Teri Garr lauded by MS Society

Teri Garr was welcomed as the newest celebrity soldier in the fight against multiple sclerosis at the annual convention of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in Nashville.

Garr, co-star of movies including “Young Frankenstein” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” received the society’s Shining Star Award Thursday from David L. Lander, best known for playing Squiggy on TV’s “Laverne & Shirley.”

Lander revealed that he had MS in 1999, after hiding it for 15 years for fear of being unemployable in Hollywood. Garr went public with her MS this year.

The diagnosis “really freaked me out,” the 53-year-old actress told a ballroom full of MS activists. “Actually, I thought, ‘What’s the difference -- being handicapped in Hollywood or being a woman over 50?’ ”