Don't believe the tabloid headlines — "Mad Men" star Jon Hamm is not coughing up blood, suffering from cancer, or about to die, he told Jimmy Kimmel on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" Wednesday night.
"I've got a polyp on my vocal cord," a raspy-voiced Hamm told Kimmel. "It sounds worse than it is, although it doesn't sound as bad as how the National Enquirer reported it, which was that I was coughing up blood and probably have cancer."
The tabloid reports were so scary that even Hamm's own sister was taken in, calling the actor to ask if he was dying.
"I was like, 'Wait, when? Who have you been talking to?'" Hamm said with a laugh. He told Kimmel the surgery was a "very routine procedure."
Less routine, perhaps, is the "Mad Men" star's still shockingly bushy beard, which he said he grew out of sheer laziness.
"I was in India making a movie, and in London doing the second series of 'A Young Doctor's Notebook,' and I go home and I literally did not want to do anything and this happened," Hamm said of his facial hair.
Hamm sported the beard at Sunday's Emmys, after which he and Amy Poehler hosted a losers-only party. Hamm noted that winners were actually allowed to attend — Tina Fey was one who did — under two conditions. They had to leave their Emmy statuettes outside and also make a $1,000 donation to charity. Many losers also donated. The Hollywood Reporter notes that nearly $20,000 was raised for charity.
Hamm also said that he'll resume work on "Mad Men" on Nov. 4, and that while show creator Matthew Weiner has dropped hints, he doesn't really know how the show will end. And he's OK with that.
"We don't know how our lives will end," he told Kimmel. "I apparently will die of cancer, according to the National Enquirer."