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Report: Chappelle in Psych Facility
By Marcus Errico Thu May 12, 2:46 PM ET

He hasn't been seen on set for weeks. His hit show has been shut down. And his friends are speculating on various reasons for his purported meltdown.

Now comes word that Dave Chappelle is undergoing treatment in a psychiatric facility in South Africa.

Quoting an unnamed source "close to the situation," Entertainment Weekly said Wednesday that the comedian flew to South Africa late last month and voluntarily checked himself into the undisclosed facility. There is no word on the nature of his ailment or how long he will be hospitalized.

Sources confirmed to E! last week that Chappelle had been a no-show at work for several days. On May 4, Comedy Central abruptly announced Chappelle's Show wouldn't make its May 31 third-season launch and that production had been halted indefinitely.

"All parties are optimistic that production will resume in the near future," network spokesman Tony Fox said in a statement.

Chappelle's publicist, Matt Labov, has not publicly commented since Chappelle disappeared.

The entertainer reportedly flew from Newark, New Jersey, to Capetown, South Africa, on Apr. 28 to seek treatment.

The EW report trumps earlier speculation in the latest edition of Newsweek. Several unnamed friends of the entertainer posited different theories explaining his absence to the newsmag. One said Chappelle "freaked" and didn't know how to deal with the breakout success of Chappelle's Show, which has become a full-blown pop-culture phenomenon and led to Chappelle signing an unprecedented $50 million contract last summer. The deal came in the wake of the sketch comedy's record-setting first-season DVD sales.

Another acquaintance alluded to the Half-Baked star's partying. "I wouldn't say it's out of control," the purported pal dished to Newsweek, "but at some point that has to affect you if you've got a regular gig." Chappelle's camp has categorically denied he was abusing drugs.

A third suggested in Newsweek that Chappelle had creative differences with Comedy Central over the direction of the show. Chappelle reportedly wanted to push the boundaries of his comedy, with some racially provocative sketches, but the network had resisted.

A source close to the production tells E! that Chappelle had finished nearly five episodes for the new season before going AWOL. The season got off to a bumpy start late last year when Comedy Central announced it was moving back the debut from February to May, saying Chappelle had been unable to stockpile enough scripts due to an illness.

With the show's future suddenly in doubt, Comedy Central and corporate sibling Paramount are hoping to plug the Chappelle gap in the meantime with the release of the second-season DVD collection on May 24.


(and now... the original post)

"Chappelle's Show" Shut Down By Charlie Amter
1 hour, 27 minutes ago

Chappelle's Show is a no-go, bitch!

In a surprise announcement Wednesday, Comedy Central announced that the highly anticipated third season of Dave Chappelle's show will not make its May 31 premiere date.

"Comedy Central has suspended production on the third season of Chappelle's Show until further notice," network spokesman Tony Fox said in a brief statement. "All parties are optimistic that production will resume in the near future."

No official reason was given for the shutdown, but sources told E! News that Chappelle has been MIA from the set for weeks. There was no indication on how long the suspension would last.

In December, the network said that Chappelle's Show was behind schedule after Chappelle fell ill, forcing the network to postpone the expected February debut of new episodes.

"Dave--and his entire production crew for that matter--got a bit of a late start on writing season three," Fox told the New York Post. Production was slated to resume in January.

Last August, Chappelle, 31, reupped with Comedy Central in a massive two-year deal, valued at $50 million by the Hollywood Reporter. The deal also set a new Industry precedent--reportedly giving the funnyman a large cut of backend DVD sales.

Featuring Chappelle's often raunchy standup, offbeat sketches and killer parodies of Prince and Rick James, Chappelle's Show has steadily built a huge following since its January 2003. By the end of season two, the half-hour show was often pulling in more than three million viewers, a substantial number for basic cable. The first season currently ranks as the all-time top-selling TV show on DVD. (Paramount has indefinitely pushed back the release of the second season--the studio hopes to time the DVD to the start of season three.)

In addition to his gig at Comedy Central, Chappelle had been working on a book for Hyperion. There has been no word on the book's status; there's also no word on the reported Rick James biopic for Paramount in which Chappelle would portray the late R&B wild man.

June7 said:

bawl: NOOOOO!!!!! Chappelle Show was the shit! I thought this was the 4 o'clock free crack give away! NOOOOO!!!! RIP Chappelle show.....

"anyone want any grapes....BITCHES."

"game..BLOUSES."



LMMFAO!!!!!
i can't believe it's gone!


"i'm rick james, BITCH!"
"UNITY!!!"

CLOSE DOWN THIS THREAD!

DUPLICATE!

By a minute, but still...

HamsterHuey said:

what did the 5 fingers say 2 tha face?

???


**SLAP**

umm, its not over, just suspended, right?

Hotlegs said:

why?
the other one's locked already

HamsterHuey said:

Mine was here a minute before the other one!

.
[Edited 5/4/05 18:37pm]

so we gunna turn this in2 a "whos thread was first?"

count me out.

June7 said:

Damn. I mixed them then. I checked before I teased ya, though!

HamsterHuey said:

Uh, mine was posted at 6:26pm, the other at 6:27pm

SammiJ said:

Hey, in this business, I've gotta be as accurate as possible, or I get accused of being too "controlling"... but thanks for the concern.



Now back to the topic at hand!

i didn't really find him very funny! me thinks it should have been "shut down" after episode one! I mean ,how many more skits on how black people differ from white people can Chappel do! IMO, It's not that entertaining, unlike booty, which is extremly entertaining!

June7 said:

klhk said:

No.

klhk said:

CoJones said:

well, it's true

never watched it, was it funny?

lilgish said:

no

I'd hate to say it but I think his ego is getting out of control...I honestly think he hates the fact that the sucess of the show is mostly from his imitations and people could honestly care less about his stand up. I think it's creative and frankly, he doesn't know where his strengh is. I could be wrong.

VinnyM27 said:

What the fuc...
I'm really wondering if any of you have ever seen his standup, or any standup for that matter...

This is the 3rd time they did this.

I know some comics, saying for a couple years now that Dave would steal people's bits in the comedy clubs.. I think the karma is not hitting him in the face.

The comics know. Now he has no ideas

cinnamonjo said:

Yeah, I've never seen stand up comedy....

I've seen his standup and it's good, but not great and I think he thinks it's truly better than it is. But why is the Chapelle Show A hit? It's not just the Rick James skit, but the skits in general. He's a much better actor than stand up and I seriously think that bothers him. It might be a sterch to say that delayed the show, but I honestly think it bothers him that people love him for the impressionations and if you asked them, they would cut out the few mintues when he is on the stage....

ElectricBlue said:

Again, it's his impressations and acts which win fans over....not the actual standup type things. That's what people want....Do you really think he stole the
Rick James bit? The crakhead guy basically anyone can do but it's just the way he does it and the way he acts (same for the black KKK guy, etc...

I guess Dave is gonna have to give back that all of those millions of dollars they gave him for two more seasons.

I thought the show was kind of stupid anyway.

Uhh, the only reason I tuned into the show @ all is b/c I love Dave as a standup. He's funny as fuck onstage (minus that last Showtime special). I just hope it's not some drug related fuckup - I always get worried when they've "suddenly fallen ill"