Not good news for Patrick Swayze

Patrick Swayze, who has been battling pancreatic cancer for the past year, was supposed to attend TV Press Tour this afternoon to promote his new A&E series "The Beast," in which he plays a grizzled FBI Agent. Alas, AETN CEO Abbe Raven opened the session with the announcement: "Patrick has checked himself into the hospital. He asked us to go forward with the panel. We wish him the very best."

A&E President Bob DeBitetto elaborated: "Patrick checked himself into the hospital for observation after coming down with pneumonia. He wants you to know he's very sorry he can't be here, and that he plans to get back to promoting 'The Beast' after he gets back on his feet and is feeling well again."

In an interview that aired Wednesday night on ABC, Swayze told Barbara Walters, "You can bet that I'm going through hell, And I've only seen the beginning of it. ... There's a lot of fear here. There's a lot of stuff going on. Yeah, I'm scared. Yeah, I'm angry. Yeah, I'm [asking], why me."

Showrunner John Romano said: "We work in the shadow of a tremendous act of courage."

Co-star Travis Fimmel said of working with Swayze: "It's been an absolute inspiration for me. You can't help but respect him. he makes the little things seem so not important. ... The sickest thing about him on set is probably his jokes."

Swayze's health notwithstanding, it's business as usual at Press Tour. The second question of the session coldly ignored the actor completely, asking the utterly irrelevant question, "This looks like a very male-oriented show - what are you doing to make it more appealing to women?"