Jay Leno: Hospitalized due to illness

Jay Leno: Hospitalized due to illness

Jay Leno admitted to  a hospital with an undisclosed illness on Thursday and also canceled the taping of the "Tonight" show. However he was doing well and planned to return sometime during the next week. His publicist has revealed this news.

Leno left his office at NBC's studios about midday and checked himself into a hospital for observation, said his publicist, Dick Guttman. He would not identify what ailed Leno or where he went, but characterized his illness as "mild" and said that the comedian continued working throughout the day, thereby making phone calls and writing jokes.

In a statement NBC spokeswoman Tracy St. Pierre added, "Jay Leno is doing just fine." "He was kidding around with the hospital staff and running his monologue jokes by the doctors and the nurses. He's expected back to work on Monday."

A woman who answered the media line at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, which is near the Burbank studio where Leno tapes "Tonight," remarked that they had no patient by that name and referred inquiries to NBC.

Tracy said that the network planned to air a rerun, the first time it had to cover for a sick Leno since he took over "Tonight" in the year  1992. The guests scheduled for Thursday included celebrity animal trainer Jules Sylvester, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" actor Ryan Reynolds, and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.

"We wish Jay the speediest of recoveries and hope that our soundcheck this morning didn't have anything to do with his illness or the cancellation of the show," added  Chad Jensen, manager for Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. According to him,  most of the guys in the swing band instead were "in the ocean surfing this afternoon."

Leno, who turns fifty nine on Tuesday, is going to leave  the "Tonight" show on 29th May after a long span of seventeen years. However he will continue on NBC, with a Monday-through-Friday program at 10 p.m., that will start in the fall.