Rodney Dangerfield

[Johnny]

"Sure I smoked pot in hospital, My wife won't let me toke at home!" - Rodney Dangerfield

What do Rodney Dangerfield, Michelle Phillips, Bill Maher, Jesse Ventura, Frances McDormand and Jennifer Aniston have in common? They've come clean about pot and they want others to as well.

Comedian Rodney Dangerfield's new autobiography, It's Not Easy Being Me: A Lifetime of No Respect But Plenty of Sex and Drugs (Harper-Collins), contains surprising news: he smokes marijuana. Dangerfield, 82, says he's been smoking pot for nearly 50 years, joking, "I was a hippie long before hippies were born."

Dangerfield's neglectful parents left him with little self esteem, and he admirably channeled his despair into his act. The ugly, unloved kid had quite a full life, and his book is full of interesting anecdotes, interspersed with hilarious jokes. His first "I don't get no respect" joke was "I used to play hide and seek. They wouldn't even look for me." As well as giving us 50 years of great jokes, Dangerfield has helped foster the success of countless young comics, by hosting an HBO comedy showcase and running a comedy club in New York City.

Dangerfield tells of drinking heavily to counter his depression, but had better results with marijuana. He writes, "Booze is the real culprit in our society. Booze is traffic accidents, booze is wife beating. In my life I've seen many doctors and psychiatrists, and all of them have told me that I'm better off with pot than with booze." Dangerfield now has a doctor's recommendation from a California physician to use marijuana medicinally for high blood pressure and pain. He cautions against smoking on the job, however, saying his comic timing is off while "high" and he does not perform under marijuana's influence.

Dangerfield's admissions are part of a wave of revelations that is being compared to the gay movement's "outing", a strategy that ultimately helped gays achieve greater civil rights. The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) has launched a campaign to enlist VIPs to their cause with an advisory board that includes Michelle Phillips, Bill Maher, Jesse Ventura, Dr. Andrew Weil, and former US Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders.

Rodney Dangerfield was rushed to a hospital terrified he was having a heart attack - and to calm himself he fired up a joint right in the middle of the Intensive Care Unit! The 80-year-old comic, who has been battling heart disease for more than 10 years - was brought in by his devoted wife Joan, 49, who says her husband panics every time he feels a twinge in his chest.

Rodney came into Saint John's Health Canter on Saturday night, August 31, "white as a sheet, drenched in sweat and holding his chest with both hands," an inside source revealed.

"It was obvious he was in a lot of pain."

He was moved to the ICU unit and left alone to change his clothes in the bathroom.

"And when the door was shut he lit up a joint," said the source. "He said later it was to calm his nerves.

"When a nurse opened the bathroom door a cloud of pot smoke hit her in the face!"

An insider disclosed: "When the staff realized what was going on they were furious - and so was Rodney's wife!

"They don't even allow flowers in the ICU so you can imagine how they feel about any kind of smoke.

"People were shocked. Someone on the floor called security. When they arrived they went into his room to talk to him, but the damage was already done.

"What could they do? They couldn't throw an 80-year-old heart patient out on his ear!

"When Rodney sheepishly admitted to smoking pot, he was given a good scolding.

"Some people in the hospital thought it was funny, this old guy sitting in ICU getting high, but the nurses were fit to be tied.

"Rodney sincerely apologized to the staff and told them it would never happen again."

But smoking the joint did calm down the panic-stricken star, said the insider. "Rodney was suddenly much more relaxed and not afraid at all.

"He was so agreeable with everyone. While the nurses got his IV hooked up, he was laughing and telling jokes like there was nothing wrong!"

Rodney began having heart problems in the early 1990s, underwent heart surgery in 1992 and had more surgery in 2000 for an abdominal aneurysm.

But this time, doctors told him his pains were not life-threatening, and he was released on Sunday morning, the insider added.

"Rodney was told to take it easy - but to leave the drugs alone!"