logo
Billy Joel says he's ‘OK' and not ‘deathly ill' after receiving brain disorder diagnosis

Billy Joel says he's ‘OK' and not ‘deathly ill' after receiving brain disorder diagnosis

CTV News2 days ago
Billy Joel performs "You May Be Right" during the 66th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, file)
NEW YORK — Billy Joel is doing much better, the 'Piano Man' singer wants fans to know.
In May, Joel canceled all his upcoming concerts across North America and England after being diagnosed with fluid buildup in his brain that has affected his 'hearing, vision and balance.' The condition is called Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus, 'a brain disorder that can affect brain-related abilities, including thinking and concentrating, memory, movement and more,' the Cleveland Clinic says.
'I know a lot of people are worried about me and my health, but I'm OK,' Joel said in an interview with People magazine. 'What I have is something very few people know about, including me, no matter how much you try to research it. I'm doing my best to work with it and to recover from it.'
'It was scary, but I'm OK,' Joel, 76, says. 'I just wanted to let people know, don't worry about me being deathly ill or anything.'
He also discussed his health in an episode of comedian Bill Maher's Club Random podcast, telling the host he feels 'fine,' adding that, 'My balance sucks. It's like being on a boat... They keep referring to what I have as a brain disorder, so it sounds a lot worse than what I'm feeling.'
He added that his health issues are not 'fixed,' but 'it's still being worked on.'
A representative for Joel declined additional comment.
In March, the 'Uptown Girl' singer announced that he underwent surgery and had to undergo physical therapy. A statement at the time said doctors expected him to make a full recovery. It is unclear if his medical issues at the time were related to Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus.
The condition can cause problems with walking, bladder control and thinking, with symptoms worsening if left untreated. It's relatively rare and can be hard to diagnose. It can be treated successfully with surgery to install a tube to drain excess fluid. Patients may need physical therapy in addition to surgery.
Maria Sherman, The Associated Press
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

As Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson reunite, here's why it might just heal millennials
As Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson reunite, here's why it might just heal millennials

CBC

time2 hours ago

  • CBC

As Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson reunite, here's why it might just heal millennials

Hark, do you hear it? It's faint. Barely a whisper over the non-stop global catastrophes, two decades of unprecedented times, multiple economic downturns, robots, the realization we should already be saving for retirement, random joint pain and looming perimenopause. It is the sound of elder millennials healing. Late Monday, actor Katie Holmes announced on Instagram that she and fellow Dawson's Creek alum Joshua Jackson would be reuniting to film a three-part movie called Happy Hours. Not only will this be the first time they've worked together in more than 20 years — and not only is Holmes writing and directing — but the pair will be playing on-screen love interests. "Working with Josh after so many years is a testament to friendship," Holmes wrote on Instagram. Cue an entire generation feeling their feelings, especially as photos have started to emerge of the duo filming in New York City — laughing together, Holmes with that same old Joey face scrunch, Jackson with that confident Pacey smirk. "Friends I regret to inform you that I am unable to be normal about this," one fan wrote on Instagram's threads Tuesday. "You know you triggered an entire generation with this post," someone else said in response to Holmes' Instagram post. "Elder Millennial minds are exploding right now," commented another. Why are millennials buzzing over this? To understand why this reunion means so much to people of, er, a certain age, we need to take you back to a simpler time. Arguably a better time, when we gathered around the television on Tuesday and Wednesday nights to watch a bunch of hot, unusually self-aware teenagers come of age and find love in a cosy seaside town. From 1998 to 2003, teen television drama Dawson's Creek had an absolute chokehold on millennials, their collective hearts captured by a series-spanning love triangle involving girl-next-door Joey (played by Holmes) and troubled Pacey (played by Jackson). You were either Team Pacey (and correct) or Team Dawson, the eternal optimist played by James Van Der Beek. In the end, after much heartache and angst, Joey and Pacey wind up together — and in the final tear-jerking montage, quite literally, and somehow not cheesily, sail off into the sunset. The love triangle became the central momentum of the show, and many viewers followed that journey at the same time that they were coming of age from teens to young adults themselves, said Zorianna Zurba, a pop culture expert and professor at Humber Polytechnic in Toronto. "To see that charisma and that bond 20 years later, in part I think it conjures up all that hope that we had for them, and plus maybe that hope we had for ourselves as we were all struggling with our early relationships," Zurba told CBC News. "I think that potentiality, and that sort of hope for the future, is maybe what is the healing part of it for millennials. It's that finally we're being given something to hope for. Something that is uplifting, that is a possibility." Other experts have suggested "narrative psychology" is why we're so invested in this journey. According to the American Psychological Association, this is the idea that people's experiences and memories are shaped by stories. "Once the narrative ends, part of us wants that story to continue.... This satisfies our brain's desire for narrative closure and continuity," psychotherapist Dana Moinian told Harper's Bazaar in a story published Wednesday. About Happy Hours and representation The synopsis for Happy Hours, posted to IMDB, could be considered music to Team Pacey's ears. "Former sweethearts cross paths years later and rekindle their connection, balancing careers, family duties and personal dreams while rediscovering what they once had — and what they could become." The feature film trilogy is a "character-driven dramedy," according to Deadline. Production for the first film is kicking off this summer in New York City. While there's certainly a nostalgia element at play, millennials — who are generally approaching middle age and no longer the main focus of pop culture — are craving representation, Zurba said. A few recent hits, like Netflix's Nobody Wants This, have also leaned into this market with romance stories for people in their 30s and 40s. But the current excitement is likely only partially about the project itself. As many fans have pointed out, Holmes and Jackson — who briefly dated in real life during production of Dawson's Creek — are both currently single. Canadian-born Jackson and actor Jodie Turner-Smith divorced in 2023. Holmes and actor Tom Cruise divorced in 2012. "I think the potential for two divorcees with children to come back together after 20 years apart gives us that kind of reflection of where we're at, culturally, and also a nice twist on an old classic," Zurba said. "It's that potential for a happily ever after."

Paramount+ wins 'South Park' library and new episodes after prolonged negotiations
Paramount+ wins 'South Park' library and new episodes after prolonged negotiations

CTV News

time2 hours ago

  • CTV News

Paramount+ wins 'South Park' library and new episodes after prolonged negotiations

Matt Stone, left, and Trey Parker, co-creators of "South Park," pose together at the 15th anniversary party for the animated television series, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011, in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) Paramount Global has extended its partnership with 'South Park' creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone for another five years, the company said on Wednesday. Under the new deal, Paramount will pay South Park Digital Studios, co-owned by the media giant and Park County, more than US$1.25 billion, ranking it among the richest deals in television history, according to an Los Angeles Times report from Tuesday. The announcement follows the season 27 premiere of the long-running animated series on Comedy Central. Under the agreement, Paramount will air 50 new episodes across five seasons. The episodes will debut on Comedy Central before streaming on Paramount+ the following day. All 26 previous seasons will also be available on Paramount+, which regained international streaming rights after a period of contractual disputes. The deal concludes protracted negotiations between Paramount and the show's creators, who previously sued incoming Paramount President Jeff Shell, accusing him of interference with rival negotiations involving Warner Bros Discovery and Netflix. Talks were further complicated by the Skydance leadership, which is in the process of acquiring Paramount, reportedly objecting to earlier proposed terms valued at $3 billion over ten years. 'South Park' debuted on Comedy Central, a Paramount-owned network, in August 1997. Kritika Lamba, Reuters

Adventures in Streaming: When the president becomes an action figure
Adventures in Streaming: When the president becomes an action figure

National Post

time2 hours ago

  • National Post

Adventures in Streaming: When the president becomes an action figure

In 1997, Harrison Ford uttered that line to Russian terrorist Gary Oldman in the Wolfgang Peterson movie Air Force One (streaming on Paramount+). It didn't seem a culturally pivotal moment at the time, but it apparently opened some sort of pipeline wherein U.S. presidents would become action heroes in films as diverse as Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter and Olympus Has Fallen. Article content Article content Prime Video is currently streaming two different variations of the formula (which, let's face it, was created in a Hollywood lab utilizing Die Hard as the agar in the petri dish). Article content Heads of State stars John Cena as Will Derringer, a newly elected American president, leaping into the White House after a career as a movie action hero. (One can only feel nostalgia toward the 2006 satire Idiocracy which portrayed that notion as ridiculously far-fetched.) Article content His feel-good presidency goes wrong when a vengeful Russian terrorist (Paddy Considine), launches an assault on an Air Force One mission to Europe for a NATO conference, with the British Prime Minister Sam Clarke (Idris Elba), caught up in the crossfire. Clarke is ex-military and, once the two leaders parachute to safety, he is given to mocking Derringer's pretend fighting experience. If their spark-striking conflict seems familiar, Cena and Elba shared an even more deadly enmity in The Suicide Squad. Article content The film is helmed by Ilya Naishuller, the Russian director who made Hardcore Henry and the Bob Odenkirk actionfest Nobody. Naishuller is skilled at live-action cartoons, but when the stakes are raised, that makes for some tonal needle scratches as we go from mass murder on Air Force One to Cena being smacked in the face with sheep udders as he and Elba are smuggled out of Belarus on a livestock truck. Waiting in the wings to confuse things even further is Priyanka Chopra Jonas, in John Wick mode, playing Noelle, Sam's love interest and saviour. Article content With its relentless action beats, and it's road-movie squabbling, it's mostly silly, disposable stuff. But you have to admit, it's certainly an interesting time for a Russian filmmaker to make an American action movie with a Russian villain in cahoots with a would-be American demagogue plotting to destroy the NATO alliance. Article content G20 stars another Suicide Squad vet Viola Davis as American president Danielle Sutton, obliged to kick butt when the titular conference, taking place in South Africa, is hijacked by security forces led by a crazed Australian mercenary played by Anthony Starr, who has honed his villain act on the superhero series The Boys. At least G20 has a consistent tone, attuned to Viola Davis's gravitas. Sure, many people are killed. But at least Danielle and her estranged teenage daughter (Marsai Martin), will get closer in the process.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store