Updated at 8:09 pm Beijing time
Gordon Gekko will not be addressing fellow investors in Hong Kong this year, as actor Michael Douglas has canceled a scheduled appearance at the CLSA Investors’ Forum Sept. 15.
The investment firm announced Douglas’ would speak at its annual conference just over a week ago. Douglas has a tumor in his throat and will undergo radiation and chemotherapy. CLSA did not immediately name a replacement speaker.
“Michael Douglas will not be attending the CLSA Investors’ Forum due to the treatment he will be receiving for his throat tumor. We have conveyed our best wishes to him,” CLSA spokesperson Simone Wheeler said in an e-mail.
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The Academy Award-winning actor’s treatment is scheduled to last eight weeks.
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin made headlines for the forum in 2009, giving one of her first international, post-gubernatorial speeches there.
Douglas is also slated to play at the Star Trophy golf tournament on the Chinese island province of Hainan in late October, in an event sponsored by the Mission Hills group and Creative Artists Agency. Neither could be reached immediately for comment.
The 65-year-old Douglas said he expects to make a full recovery. He told People magazine in a statement Monday he’s “very optimistic.” His publicist’s assistant, Eli Barach, confirmed his condition to The Associated Press.
The actor is outside the United States, publicist Allen Burry said Monday, declining to give his location or where he would be treated.
Douglas and his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, purchased a house on the island of Bermuda nearly a decade ago, and Zeta-Jones said they planned to raise their two children there.
Douglas won an Oscar for “Wall Street” and appears this fall in the sequel, “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.”
— Jonathan Landreth and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
