Regis's Quick Hospital Stay

By Stephen M. Silverman

Originally posted Friday September 25, 1998 12:00 AM EDT

"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" host Regis Philbin, 68, was hospitalized on Monday and Tuesday of this week, reports Variety. After vacationing with Donald Trump at the mogul's Florida estate, Reege reportedly felt a slight chest pain and checked into a New York Hospital. "I had a choice of treatment by medication for several months -- or (an) atherectomy, which took only a half-hour. I decided on the latter procedure," said Regis. (An atherectomy is basically a cleaning out of the inside of an artery that supplies blood to the heart.) Variety's Army Archerd now says that the TV star is doing well, while on this morning's "Live!" Kathie Lee Gifford never stopped chiding Regis about "having to be cleaned out."

• On another matter of the heart, a Colorado judge is looking into heartburn (as in acid indigestion) before ruling on an unusual defense in a drunken-driving case. Colorado Rockies baseball team co-owner Charlie Monfort claims that the heartburn he suffers made the alcohol rise from his stomach and unfairly influence his breath test when cops stopped him last summer. His attorneys intend to present medical witnesses to support this theory, while prosecutors remain skeptical. Judge Lynn Karowsky has given Monfort to the end of the week to present his case.