MTV prankster Tom Green has testicular cancer. Honest.
Green, whose notorious on-air skits have included feigning being wheelchair-bound (and completely inept at steering), swears his bout with cancer is not a case of boy-crying-wolf.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight airing this evening in syndication, Green, 28, says he found out he had the disease shortly after joking with new girlfriend Drew Barrymore and ET about the disease at the ShoWest confab in Las Vegas two weeks ago.
Green says he hadn't been feeling well for awhile, and believed he had injured himself doing stunts for The Tom Green Show. But he decided to get a checkup anyway.
His doctor performed some tests, made the diagnosis March 9 and Green underwent surgery last week. "I had my right testicle removed, hello, how are you America, I had my right testicle removed four days ago because there was cancer in it. It was crazy," he tells ET.
In a statement, Green's representatives say the Canadian-born comic's surgery was successful, but to be certain that all the cancerous cells have been successfully removed, he was scheduled for lymph-nodes surgery today.
"So it's not a big deal to lose them? I don't know I should ask. I should ask somebody about that. They're going to cut me from here to here, peel my body open. They're going to pull my intestines out and remove my lymph nodes and hopefully they'll put my intestines back in my body. You definitely think about bigger things like dying when you get cancer, but from what I'm told that's not really a possibility. It's a highly curable form of cancer. I'm hoping it's just going to amount to a major drag, this whole ordeal," Green tells ET.
"I just found out they're going to be removing a rib and I'm going to get to keep it. I wonder how much my rib would go for on eBay, 10 to 15 bucks."
Green's parents and Barrymore are reportedly comforting the stricken entertainer. "I can't even believe how perfect she's been," Green says of the Charlie's Angel. "I love her and she's been very nice and helpful to me through all this. I find myself getting depressed and then I hang with Drew for a few minutes and I feel so much better." He says there's still an outside chance he may accompany Barrymore to the Oscars Sunday, when she'll present an award.
Green's doctors say his prognosis is good and that tesiticular cancer is curable. The comedian should be back to his wacky antics in a few months.
During his treatment, Green will stop production on his MTV show (the cable network will air repeats of his show until he fully recovers). Meanwhile, his reps say he is preparing a one-hour MTV special to raise awareness of a disease that typically strikes young men. The special will "use his signature brand of humor to inform the public about cancer."
Green, who has become a fixture on MTV and has TV and film development deals in the works, has also launched the Tom Green's Nuts Cancer Fund. Donations can be sent in his name to the California Community Fund, 445 S. Figueroa St., Suite 3400, Los Angeles, California 90071.
"We want to raise $10,000 for the fund," he says. "I don't want to shoot too high because I don't know how many people watch my show."