In late November 2024, the former Tonight Show host Jay Leno debuted an eye patch look after seemingly facing injuries from a 60-foot hill fall. But, Bill Maher isn’t buying his “accident” stories anymore. 5p135h

On the latest episode of comedian and host Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast, he playfully confronted Jay Leno about the accident that left him black and blue in November. Though Leno claims he sustained those injuries from falling down a hill after a failed attempt at taking a shortcut to a restaurant, the extent of his injuries, his appearance, and his history of sudden accidents sparked suspicion that he was lying and the cause of his “accident” was far more nefarious. Of course, Maher is not one to let an opportunity slip away and thus brought up a crazy theory going around about Leno’s mishap:

“Did you see what the Enquirer said about your spill? Well, it’s a conspiracy theory, since you’ve had three accidents, that you actually have gambling debts, and you’re being beaten up by the mob.”

Reading out the article to him, Maher said, “[It] started out by saying ‘Jay Leno, who’s worth $450 million, has gambling debts.‘ I was like that is quite a gambling debt.” Leno, being the man he is, obviously took the joke well and responded, “I love the idea that the mob would drive to Greenburg, Pennsylvania, wait outside the Hampton Inn on kind of a sleety, rainy day to throw me down the hill.” But Maher had another comeback:

“That’s not what they’re saying; please don’t mischaracterize the Enquirer. They’re saying ‘throw you down the hill’ was your cover story, and they just beat you up like the mob always does.”

And well, the two had a good laugh about the theory. But, given the stream of accidents Leno has had in the past couple of years, we can’t blame the conspiracy theorists for coming up with those allegations. Before the recent November accident, Leno suffered third-degree burns on his face after one of his prized cars caught fire while he was working on it in his garage exactly a year back.

After spending multiple weeks in the ICU, Leno again took a trip to the hospital after he was involved in a motorcycle accident in Jan. 2023. Leno was reportedly testing out a 1940 motorcycle when he turned down a street and didn’t notice someone had wire strung across the road, causing it to knock him off the bike. This accident left him with another facial wound and multiple broken bones.

Leno then joked about his injuries to Maher, saying, “I got a new face when my face caught fire, then two months later, I had to call my ‘face guy’ and say, ‘I need another face.'” But we all need to praise this ‘face guy’ because damn he did a good job. Leno is still looking amazing and fresh at 74, and we hope he’s gonna steer clear of accidents this coming year.

Jay Leno‘s latest mishap has the internet spiraling into conspiracy theories worthy of a Netflix true-crime docies. The 74-year-old comedian recently took a jaw-dropping 60-foot tumble down a hill, leaving him bruised, battered, and sporting an eyepatch. His explanation? A nasty fall at a Hampton Inn. But internet sleuths are not buying it.

Speculation is running wild on X as armchair detectives have begun cooking up scenarios to satisfy their curious minds and make sense of what they think happened to the former late-night talk show host. Many theories are flying around, but one that stood out claims Leno is being targeted by loan sharks over “massive gambling debt.” It’s either that or the mafia is settling an old score.

Others surmised that someone could be holding a grudge on Leno because he has “dirt on them.” Other’s believe that this has all been orchestrated by none other than Conan O’Brien, out for revenge after what happened to his work on The Tonight Show.

Adding fuel to the conspiratorial fire, eagle-eyed X s pointed out the suspicious details in Leno’s story about his fall, like why would a man with a net worth of $450 million choose to stay at such a budget hotel? Considering his wealth, it wouldn’t be a problem for him to book a luxury suite or avail room service, at least, instead of climbing down a hill to grab dinner.

Many of the wannabe sleuths also linked Leno’s latest misfortune to his past accidents. Leno can’t seem to catch a break from the bad luck that’s been following him for the past three years or so. From the fiery explosion in his garage in 2022 to his motorcycle accident and now to his nasty tumble over the weekend, many believe there’s a pattern there that’s orchestrated by someone or a group of people. 

Moments after Leno’s interview with Inside Edition’s Jim Moret was released on Wednesday, a number of people already pointed out that “something just ain’t adding up” about the TV personality’s recollection of events and some details in his story. 

Now many social media s are convinced that he’s dealing with the brutal repercussions of being in debt to criminals. Sanity check for a moment: there’s zero evidence that the multimillionaire Hollywood star owes other people money and is in any kind of trouble.

Leno himself doesn’t even view the series of unfortunate events he’s been through as that bad. When he addressed the past two accidents he had via Page Six last year, he was brushing them off lightly because he was “recovering” so well. He also considered himself “luckier than most people” despite having to go through the hospital multiple times to treat his injuries.

For now, Leno’s “bad luck” remains the internet’s favorite (unsolved) mystery. Loan sharks? Mafia plots? Conan’s revenge? Maybe the truth really is stranger than fiction — or maybe, it’s just another case of the TV host laughing off life’s curveballs.

Jay Leno doesn’t star in A Series of Unfortunate Events, but he may as well do given the string of misfortunes he’s had lately. The former television host has been enjoying his free time after retiring from late-night TV ten years ago, but it feels like he’s spending most of it hitting the emergency room, considering the medical calamities he’s had in recent years. 

At Monday’s Comedy For Kobe event in Beverly Hills, Calif., former Tonight Show host debuted a shocking new look. Even though we’re way past the Halloween parties, the Hollywood star was seen rocking an eyepatch, not for aesthetic reasons, but to conceal the horrifying injuries he obtained recently from a nasty fall that sent him to the hospital. 

When Inside Edition caught up with Leno outside the venue, he nonchalantly raised the patch to show reporter Jim Moret his swollen left eye, which he could hardly open. He also had bruising on the left side of his face, an injured wrist, and his middle finger was wrapped in an adhesive bandage since he lost his nail there. Leno also shared that he’s “all black and blue” elsewhere on his body. 

Leno’s dire situation is all on him. According to him, while staying at a Pennsylvania Hampton Inn over the weekend, he stepped out to grab dinner at a local restaurant before his show. However, he got lazy and ditched the mile-and-a-half walk down the road for a shortcut down the hill. What happened next was a nightmare reminiscent of a child’s nursery rhyme. “I fell down and rolled down the hill. Hit my head on a rock, knocked me on the eye,” Leno said.

In a separate interview with TMZ, Leno proudly shared that he pushed through with his performance three hours later despite what happened. He said he did not want to disappoint the thousands of fans who waited for him to take the stage, so he finished his gig before getting his injuries checked at a nearby hospital.

This is the latest mishap Leno has suffered in recent years. In January 2023, he got into a motorcycle accident that broke several of his bones, including his collarbone, ribs, and kneecaps. In an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, he explained that he was driving a 1940 Indian motorcycle through a parking lot and did not notice that “some guy had a wire strung across the parking lot but with no flag hanging from it,” so he got clotheslined and knocked off the vehicle.

“I got knocked off my motorcycle. So I’ve got a broken collarbone. I’ve got two broken ribs. I’ve got two cracked kneecaps,” he said before assuring the outlet that he was fine. He also downplayed his condition, saying, “I’m OK, I’m working. I’m working this weekend,” instead of taking a break from his schedule.

 And that’s not all for the streak of bizarre accidents that kept following him in recent years. In Nov. 2022, Leno was enjoying fixing up one of his prized possessions in his Los Angeles garage when the car his working on exploded. The freak car fire left him with three-degree burns on his face and hands. He was quickly transported to a burn center for treatment.

A month after the incident, he went on the TODAY show to share some harrowing details about it. According to the comedian, he decided to work on his 1907 White Steam after noticing that its fuel line was clogged. He went underneath the vehicle to have a closer look at the problem and asked a friend to “blow some air through the line.” Moments after, the fuel line made a noise and then bam, his face caught fire as the gas leaked while the pilot light jumped.

Jay had to go through several surgeries and skin graft procedures after that. He also had eight-hour sessions in a hyperbaric chamber for nine days to speed up his recovery. He wanted to get back to his normal routine ASAP since he missed a scheduled appearance in Las Vegas after the incident.  

What’s really fascinating about all this is that the comedian remains optimistic and does not even complain about the bad things coming his way. In May last year, he told Page Six that he was “fine” after the accidents, and he even considers himself “luckier” than most people. 

Jay Leno, the ever-popular comedian, television host, and writer, has revealed he’s suffered some pretty horrendous injuries after a recent fall. The 74-year-old was staying at a Hampton Inn around 30 miles outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he was set to perform a standup routine at the Palace Theatre when he decided to head to a restaurant for dinner before going on stage.

Without a car to drive there, the former host of NBC’s The Tonight Show opted to walk and attempted to utilize an apparent shortcut down a nearby hill rather than take the one-and-a-half-mile route around it. After discovering that the mound was much steeper than he had anticipated, the star fell 60 feet down it and clattered his head on a rock. Despite what happened, he embodied the age-old adage “the show must go on,” as pictures posted by the Palace Theater on Instagram show he still performed.

In a subsequent interview with Inside Edition, Leno — who was wearing an eyepatch to hide his injuries — revealed, “I broke my wrist, lost my nail on the finger, and then I’m all black and blue.” He then described how his bruises spread down the entire left side of his body.

In a separate conversation with TMZ in Beverly Hills, as he arrived at the Comedy for Koby event at the Fine Arts Theater, he described the incident by saying, “I fell down. Boom, boom, boom. I rolled down the hill, hit my head on a rock, knocked me in the eye, there you go.”

Leno’s accident is the third he’s suffered in three years. Early in 2023, he crashed his motorcycle, broke his collarbone and two ribs, and cracked both kneecaps. Two months before that, almost exactly two years before his latest mishap, the Jay Leno’s Garage presenter suffered second and third-degree burns while working on an old car in his Burbank garage.

The incident has raised some questions among the general public, with suspicion around the circumstances leading to Leno’s apparent fall — namely, why someone with a net worth of around $450 million (according to Celebrity Net Worth) would be staying at a budget Hampton Inn. Several people had their say about that on X.

How did X react to Leno’s accident and its circumstances? 3g4r1x

The general consensus appears that, for some reason, Leno isn’t providing the full details of what happened and has fabricated a story to avoid telling the truth. However, it has to be said that there’s no reason to believe that’s the case.

While it may seem questionable that Leno would choose to stay in a budget hotel, it’s hardly entirely outside the realms of possibility. There are many reasons why that may be the case. Perhaps he’s just a humble man, or maybe nothing else was available, or the Hampton Inn might have a secret luxury suite for multimillionaires that mere “normies” don’t know about, or perhaps he‘s no longer as wealthy as widely believed. Regardless, we sincerely hope the star is well on the way to recovery and wish him well as his bruises heal.

Former late-night megastar Jay Leno made headlines in January 2024 when it was announced that he had filed for the conservatorship of his wife, Mavis Leno. 

The filing, first reported by TMZ, was made on Jan. 26 and appears to be one of the rare cases in which a show business conservatorship is requested for non-shady reasons. 

The Jay Leno conservatorship, explained dq1j

According to TMZ, the 77-year-old Mavis’ conservatorship comes as a result of her deteriorating health, and particularly her diagnosis of Alzheimer ’s-related dementia. The details of the diagnosis haven’t been disclosed, though Jay Leno has stated as early as 2022 that Mavis no longer drives. The former The Tonight Show host and Mavis have both refrained from commenting on her condition, not even confirming publicly what she’s been diagnosed with.

Jay and Mavis first met in 1976, when the comedian was a regular at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles. The two were married in 1980, though they later acknowledged that pragmatism played a bigger role than romance, with Jay recalling in a 2014 LA Times interview that he had wanted to make sure that Mavis was “covered” if anything happened to him. He stated that he didn’t buy his wife an engagement ring until 2004, with Mavis adding that he’d “just bought a house” instead.

The two have remained married for more than 40 years, with Jay once claiming (to People) that the secret to a long marriage is to “marry the person you wish you could be.” Also, “not screwing around is a huge key. You can do a lot. You can leave your underwear on the doorknob for the rest of your life if you don’t screw around.” Words to live by.

The allegations surrounding the behind-the-scenes drama of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon sound like the stuff of a TV movie, and maybe there should be one. Frankly, HBO already created a great movie about the personal rivalries that set the stage for deciding who would be the new host for The Tonight Show following Johnny Carson’s retirement in the 1990s. So why not make a sequel?

Following Carson’s retirement in the early ’90s, two comedic forces quickly became the standouts as obvious candidates for his replacement: Jay Leno and David Letterman. With Leno, a frequent guest host for The Tonight Show at the time, and Letterman hosting the talk show that aired afterward Late Night, it’s obvious why these two became rivals. The fascinating political struggle behind the scenes, which ultimately saw Leno crowned as Carson’s successor and Letterman the host of his rival show on another network, Late Show, is the subject of the excellent 1996 HBO drama The Late Shift.

What made The Late Shift great and why it needs a sequel 4mi6p

Despite sounding like the premise for a Hallmark original movie, The Late Shift is actually a compelling drama, thanks in part to a script co-penned by a New York Times reporter, Bill Carter, who wrote the original book on which the film is based. This basis in authenticity makes the entire movie feel like we are a fly on the wall of corporate boardrooms and talk show greenrooms. For the more famous characters, the film cast look-a-like actors, notably Daniel Roebuck as Leno and John Michael Higgins as Letterman. However, the unexpectedly crass and wholly fascinating performance by Kathy Bates as Leno’s bullish manager, Helen Kushnick, really shines in the movie.

There has been plenty of drama in the world of late-night talk shows, and The Tonight Show specifically since The Late Shift originally aired. If the latest allegations of the toxic workplace environment behind The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon is any indication, now would be the perfect time to consider a sequel to The Late Shift.

Finding the right storytelling approach for The Late Shift sequel about Jimmy Fallon 696m12

When it comes to the behind-the-scenes drama for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, it is a very different kind of story than the struggle for succession that we saw unfold in The Late Shift. Hence, the narrative for its sequel would probably benefit from an entirely different structure.

What we know about the allegations stems almost entirely from a Rolling Stone article citing two current and 14 former employees, all of whom remained anonymous for the piece, who claimed Fallon had engaged in erratic and sometimes abusive behavior, such as berating an employee in front of other staff . Accusations also flew that some employees suspected Fallon had been intoxicated with alcohol or was nursing hangovers at work. It was also reported employees routinely let out sobs in guest dressing rooms due to the high-pressure environment made worse by frequent leadership changes.

To complicate things further, Jerry Seinfeld, who was referenced in the Rolling Stone article, publicly disputed one aspect of the story. The article claimed an employee said Seinfeld jokingly told Fallon to apologize to a cue card handler he criticized in front of the comedian. Though the employee characterized the moment as “awkward,” Seinfeld later clarified it wasn’t uncomfortable and didn’t play out the way it was recounted, from his point of view, calling it an “Idiotic twisting of events.”

Though Fallon reportedly later apologized for his behavior at work, that still leaves various points of view that don’t always consistently line up. Hence, rather than taking a straightforward biopic style of turning a true story into a movie, the Fallon drama would be perfect for receiving the Rashomon treatment. That is to say, the film can present the events as recounted by Fallon, the employees, Seinfeld, and others in a fragmented storytelling style. Each version of events will be slightly different, with the unspoken understanding that no human on Earth is a 100 percent reliable narrator, just like the Akira Kurosawa classic Rashomon so effectively conveyed.

Team Coco: The other The Late Shift sequel that absolutely needs to get made 1if1i

If we’re going to be honest, the Fallon drama-related movie adaptation should actually be The Late Shift 3. You see, The Late Shift 2 should still be designated to the PR nightmare for NBC involving the botched succession of Conan O’Brien to take the throne of The Tonight Show more than a decade ago. What happened there is that O’Brien had become the host of The Tonight Show for a brief period, only for NBC to essentially change their minds on giving him the coveted timeslot and effectively reinstating Leno. The public largely took O’Brien’s side, birthing the slogan “Team Coco,” which is now the comedian’s brand of content.

From there, Fallon took over The Tonight Show from Leno in 2014. As we previously pointed out, all of this current Fallon drama might not even be playing out today had O’Brien and NBC not parted ways. It’s entirely possible that if O’Brien never left, he’d still be the host of The Tonight Show to this day.

Long before Westworld, Deadwood, or even Yellowstone graced your TV screen in all their Western glory, there was Gunsmoke. On air for over twenty years, Gunsmoke remains one of the most iconic television shows ever made, and is a decidedly singular storytelling experience.

Plenty of Hollywood heavyweights got their start on the fictionalized streets of Dodge City, Kansas, and Harrison Ford happens to be one of them. If you take anything away from this article (apart from Harrison Ford’s unbelievable pain tolerance), it’s that you should watch this show.

You have no excuse not to, after all, it’s free on Pluto TV. Now, back to the task at hand… In a 1994 interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Ford detailed his earliest experiences in the entertainment business and how Gunsmoke lead to some of his first on-set injuries.

During their time together, Ford and Leno talked at length about how Gunsmoke wound up being a lot more traumatizing than anyone had expected.

“I was playing a bad guy, and I was shooting out the window at the sheriff and this posse. And the good guy came down the stairs and I whirled around, and I shot at him and he shot me. I was supposed to slump against the window and crumple to the floor, but the first time I did it, I separated my shoulder.”

You’d think a separated shoulder would keep Harrison out of the action long enough for him to heal, but this is Harrison Ford we’re talking about here — of course he stuck around. Going on to his detail that initial injury, Harrison explained that the filmmakers had to schedule a reshoot because he had hurt himself.

“I jumped right off the floor and they didn’t have me ‘dead’ long enough. They were all very kind-solicitous, and they gave me some ice and they sent me home, and a couple days later they said, ‘Listen, we have to do it again because we don’t have you dead.'”

Harrison had no choice but to agree, and went through all those earlier motions. Bad guy. Good guy. Shootout. He dies. Simple, right? Wrong. During his second run-through, things got even worse.

“I slumped against the wall and fell on the ground, and my gun bounced up and knocked out all my teeth.”

Ouch. When you’re in the business of entertaining people, it pays to have a decent smile — so imagining Harrison Ford without his front teeth is absolute nightmare fuel, and Jay Leno agrees.

Panicking, Leno couldn’t seem to find the right words and wound up repeating what Harrison had said second earlier. Which, for caustic wit like Ford, led to an incredibly retort.

“Yeah, are those your teeth? May I make a suggestion">

“Actually, the store bought ones were not such a great bargain because they sent me to their (the studio) company dentist. Who put in these teeth. Well, not these teeth, because six months later they started to fall out. And I went to a dentist and he said, ‘How old are you?; And I said ,’What do you mean?’ And he said, ‘I haven’t seen this work since the nineteenth century.’ So I went back to the guy, I tried to find this guy, and his partner said ‘Who? No he’s gone. He’s not in the dentist business anymore.’ So had to pay for my own teeth.”

There’s so much going on here. A screwed up shoulder and busted chompers, all set within an interview that took place nearly 30 years ago. About a show that hasn’t been on air since 1975. It’s a lot to process.

Donald Trump’s latest book is going to be one big self brag about how celebrities and politicians used to, as he says, “kiss my a**.”

As Trump begins another run for president, the book is an attempt to show how people used to love him but then turned on him once he ran for president on the Republican ticket. However, Trump’s controversial acts as President, as well as his views and insulting speech, are likely contributing factors in the dislike he has earned from those who once ired him – though such possibilities apparently are not considered in his assessment of his own greatness.

In a recent interview with Breitbart News, Trump stated that he believes people who read the book are “going to see a very fascinating life.” 

Letters to Trump will feature a collection of letters put together by two of his former assistants who organized 40 years of correspondence with celebrities to create a compliment-filled book about him. It’s no doubt aimed to make Trump look as if he is, or at least was, ired by many. Such a book is not exactly a bad idea when running for president and, considering his fame over the last few decades, he is likely one of the few who can even have such a book published. In the least, the idea is worthwhile but its completion might prove to earn him more dislike than the love shared in the soon-to-be published letters.

Because Trump is relying on the past, the joke may be on him as the reaction to the book — though all but guaranteed to receive applause from most Republicans — will certainly be disdain by Democrats.

However, some of those celebrities deserve criticism as well because they would likely not have cared about Trump if he didn’t have such wealth. It’s no secret that money attracts many things, not the least of which are fake friendships. That’s not to say that everyone falls into that category but it’s no surprise that Trump now doesn’t care for a lot of them either.

One celebrity friendship of his that may have been quite genuine was his relationship with John F. Kennedy Jr. Donald Trump was practically rebuilding New York City while JFK Jr. lived there before his untimely ing.

In a letter written by Kennedy Jr. to Trump — after Trump visited him at George magazine for an exclusive interview — Kennedy writes, “Our staff thoroughly enjoyed your remarks and I trust you found the questions thought-provoking. You were most generous to make the time. Thanks again. – John Kennedy”

Trump said about Kennedy, “He was a great guy. He was a friend of mine. Even though we were of a different persuasion, I believe he would have run for the Senate and that he would have been president someday.”

So, who are these other politicians and celebrities who apparently wrote flattering letters to Trump? They include recent interactions with world leaders, such as North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, but also correspondence from years and even decades ago with numerous now-former presidents such as Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and his son George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan.

Some of the celebrities might surprise you, including Michael Jackson and Shaquille O’Neal. Correspondence is also shown with Clint Eastwood and Oprah Winfrey who recently clarified that she did, at one time, believe in Trump but has since changed her mind. Donald Trump was a guest on her show decades ago and won over the audience — as well as the host — apparently.

Some celebrities, like Jay Leno, are taking exception to Trump publishing their private letters.

The book also includes letters from Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Diana, but Trump has not been respectful toward the memory of Princess Diana.

As depicted in the biography The King: The Life of Charles III released last year, author Christopher Andersen claims that Princess Diana continuously refused advances from Donald Trump. He also points out that Trump was asked about Princess Diana on The Howard Stern Show a few weeks after her death. Stern asked Trump, “You could’ve gotten her, right? You could’ve nailed her?” to which Trump replied, “I think I could have.”

When Breitbart News asked about how these celebs treated him, including Michael Jackson and Princess Diana, Trump responded by saying, “I knew them all and every one of them kissed my a**!”

If you want to read about Michael Jackson and Princess Diana allegedly kissing Trump’s a**, it will cost you $99, which suggests that you would also be kissing his a**.

After the self brag, Trump humorously added about the many celebrities who have since lost iration for him, “Now, I only have half of them kissing my a**.”

It sounds as though we might need to wrap Jay Leno in bubble wrap, because the former Tonight Show host has injured himself yet again — this time, in a motorcycle accident.

This latest incident comes just months after Leno suffered extensive burns to his face and hands following a car fire in his Los Angeles garage in November. The 72-year-old had been inspecting a clogged fuel line of one of his classic cars when gasoline spilled out and was ignited by a pilot light.

Now, as Leno prepares for a March 31 comedy date at the Wynn’s Encore Theater in Las Vegas, he detailed his latest injury in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, when he was asked about the fire. The accident allegedly took place on Jan. 17, when Leno was testing a 1940 Indian motorcycle and smelled leaking gas. Once again, a clogged fuel line was the culprit!

“It’s so funny you should say that,” said Leno. “That was the first accident. OK? Then just last week, I got knocked off my motorcycle. So I’ve got a broken collarbone. I’ve got two broken ribs. I’ve got two cracked kneecaps.”

“So I turned down a side street and cut through a parking lot, and unbeknownst to me, some guy had a wire strung across the parking lot but with no flag hanging from it,” Leno said. “So, you know, I didn’t see it until it was too late. It just clothesline me and, boom, knocked me off the bike.”

“The bike kept going, and you know how that works out.”

Leno itted that he hadn’t gone public with the motorcycle accident after all of the fuss that was made over the incident in November. “You know, after getting burned up, you get that one for free,” he joked. “After that, you’re Harrison Ford, crashing airplanes. You just want to keep your head down.”

Jay Leno is a very lucky man after undergoing serious burns to his face and hands as a result of a car fire at his Los Angeles garage last month. The former Tonight Show host had been inspecting a clogged fuel line on his 1907 White Steam Car when gasoline spilled onto his face, which then became ignited by a pilot light.

According to Leno’s friend Dave Killackey, who was there at the time, the comedian’s face was completely “engulfed in flames.”

Leno was subsequently rushed to the Grossman Burn Center at West Hills Hospital, where he was treated for second and severe second-degree burns to his face, chest, hands, and left arm for nine days. Now, speaking with People, Leno’s surgeon, Dr. Peter Grossman, recalled that the 72-year-old’s injuries were “deeper than anticipated” and only became more concerning over the following 24 hours.

“Functionally and cosmetically I had serious concerns,” Grossman said. “Jay ending up with permanent disfigurement was a big worry for me.”

To avoid disfigurement, Grossman said that the goal of the treatment was to “minimize the production of scar tissue and maximize the regeneration of healthy tissue.” His team achieved this through a combination of two skin grafting surgeries, one of which involved pig intestine as a biological skin substitute.

In the first, “we shaved off ultra-think slices of the burn off his face and then put human cadaver skin on him as a temporary biological bandage,” says Grossman. “It tricks the skin to increase blood flow and help the healing process.”

During the second surgery, pig intestine from the lab was used as another biological skin substitute, creating a “closed protective environment” for skin to heal. Within a week of Leno leaving the Center, his body shed the pig intestine. “The skin he has now is all his,” says Grossman.

As part of his treatment, Leno also had sessions in a hyperbaric chamber to help increase oxygen to healthy skin, which he likened to “what sitting in a coffin feels like.”

“I was hoping to get the Clooney face, but that wasn’t available,” he quipped of his recovery. “Luckily I didn’t make my money being handsome so that’s not a dealbreaker for me.”

In addition to his People interview, Leno also sat down for an interview with Today airing Wednesday morning, in which he joked that he hadn’t learned anything from his ordeal.

It sounds like Jay Leno is going to be OK following a terrifying brush with death earlier this week. The former Tonight Show host’s old friend Tim Allen provided an update on his health after visiting him in the hospital on Thursday night.

Leno was hospitalized with serious burns to his face and hands while trying to fix a clogged fuel line on his 1907 White Steam Car in his Burbank garage on Sunday. His injuries were bad enough that he was transferred to a burn center, and he was forced to cancel public engagements for at least the rest of the week. But from what Allen says, Leno will be back on his feet in no time.

“Went to see my pal Leno in the hospital after his burn accident,” Allen tweeted on Thursday night. “Took some treats and car magazines. He has severe burns and acts like he just stubbed his toe. The due is a superhero. Great care will have him better real soon.”

While on his way out, Allen also spoke with paparazzi at the Grossman Burn Center in West Hills, California, and elaborated that Leno’s face won’t be disfigured by severe burns. As previously reported, the flames burned the left side of Leno’s face but did not seriously affect his eye or his ear.

In addition to reiterating that his friend was feeling better and in good spirits, he said that Leno “was happy and they cracked some jokes.”

The incident occurred just before Leno was to make a scheduled appearance at the 2022 Financial Brand Forum in Las Vegas on Sunday night. Attendees received emails ahead of his appearance that Leno had to drop out due to a “very serious medical emergency.”

Former Tonight Show host Jay Leno has reportedly been hospitalized with serious burns to his face after one of his beloved cars apparently exploded into flames in a freak accident on Sunday.

The 72-year-old is known for his love of classic vehicles and owns close to 300 cars and motorbikes, which he keeps stored in his Los Angeles garage. He has also hosted the NBC reality series Jay Leno’s Garage since 2014, in which he reviews classic, vintage, and restored cars and sports cars.

According to TMZ, which broke the news on Monday, Leno’s injuries are extensive to the point that he was transferred to a burn center, and he has since canceled all of his public engagements for at least the rest of the week.

Jay was in the L.A. garage where he stores his cars on Sunday when one of the cars erupted into flames without warning. Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ … the flames burned the left side of Jay’s face, but thankfully did not penetrate his eye or his ear.

He was taken to the burn ward at Grossman Burn Center where he remains. We do not specifically know his condition but it is serious enough that he’s been itted to the hospital.

The news comes as Leno was absent from a scheduled appearance at the 2022 Financial Brand Forum in Las Vegas on Sunday night. Conference attendees were alerted by email that Leno had to drop out due to a “very serious medical emergency.”

“His family was not able to provide us very many details, but there was a very serious medical emergency that is preventing Jay from traveling,” read an email, which was obtained by People. “All we know is that he is alive, so our prayers go out to him and his family tonight.”

It’s presently unclear which of Leno’s vehicles malfunctioned and why. It’s possible he had been working on it at the time since he was in close enough proximity to sustain such serious injuries.