Chris Rock Reveals He Has COVID, Urges People to ‘Get Vaccinated’

Chris Rock. (AP)
Chris Rock. (AP)
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Chris Rock Reveals He Has COVID, Urges People to ‘Get Vaccinated’

Chris Rock. (AP)
Chris Rock. (AP)

Actor-comedian Chris Rock tweeted Sunday that he has COVID-19. “Trust me, you don’t want this. Get vaccinated,” he urged.

Rock told Jimmy Fallon in May that he had gotten the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, meaning his current case would be a breakthrough instance of coronavirus.

He joked to Fallon, “You know, I skipped the line. I didn’t care. I used my celebrity, Jimmy,” he told Fallon. “I was like, ‘Step aside, Betty White. Step aside, old people. Kiss my ass! I did ‘Pootie Tang.’ Let me on the front of the line.’”

“That’s the food stamps of vaccines,” he joked about the Johnson & Johnson shot. Comparing it to the movie “Titanic,” he said, “I was like Billy Zane on the Titanic. Leo died! Billy Zane lived to see another day. I don’t want to be Leo at the bottom of the ocean. Billy Zane got another woman after that! You don’t want to be Leo. Well, in real life you want to be Leo.”

The actor, 56, recently starred in “Saw” sequel “Spiral” and will appear in David O. Russell’s next movie, a period film which shot in Los Angeles in early 2021. The still-untitled film is set to be released next year.

In a January interview with Gayle King, Rock said “Let me put it this way: Do I take Tylenol when I get a headache? Yes. Do I know what’s in Tylenol? I don’t know what’s in Tylenol, Gayle. I just know my headache’s gone. Do I know what’s in a Big Mac, Gayle? No. I just know it’s delicious.”

While the COVID vaccines do not completely prevent infection, vaccinated individuals have a far greater chance of having milder infections and not requiring hospitalization. Nearly all deaths due to COVID-19 have been in unvaccinated people.



AARP to Honor Glenn Close with Movies for Grownups Career Achievement Award

Glenn Close attends the premiere of the Apple TV+ series "The New Look" on Feb. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP)
Glenn Close attends the premiere of the Apple TV+ series "The New Look" on Feb. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP)
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AARP to Honor Glenn Close with Movies for Grownups Career Achievement Award

Glenn Close attends the premiere of the Apple TV+ series "The New Look" on Feb. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP)
Glenn Close attends the premiere of the Apple TV+ series "The New Look" on Feb. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP)

Glenn Close will be the next recipient of AARP The Magazine’s Movies for Grownups Awards career achievement honor.

The 77-year-old actor is known for films including "Fatal Attraction,101 Dalmatians" and "The Wife" over a career spanning nearly 50 years. She will receive the honor at the AARP’s annual Movies for Grownups Awards ceremony in January, the group announced Tuesday.

"I am so honored to receive the AARP Movies for Grownups Career Achievement Award even though I feel like I’m still 35, if not younger," Close said in a statement. "I love making movies for grownups and everyone else, and I deeply appreciate the inspiration and support of the people I have worked with over 50 years. Thank you, AARP, for this great honor."

The AARP launched the Movies for Grownups initiative in 2002 to advocate for audiences over 50 years old and to fight ageism in Hollywood. The awards ceremony that celebrates movies "for grownups, by grownups" will be held in Beverly Hills, California, on Jan. 11, with Alan Cumming to host. The ceremony will be broadcast by "Great Performances" on Sunday, Feb. 23, at 7 p.m. Eastern on PBS.

Martha Boudreau, AARP's executive vice president and chief communications and marketing officer, said Close has made her mark in the industry with memorable performances and her consistent work as a septuagenarian.

"Glenn Close starred in ‘The Big Chill,’ the first blockbuster hit film about the Baby Boomer generation facing aging, and since then her career has shattered Hollywood’s outmoded, ageist stereotypes. Her steady successes exemplify what AARP’s Movies for Grownups program is all about," Boudreau said in a statement.

Close joins the company of several revered actors who have received the honor in past years, including Jamie Lee Curtis, George Clooney and Lily Tomlin.