E! Online

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More Harrison Health Rumors Fly
by Mark Armstrong
Nov 8, 2001,

The last time George Harrison was the subject of swirling tabloid rumors about his struggle with cancer, the Quiet Beatle replied--quite loudly--that reports of his demise were "untrue, insensitive and uncalled for."

That was July. Now, nearly four months since that tabloid whirlwind, the media are once again buzzing about a British tabloid report claiming Harrison is in a "very frail" state at a New York hospital undergoing "last chance" treatment for cancer.

Not only is Harrison's camp remaining silent about the reports, but his publicist told E! Online Wednesday that she is no longer representing him--and that there is no one available to answer questions or clear up reports regarding Harrison's state of health.

London's Daily Telegraph reported Wednesday that the 58-year-old music legend is in Staten Island University Hospital, receiving "revolutionary cancer surgery" from Dr. Gil Lederman, the director of radiation oncology.

The hospital refused to comment on whether Harrison is a patient. But the paper quoted sources describing Harrison as "frail and gaunt" and saying "the word around the hospital is that the procedure he is having is the last chance of saving his life."

The report claimed Harrison checked into the hospital under the name George Arias, the maiden name of his wife Olivia. According to the Telegraph, Harrison first sought treatment in Switzerland and then moved to the New York hospital last week, where was going to undergo sterotactic radiosurgery, a procedure that attacks tumors with large amounts of radiation.

Today, the rest of the British media picked up the story, blasting headlines of "Last-Ditch Cancer Care" and "Harrison May Have Only a Month to Live." Most reports basically regurgitated the Telegraph story, but the Daily Mail quoted one of Harrison's "closest friends" saying "he is really very bad this time," while the Express newspaper reported that Harrison's wife and 23-year-old son Dhani were keeping vigil by his bedside.

The paper also quoted Paul McCartney saying, "I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago and he seemed good. He's my brother, we speak a lot."

It was only in July that Harrison was dispelling initial rumors about a losing battle with cancer, after London's Mail on Sunday published a supposedly exclusive interview with former Beatles producer George Martin saying Harrison "knows he is going to die soon and he's accepting it perfectly happily."

Turned out, however, that the quote was fabricated. Harrison, who had been working on a new album, released a statement insisting he was "active and feeling very well." Furthermore, the guitarist-songwriter and his wife said they were "disappointed and disgusted" by the rumors.

While the veracity of these latest reports remains unknown, it's common knowledge that Harrison's health has suffered in recent years. Earlier this year he was treated at a Swiss clinic, reportedly for a brain tumor. Prior to that, he checked into the Mayo Clinic to have a cancerous lung operated on. And in 1998, he underwent radiation therapy for throat cancer, which he attributed to years of smoking. 

His closest brush with death came in 1999, when a deranged fan broke into Harrison's suburban London estate and stabbed him with a knife in the chest, puncturing his lung and nearly killing him.

Incidentally, the inability to even contact Harrison is one reason filmmakers of the new Sean Penn film, I Am Sam, decided to use covers of Beatles songs for their soundtrack, rather than the original recordings, the Los Angeles Times reports. After failing to reach Harrison for permission, producers opted to enlist the help of artists like Eddie Vedder, Aimee Mann, Michael Penn, Rufus Wainwright and the Black Crowes.