UPDATE: Costner offered up this statement following the incident: "We are so sad about the loss of life and injury that occurred on a day that carried so much promise, but turned so wicked so quickly. We hope to return to Alberta in the future to help with the healing."
That would include participating in any type of benefit for the victims, the actor's rep said. _____________________________________________________________________
This is not another Jeff Goldblum near-death situation. This is the real deal.
Kevin Costner and his country band, Modern West, were moments away from taking the stage Saturday at the Big Valley Jamboree, a Canadian music festival, when a major storm hit the venue.
A huge, sudden gust of wind caused the stage to collapse, killing one person and injuring 75. The Field of Dreams star and his bandmates were caught underneath the fallen stage.
"He was unhurt, I was unhurt," the star's manager Nick Meinama told CTV News. "We wiggled our way out. We found that our road manager and guitar player had been hurt, but the ambulance and the paramedics were here instantly to take them to the hospital."
Luckily, the two men were fine—just "banged up"—and checked out three hours later.
Mr. Dances With Wolves, however, stuck around to see how the rest of the injured were doing.
"He was walking around, making sure that everyone was OK," Meinama said. "There was ladies in neck braces and he was walking up and talking to them and making sure that they were OK and kind of bringing a friendly spirit to it."
Nashville's Billy Currington was onstage when the incident happened. According to Meinama, producers received word that a storm was coming through and were about to shut down the show until it passed when the wind created the aforementioned chaos.
"We were told that this was Billy's last song and that they were going to shut down the show until the storm passed through, and a minute later we were underneath the stage," the manager recalled.
Approximately 15,000 people attended the fateful show.
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Breathe a sigh of relief as you peruse the much more upbeat Big Picture gallery.