September 1, 2010 | 11:29 am

Actor Michael Douglas announces stage 4 throat cancer

Posted by Danielle Berrin

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Actor Michael Douglas shocked David Letterman’s late show audience last night with the announcement that he has Stage 4 throat cancer. Douglas said he found out three weeks ago and is undergoing radiation and chemotherapy to treat the aggressive disease.

The announcement comes just weeks prior to the release of “Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps”, the Oliver Stone-directed sequel to “Wall Street” which earned Douglas an Oscar.

The interview with Letterman was sweetly sentimental, focusing on Douglas’s recovery. It was hardly the climate for mentioning the recent controversy surrounding Oliver Stone’s comments about Jewish power in the media, the after-effects of which may be felt at the box office.

Douglas, who considers himself half-Jewish (father Kirk Douglas, the legendary actor was born Issur Danielovitch to Russian-Jewish immigrants), has not spoken publicly about the issue, though he can be seen in a youtube video discussing what it was like to work for Stone while filming the original “Wall Street”.

“As a director he really tests you,” Douglas tells an audience of American Film Institute Conservatory fellows. “He treats you like you could be in the trench with him,” Douglas said, referring to Stone’s Vietnam War experience. “He is very confrontational.”

Douglas tells a story about Stone approaching him in his trailer, hoping “to ratchet up” more nastiness in Douglas’s character, Gordon Gekko, by accusing him of doing drugs. “He was willing—as the director—for me to hate him for the rest of that movie just to bring it up a little more,” Douglas said.

“Wall Street 2” is scheduled for release on Sept. 24.

Watch the video: