Newman has cancer, says actor’s friend

Paul Newman is battling cancer, a neighbor and business partner has told the Associated Press. A.E. Hotchner, who along with Newman co-launched Newman’s Own, his salad dressing company, says that the actor told him he had cancer 18 months ago. In a statement released today by his agent (in response to rumors that Newman has lung cancer), Newman said he was “doing nicely.”

Newman, 83, had been scheduled to direct Of Mice and Men for a theater in Connecticut this fall, but bowed out because of unspecified health issues last month. For Newman’s sake, I hope Hotchner got it wrong, and that Newman has something less serious and more treatable.