Here's Everything We Know About Eric Dane's ALS Diagnosis — And What It Means For 'Euphoria' Season 3
Eric Dane has been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
The 52-year-old actor shared his diagnosis with People yesterday, saying: 'I have been diagnosed with ALS. I am grateful to have my loving family by my side as we navigate this next chapter.'
For context, ALS (sometimes referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease) is a rare neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, causing progressive paralysis of the muscles. There is no cure for the disease, which, over time, causes people to lose the ability to walk, speak, eat, and breathe independently. Notably, ALS does not typically affect a person's thinking ability.
Every person's experience with ALS is unique, but according to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the life expectancy after someone is diagnosed can be between three to five years, although some people live for decades.
Eric has starred in many popular shows and movies, from Grey's Anatomy to Burlesque. However, he's now probably best known for his role in Euphoria as Cal Jacobs, the father of Jacob Elordi 's Nate Jacobs. Shooting for Season 3 of the hit HBO show is currently underway, and in his statement, Eric was pleased to confirm his involvement.
'I feel fortunate that I am able to continue working and am looking forward to returning to set of Euphoria next week,' he told People. 'I kindly ask that you give my family and I privacy during this time.'
Eric is married to Rebecca Gayheart, and they share two teenage daughters: Billie Beatrice, 15, and Georgia Geraldine, 13. As you may know, Rebecca filed to divorce Eric in 2018. However, the couple remained close, and last month, she requested to dismiss her petition.
On April 9, days before Eric's ALS diagnosis was made public, Rebecca gave an update on their marriage, telling E! News: 'We are best of friends. We are really close. We are great co-parents. We really figured out the formula to staying a family, and I think our kids are benefiting greatly from it, and we are as well.'
'I think it's important to not look at a relationship that ends as a failure. It's just a season. It wasn't a failure. It was a huge success,' she went on. 'We were married for, I mean, we are still married, but together for 15 years, and we had two beautiful kids, so I think that's a successful relationship, and that's how we look at it.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
‘Psychotic' Sydney Sweeney admits she's ‘really vicious' on set, feels ‘bad' for her co-stars
Don't let her sweet personality fool you. Sydney Sweeney recently revealed that she is 'kind of psychotic' on set and feels 'bad' for her co-stars while filming certain projects. The 'Euphoria' actress, 27, opened up about her surprising acting process during an appearance on 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon' Thursday night to promote her upcoming Apple TV+ movie, 'Echo Valley.' 'I, like, jump in and out,' Sweeney revealed after Fallon, 50, asked how she prepares for her roles. 'It's kind of psychotic.' 'Like, you're happy and fun, and then…' the late-night host said, to which Sweeney added, 'And then they say, 'Action!' and then I'm screaming and crying. And then they call, 'Cut!' and I go, 'What's wrong?'' 'Echo Valley,' which hits the popular streamer on Friday, June 13, stars the 'Immaculate' actress as Claire, the troubled daughter of Julianne Moore's character Kate. But while Sweeney praised Moore, 64, as 'the most incredible human being,' she also admitted that she was 'vicious' when the script called for the two actresses to argue with one another. 'She's so kind and fun, and just amazing to work with,' the 'Anyone But You' starlet said of her co-star. 'I felt so bad,' she added. 'I did. 'Cause I am. I'm vicious. I'm really vicious.' Elsewhere during her appearance on 'The Tonight Show' this week, Sweeney shared some updates regarding her 'Euphoria' character, Cassie, ahead of the show's upcoming third season. 'Cassie is crazy,' she told Fallon. 'It's the favorite version of her. She's even worse, she's even worse.' Sweeney also teased the series of behind-the-scenes photos that were allegedly leaked from the set of 'Euphoria' Season 3 back in April. The pics showed the actress' character walking down the aisle in a wedding dress, and Sweeney stayed hush-hush regarding whether the photos were real or fake. 'I can't confirm or deny,' she said. 'That could be AI!' 'No, it can't,' Fallon fired back. 'Nice try!' One subject Sweeney did not discuss during her appearance on 'The Tonight Show' on Thursday was her recent split from fiancé Jonathan Davino. Although the pair got engaged in 2022, the 'Madame Web' actress reportedly broke things off in March. She then broke her silence on the split for the first time during an interview with The Times published on May 31. 'No,' Sweeney said when asked if she was currently planning her wedding. 'Yes,' she added when asked whether she is single. 'I'm learning a lot about myself,' Sweeney continued at the time. 'Spending more time with my friends. And I'm loving it.' The actress' remarks came after an insider told People in March that the former couple's relationship had been 'rocky for a long time' and Sweeney 'didn't feel right' about tying the knot with the 41-year-old businessman and film producer. 'She's exactly where she wants to be,' the source told the outlet. 'Most people would feel overwhelmed by her working schedule this year, but not Syd.' 'She's all about working right now and very excited about all her projects,' they added. 'This is what she wants to focus on right now.'
Forbes
2 hours ago
- Forbes
What The Streaming Wars Reveal about Bad Strategy
Rooftop party and viewing in Los Angeles. Created By Michelle Loret de Mola using Midjourney Max just pulled a classic Hollywood move: the reboot. Two years after Warner Bros. Discovery stripped away the iconic 'HBO' from its name, they've decided to bring it back. Max will now be called HBO Max…again. This will be the streaming service's fifth name change. They were HBO Go in 2008, then HBO Now in 2015, then HBO Max in 2020, then just Max in 2023, and now (hopefully, finally) back to HBO Max. On the face of it, this just seems like bad brand management. But there's a bigger lesson to be learned here. These changes were more than just rebrands: each new name came along with a fundamentally different business strategy. HBO succeeded when it relied on its own creativity. And then stumbled when it tried to copy competitors. For decades, HBO had a unique playbook. It focused on a combination of recently released movies, exclusive live events, and original series. While broadcast television depended on advertising, HBO used a subscription model. HBO played a leading role in what has been called 'television's second golden age.' It greenlit shows that shaped the culture, like The Sopranos, Sex and The City, The Wire, and Game of Thrones. At its core, HBO's playbook was all about the curation and production of prestige content. Of course, that was before the consultants came in. In June 2018, Time Warner, HBO's parent company, was acquired by AT&T for $85 billion. Shortly after completing the acquisition, John Stankey, the new CEO of WarnerMedia decided to change the playbook. To Stankey, HBO's tightly curated, time and resource-intensive model didn't seem scalable. He wanted a broader, more mass market platform with more content, more engagement, and more subscriber growth. In a town hall to HBO employees, Stankey emphasized, "We need hours a day. It's not hours a week, and it's not hours a month. We need hours a day. You are competing with devices that sit in people's hands that capture their attention every 15 minutes. I want more hours of engagement." Stankey believed substantially more content would increase viewer engagement, and that would provide more data, in turn enabling monetization through advertising and subscriptions. In short, HBO's new strategy would be to stop being HBO and start trying to be Netflix. And who wouldn't want to be Netflix? Netflix was the company that slayed Blockbuster, reinvented TV distribution, disrupted Hollywood, and rewrote the rules of what it meant to be a media company. Today, Netflix enjoys a half trillion dollar market cap that is double that of Disney and 22 times that of Warner Bros. Discovery. There was just one problem with that playbook: HBO isn't Netflix. What followed was seven years of wandering in the wilderness, as HBO struggled to emulate the Netflix model. Frustrated with the new strategy, HBO CEO Richard Plepler walked away in 2019. HBO's original content was folded into Warner Bros.' extensive library of content and relaunched as HBO Max. And while global subscriptions for HBO Max reached 69.4 million by October 2021, much of that growth came because we were all locked up at home during a pandemic. Unable to drive further growth from its acquisition, AT&T spun off WarnerMedia to create Warner Bros. Discovery in 2022. And things got even worse. Warner CEO David Zaslav doubled down on the Netflix playbook by dropping the HBO name altogether and flooding the platform with content from Discovery and Food Network. Suddenly, the platform that brought you The Wire was pumping out shows like Dr. Pimple Popper and My 600-lb Life. The end result of this copycat strategy was external confusion, internal demoralization, and financial underperformance. In recent months, Warner Bros. Discovery execs have begun to concede that they simply can't compete head-to-head with Netflix. As JB Perrette, the president of streaming, said in an interview, 'We started listening to consumers saying, 'Hey, we don't really want more content, we want something that is different, we want to end the death scroll with something that is better.'' It turns out no one wants a second-rate Netflix when they can already subscribe to the real thing. They want an alternative. They want HBO. Over the past year, Max has regained momentum by focusing more on quality, adult shows like The White Lotus and The Pitt instead of trying to provide a firehose of entertainment for everyone. The return to being called HBO Max is a long-overdue recognition that this is where its future lies. WarnerMedia made the same mistake with other properties, too. The company hired McKinsey to develop a growth playbook for CNN. Trying to emulate Disney+, they decided to launch CNN+. But guess what? Anderson Cooper isn't Iron Man. Wolf Blitzer isn't Obi Wan Kenobi. The service was dead in a month. According to Nielsen, Warner Bros. Discovery drew 1.5% of viewing time in March. This was less than Disney, Amazon, Paramount, Roku, and Tubi. Netflix dominated, with 8% of total viewership. The lessons from the streaming world apply to every industry: the minute you stop asking what makes you special and start copying others, you've already lost. You have to be creative. You have to come up with your own playbook for growth. It's a mistake to think you can succeed by copying the strategies of successful competitors. Trying to win by benchmarking high-performing peers feels safe. It has persuasive appeal when presented in a PowerPoint deck. A huge industry of consultants has grown up around it, adding to the illusion of safety. And it's an easy way to win short-term praise from the business press and investors. In reality, though, benchmarking is a fast track to mediocrity. Copying others only tells you what worked yesterday for someone else, when what leaders need to focus on is what will work for them tomorrow. Great companies aren't built on copycat playbooks — they succeed by doing something original based on their unique strengths. Even while others were trying to copy it, Netflix stayed true to its own unique playbook based on global content, viewer data, and rapid iteration. When the company took out $2 billion in debt in 2018 to help finance a surge in original content, skeptics questioned whether its strategy was sustainable. But it wasn't a gamble — it was an investment based on data. Unlike traditional studios, Netflix knew exactly what its viewers were watching, where, for how long, and when they dropped off. It used those insights to launch hit shows like Bridgerton, Squid Game, and Stranger Things. Netflix also localized content early, producing Korean hits for South Korea and Indian dramas for South Asia and the Middle East. By the end of 2024, the skeptics had been silenced — Netflix's subscriber numbers topped 300 million, more than double the total at the end of 2018. Netflix operates on the premise that it will win by doing things its own way. For its part, Disney could have fallen into the trap of trying to chase Netflix when it launched its Disney+ streaming service in 2019. But rather than flooding the zone with content, Disney realized that its winning playbook depended on developing content around signature franchises like Star Wars, Marvel, and Pixar. These worlds are ultimately more than content — they're emotional ecosystems. And Disney knows how to turn emotions into revenue streams — through a flywheel of fan engagement, merchandise, theatrical releases, and theme park rides. For that reason, Disney doesn't define success solely through streaming metrics. It also pays close attention to loyalty, lifetime customer value, park attendance, and toy sales. Netflix and Disney+ succeeded by developing their own unique playbooks. HBO lost its way by trying to be something it wasn't. Influenced by consultants and consensus thinking, it was led into the sea of sameness, where companies go to die…or at least spend years treading water. To be sure, that doesn't mean you shouldn't watch and learn from competitors. But there's a big difference between stealing a page from someone else and trying to copy their whole playbook. The risk of doing that is threefold. First, it means you're playing to someone else's strengths, not your own. Second, it means you're focusing on what worked yesterday, not tomorrow. And third, you end up the same as everyone else, and sink into mediocrity. So if benchmarking isn't the answer, what is? The path to success lies in writing your own playbook, starting by answering five fundamental questions that define who you are and your vision for the future. HBO's latest reboot has been greeted with its fair share of sniggers and eye-rolls. But it shows that the company is waking up to what made it great in the first place. That's a good thing, giving it a shot at renewed success. The path forward for HBO isn't about going bigger or trying to please everyone. It's about going bolder, with fewer, better stories that shape the culture. In the end, the companies that come out on top aren't the ones chasing the crowd. They're the ones bold enough to say: This is who we are. This is what we believe. And this is how we win. No benchmarking required.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Sydney Sweeney Teases ‘Euphoria' Season 3: 'Cassie Is Crazy'
It appears home-wrecking and stage-crashing were just the appetizer for Sydney Sweeney's Cassie Howard on Euphoria. As the 2x Emmy nominee teased Season 3 of Sam Levinson's HBO teen drama, she couldn't reveal much in the way of plot points, but she assured fans that her character is 'even worse' in upcoming episodes. More from Deadline 'Euphoria' Season 3 Production Is Underway Sydney Sweeney Is Euphoric About 'Euphoria' Return Sarah Jessica Parker "Shocked" By Unpopularity Of 'AJLT's Che Diaz, Says She Loved Working With Sara Ramirez 'Cassie is crazy,' said Sweeney on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. 'So, she still is?' asked Fallon, to which she quipped, 'Oh, she's even worse.' After Fallon brought up a leaked on-set photo of Sweeney sporting a wedding dress, the actress avoided any spoilers about whether Cassie is getting hitched. 'Um, I can't confirm or deny. … Who knows, that could be AI,' she told thee host. In Season 2, Cassie's downward spiral includes an affair with her best friend Maddy's (Alexa Demie) ex-boyfriend Nate (Jacob Elordi), culminating with the former pals duking it out on stage, crashing Cassie's younger sister Lexi's (Maude Apatow) auto-biographical play. Nearly three years after the Season 2 finale, Season 3 of Euphoria officially went into production in February. The long-delayed shoot also comes after speculation that the show was coming to an end. During the hiatus, Sweeney has starred in such films as Reality, Americana, Anyone But You, Madame Web, Immaculate, Eden, and most recently, Echo Valley, now in select theaters before premiering June 13 on Apple TV+. Best of Deadline 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery 2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery 'Stick' Soundtrack: All The Songs You'll Hear In The Apple TV+ Golf Series
