifies for compensation if he or she "is able to work and available for work."

According to Kelly, Visnich and Jumper have been in contact as recently as Friday. It was not clear what sort or how extensive that contact was.

People describing themselves as friends of Jumper created a private Facebook group called "Bumper's Buddies" on August 26 to "support Carol in her fight against the disease and to keep everyone posted on progress."

The group's administrators post about upcoming charity events and is selling $12 T-shirts to raise money for Jumper's medical expenses. As of Friday night, the group claimed almost 2,000 members.

Meanwhile, a community Facebook group called "George Visnich Oral Surgery" stated its purpose as a "support page for Dr. George Visnich. It is an American right to let employees go at will."

The group also posted a link to the "Bumper's Buddies" Facebook page, writing: "This is for all of you bleeding hearts. Go on and send her some of your own money."

Disney World splurges that are worth it

No matter how you approach it, a trip to Walt Disney World is an investment. But sometimes, splurging yields more in time saved and memories made.

The new Four Seasons Orlando combines luxury with Disney fun.

A lazy river is part of the resort's large pool complex.

Rates at the new hotel, which opened in August, start at $545.

If a luxury stay is too steep, you can still sample some of the high-end properties. Book a spa treatment at the Grand Floridian or dinner at Todd English's restaurant at the Swan Hotel.

• The Four Seasons Orlando offers a new level of luxury


• It may be difficult to lure kids away from the expansive pool complex


• A VIP park tour means breezing through lines for as many rides as you can fit in

(CNN) -- Walt Disney World is expensive. No two ways about it.

Thirty years ago, when I was a kid, you could get into the Magic Kingdom for just $18. Now, tickets cost $99 and up. But if you want to take the plunge, you might find that a few splurges are worth it.

If you can splurge a bit on the luxury details, you'll get the luxury benefits, which can really pay off.

To Disney or not to Disney?

Check in, stay in

It's long been the advice of every Disney travel guru on the planet that staying at a Disney World property improves your trip a thousand-fold.

You get early access to the parks and easy transportation there, plus you're eating and breathing Disney 24/7, that wraparound experience that really makes it feel like vacation.

Wanna go the extra step? Check out Disney World's newest on-site hotel, the Four Seasons Orlando. Opened in August, the gorgeous property blends Four Seasons luxury style and service with Disney fun. Rooms start at $545, pricey but only a small jump from other luxury Disney properties, and you're getting a much fancier room and hotel.

Plus, the Four Seasons hotel has arguably the coolest swimming pool complex in the resort. Forget paying extra for the water parks. As a guest of the Four Seasons, you can take full, and free, advantage of a family pool, a castle-like kiddie pool with shooting jets of water and other surprises, an 11,000-square-foot lazy river, two water slides and an adult pool.

There's also a supervised kid's club open every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a clubhouse, well-thought-out games and activities and almost more staff than kids. My 6-year-old tried out the kids' program and didn't want to leave. And it's free with your stay at the Four Seasons. Book a stay before December 19, and you get your third night free. Certain restrictions apply.

The most insane new U.S. roller coasters

Take advantage of valet parking

Maybe you can't spring for the Four Seasons or another luxury Disney hotel. But that doesn't mean you can't sample some of their offerings.

If you have a car, you can book a massage at the glorious Grand Floridian hotel (where room rates start at $488 per night) or maybe even a reservation for the resort's princess tea party. It costs $20 to park for the day with the valet, and then you get the treat you book, plus you can wander around the lush hotel property and enjoy its other wonders.

Monorail, kids? For another window into Disney luxe experiences, you might try dining at Todd English's high-end bluezoo restaurant at the Swan Hotel and then check out the rest of the joint, which is near Hollywood Studios and Epcot (plus, Swan and Dolphin hotel restaurants will validate your parking, making that part free).

World's top 25 amusement parks

Take a private VIP tour

The cost of Walt Disney World is even more exasperating when you realize you've paid all that money just to wait in line for rides.

The always-improving FastPass+ system helps, allowing you to make reservations for up to three rides per day.

But who wants to go on just three rides? Paying for a Disney World VIP tour gives you all kinds of perks: door-to-door transportation from your hotel, preferred seating during select entertainment options and parades, and most important, what amounts to unlimited FastPass+ entries onto rides.

Want to go on Splash Mountain six times? In a row? At the height of the season? Well, you can do it with a VIP tour.

The various Disney World VIP tour options start around $200 per person, but look at it this way: Instead of paying for theme park tickets for three days (i.e., $300-plus a person) to go on only nine FastPass+ rides (plus wait in interminable lines for whatever else you choose), for the same amount of money, you could buy a ticket for just one day, pay for the VIP tour and ride as many rides as you want.

Universal Orlando also has great VIP tour offerings, starting around $229 per person. In addition to priority entrance to rides, my family enjoyed having a knowledgeable guide walking us through the park, showing my daughter exactly how to use her wand in Diagon Alley, for instance, or how we could meet the minions without going on the Despicable Me ride.

Sally Kohn is an activist, columnist and television commentator. Follow her on Twitter @sallykohn.

'Curly Sue' star: I'm an alcoholic

Alisan Porter, the actress best known as the star of 1991's "Curly Sue," opened up about her struggle with alcoholism in a blog post in September 2014. In the personal account, called "The Obligatory Child Star Gets Sober Mom Blog," Porter talks about what led her to seek treatment for alcoholism and that she's been sober since 2007.

Elizabeth Vargas admitted having a problem with alcohol and entered a treatment program in November 2013. She returned to rehab in August 2014.

Actress and model Amber Valletta had her "coming out" as an addict during a recent speech for Mind Body Green. Valletta admitted that she started trying to get high at the age of 8 and said, "My hope is that someone, somewhere in this room, out of this room, will hear something that will help them and perhaps get them out of the shadows and the darkness of addiction and bring them into the light."

Columbus Short admitted a "real truth" during a wide-ranging interview with "Access Hollywood" on July 7. "I struggle with medicating with alcohol, I think," the 31-year-old said. "If I want to be truthfully honest, I think dealing with the stress of the situations that I've been going through, medicating with anything, I think, is dangerous because it becomes a crutch."

Shia LaBeouf's recent bizarre behavior culminated in his being arrested in New York and charged with harassment, disorderly conduct and criminal trespass at the Broadway show "Cabaret." The actor's rep said July 1, "Contrary to previous erroneous reports, Shia LaBeouf has not checked into a rehabilitation facility but he is voluntarily receiving treatment for alcohol addiction. He understands that these recent actions are a symptom of a larger health problem and he has taken the first of many necessary steps towards recovery."

Musician Deryck Whibley has blogged about his problems with alcohol. The Sum 41 group member and former husband of Avril Lavigne said he had been off the scene for a while because he had been hospitalized after "drinking hard every day."

Zac Efron completed a rehab program in 2013 without the media being any wiser about his problems, but the actor's now speaking out about his difficulties with drugs and alcohol. "It's a never-ending struggle," the 26-year-old told The Hollywood Reporter in its May 9 issue.

"Growing Pains" star Jeremy Miller recently revealed to "Entertainment Tonight" that he's struggled with alcohol abuse. Looking back, Miller says, he's grateful he didn't own a gun at the time: "I hated myself so thoroughly that I would have done something very stupid."

Former "Partridge Family" star David Cassidy was ordered to three months of rehab on March 24 after pleading no contest to a DUI charge from January. It was his second DUI arrest in six months and third since 2011.

The death of Philip Seymour Hoffman and his problems with substance abuse are a reminder that such struggles are not unusual in the movie business.

"Desperate Housewives" actor Shawn Pyfrom wrote about his own struggle with drugs after Hoffman's death. The young actor says in an online letter that he "wasted the time of valuable people, who worked so hard to pull my career to a higher place, by allowing my addictions to tug me out of their grip."

Justin Bieber was booked into a Miami jail after failing a sobriety test January 23. According to Miami Beach Police Chief Raymond Martinez, during his arrest, Bieber "made some statements that he had consumed some alcohol, and that he had been smoking marijuana and consumed some prescription medication" before getting behind the wheel of a yellow Lamborghini.

Country singer Trace Adkins suffered "a setback in his battle with alcoholism" and has entered a rehab facility for help, his representative said January 16.

In a December interview with "Access Hollywood," Demi Lovato went into detail about her dependence on drugs and alcohol. There was a time when Lovato "couldn't go 30 minutes to an hour without cocaine, and I would bring it on airplanes," she said. "I would smuggle it, basically, and just wait until everyone in first class would go to sleep, and I would do it right there." According to Lovato, her rock bottom came at 19, when she filled a soda bottle with vodka to drink at 9 a.m. "I had a moment where I was like, 'Oh, my God ... that is alcoholic behavior," she said.

Lady Gaga revealed on the Elvis Duran radio show in November 2013 that she's been quietly dealing with an addiction to marijuana. "I had to stop (smoking pot)," the Mother Monster said. "I was addicted to it. ... Although I think it's the best drug to choose from when you're playing around and experimenting, I just want young kids to know that you actually can become addicted to it, and it's ultimately ... a form of self-medication. I was smoking 15 to 20 marijuana cigarettes a day with no tobacco."

Jada Pinkett-Smith reflected on her Facebook page in September 2013 that addictions plagued her in her younger years. "I had many addictions, of several kinds, to deal with my life issues," she said.

Country star Tim McGraw said in an interview in 2013 that he replaced drinking whiskey with working out to clean his life up.

"Glee" star Cory Monteith was found dead at a hotel in Vancouver on July 13, 2013. Officials gave the cause as "mixed drug toxicity, involving intravenous heroin use combined with the ingestion of alcohol." Monteith had been public about his struggle with addiction and checked into a rehab facility in late March. He told Parade magazine that he started using drugs at 13 and had entered rehab by 19.

Matthew Perry has struggled with an addiction to prescription drugs and alcohol and landed on the cover of People magazine to discuss his road to sobriety. While he was on "Friends," he said, "it would seem like I had it all. It was actually a very lonely time for me, because I was suffering from alcoholism."

"Sex and the City" actress Kristin Davis told Health magazine in 2008 that unlike her cocktail-loving character Charlotte York, she is a recovering alcoholic. The 48-year-old admitted that she was drinking so much, she didn't think she'd live past 30.

Ben Affleck surprised friends when he checked into rehab for alcohol abuse in 2001, People magazine reported.

Jamie Lee Curtis has reportedly said she was once so addicted to prescription pain medicine that she stole some from a relative to help feed the addiction.

Jodie Sweetin, who played innocent Stephanie Tanner on "Full House," documented her drug problems in her memoir "unSweetined." A low point, she said, was using cocaine, meth and ecstasy while on tour to discuss her sobriety.

There have been questions as to whether Bob Dylan was telling the truth when he reportedly told a journalist in 1966 that he had kicked a $25-a-day heroin habit, but, according to Rolling Stone, he had a period during his 1966 tour where he used "huge amounts" of amphetamines.

In 2012, Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie told Oprah that her drug use proceeded from ecstasy to crystal meth. She became so paranoid she thought the FBI and SWAT teams were following her before she sought treatment.

She was known for her wholesome role as Laura Ingalls on the television series "Little House on the Prairie," but at her worst Melissa Gilbert was covering up feelings of sadness by drinking up to more than two bottles of wine a night, the actress told More magazine.

"Harry Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe told GQ magazine that he had his last drink in 2010. "There were a few years there when I was just so enamored with the idea of living some sort of famous person's lifestyle that really isn't suited to me."

Kristen Johnston talked about her addiction to drugs and alcohol in her 2012 memoir "Guts" and admitted she was depressed during her time on "3rd Rock From the Sun." "And you're not supposed to be," she said. "You can't tell anybody, 'I'm so bummed you gave me an Emmy.' You can't be sad when you're being celebrated. So it was a big conflict and there's no shrink that can understand it."

Samuel L. Jackson was reportedly able to portray crack addict Gator in "Jungle Fever" so authentically because of his own struggles with drugs and alcohol. He landed the breakout role two weeks after leaving rehab.

Actress Kelly Preston, right, has said she gave up drugs and alcohol to be a better mother to her kids and better wife to John Travolta. "I don't drink anymore. I don't smoke anymore. I don't do drugs anymore. All of those come with an 'anymore.' I used to do everything and a lot of everything," she said.

Jane Lynch wrote about her addictions to alcohol and cough syrup in her memoir "Happy Accidents." She told Access Hollywood in 2013 that she has been sober for 21 years.

Sir Elton John told USA Today that he swore off drugs and alcohol in 1990. He said, "If I ever find myself in a situation where there are drugs, I can smell the cocaine. I can feel it in the back of my throat, that horrible feeling of taking the first hit of cocaine. And I leave."

For those who may not remember because she has so completely turned herself around, Drew Barrymore entered rehab at the tender age of 13. Most fans were unaware that the then beloved child star partied so hard. She chronicled her early struggles in her memoir "Little Girl Lost."

It was years after Meredith Baxter portrayed one of America's favorite moms, Elyse Keaton on "Family Ties," that she revealed that she is a recovering alcoholic.

Backstreet Boys member A.J. McLean last checked into rehab in 2011. He had previously been treated for depression, anxiety and excessive alcohol consumption.

Country star and "American Idol" judge Keith Urban told Oprah in 2010 that his wife Nicole Kidman and several close friends staged an intervention to help him overcome his addiction to cocaine and alcohol.

In 2004, a then 19-year-old Kelly Osbourne reportedly entered rehab for an addiction to painkillers. "The amount of pills that was found in her bag was astounding," her father, Ozzy, said.

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• "Curly Sue" actress Alisan Porter talks about her road to sobriety


• The former child star says she's been sober since 2007


• Her family is one of the ways she maintains perspective on tough days

(CNN) -- "Curly Sue" actress Alisan Porter has an admission to make: "Hi, I'm Ali, and I'm an alcoholic."

That's how Porter begins a blog post on her website, "Lil Mamas," where the now-33-year-old details her battle with alcoholism.

In the post, titled "The Obligatory Child Star Gets Sober Mom Blog," Porter kids that perhaps her fans "didn't see that one coming. Or, because you know that I'm a former child star, you totally did."

Porter, who's best remembered as Jim Belushi's dimpled young co-star in the 1991 John Hughes comedy, describes the moment when she recognized she needed to change.

"I was living in NYC," she recalls. "I was miserable and overwhelmed with life. I was heartbroken and realizing that what had always worked for me in the past was NOT working at all ... So, I did what every good user does and I prayed to a god I had never believed in... and then called my mom. Days later I was off to treatment, just like that. For the next four years I went to meetings, worked the steps, got a sponsor, found a god of my own understanding, prayed, meditated and basically grew up."

Porter can now say that she's been sober since October 28, 2007. As a married mom of two, the former actress admits she still has her bad days, but she says her family helps her keep things in perspective.

"I don't drink because I don't want to miss one second of the responsibilities I get to have today. I don't drink because I can't. I want to, a lot of days, because I'm human and because life gets hard. But I don't," Porter writes. "I'm sure that someday my kids will ask me why I don't drink and my answer will be simple: 'I never want to lose myself and not be able to find you.'"