Hollywood comic actor Denis Leary has stirred up quite a storm with his latest book, “Why We Suck: a Feel-Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid.” The book has even raised the hackles of his Hollywood colleagues, for a passage in his new book where he says the reason autism is on the rise in the U.S. is because there are “inattentive mothers and competitive dads” out there and autism diagnoses "help explain away the deficiencies of (parents') junior morons."

He also says that parents use autism as an excuse as to why “their dumb-ass kids can’t compete academically.” He went on to add fuel to fire by saying that instead of facing the facts parents pay a lot of money to shrinks to get a diagnosis.

Denis Leary, 51, best known for the hit show Rescue Me, says he's been misquoted and misunderstood. "The point of the chapter is not that autism doesn't exist – it obviously does," said Leary. He says his problem is with "grown men who are either self-diagnosing themselves with low-level offshoots of the disease or wishing they could as a way to explain their failed careers and troublesome progeny."

Actress Holly Robinson Peete, whose son Rodney, 10, has autism said, "If he was trying to be funny, he failed miserably. If he was trying to sound informed, he came off as ignorant."

The Autism Society of America unhappy with these claims and a chapter in his book titled "Autism Schmautism," called for a book boycott and a picket outside Leary's Nov. 12 appearance in Boston.

Jenny McCarthy, autism activist told Access Hollywood that Leary is "obviously stupid," but not worth getting upset over.