I thought this fat, ugly, vile POS was leaving the country?
Normal childhood shyness is not autism. The kid has probably never been exposed to such a gathering of high-powered adults, especially not at a time of night when he would normally be sound asleep.
I have the feeling that in some North American social circles, anything short of sparkling social-butterfly gregarious Osmond-like hey pal how’s your day going types of social interaction (in other words, normal non-American behavior) is seen as autism.
One is not autistic just because one does not
(a) have a reality TV show
(b) have more than 500 facebook friends, or
(c) have a highly developed social conscience that views every person on earth not a white male to be a victim of something.
One might just be a quiet, thoughtful person who has more important things to do than overcome random strangers with the ability to chat about nothing.