Looks like rumors have started to spread like wildfire that Bernie Mac is dead! It was announced that Bernie Mac was hospitalized in Chicago for pneumonia and prank phone calls have been rolling into newsrooms and radio stations alleging the “King of Comedy” has died.
While Mac who likes to joke and was recently under fire for telling the wrong kind of jokes at an Obama fundraiser may not be laughing about this prank. His publicist Danica Smith states that the rumor of Mac’s death is “absolutely untrue.”
According to Smith, Mac, 50, who lives in the south suburbs, is responding well to treatment and should be released soon. Smith said she received multiple phone calls from news outlets Saturday asking her to confirm whether or not Mac has died.
“It is a very horrible rumor,” Smith said. “It is absolutely untrue. Nothing has changed from yesterday.”
Smith didn’t know what day Mac entered the undisclosed Chicago hospital. She said the pneumonia is unrelated to Mac’s sarcoidosis, a chronic disease that can inflame tissue, particularly in the lungs. Smith said Mac’s sarcoidosis has been in remission since 2005.
Mac is known for “The Bernie Mac Show,” “Ocean’s 11,” “Transformers” and “Charlie’s Angel: Full Throttle.”