I'm mentally ill, Bitch!

Last night Entertainment Weekly revealed that comedian Dave Chappelle, he of the $50 million deal from Comedy Central, has been in a mental health facility since late April. Given various reports of Chappelle’s off-kilter behavior around town, this development is more saddening than it is surprising. What is surprising, however, is that Chappelle’s mental health facility of choice is in South Africa.

The same source denies rumors of drug abuse. Other sources have also told Entertainment Weekly that the future of Chappelle's Show — the hit Comedy Central series that was entering its third season — is more uncertain than the network has suggested.

Comedy Central last week made a hasty announcement that the show's third season, already delayed from its planned February start, had been postponed again. The network said it remained ''optimistic'' that production could resume. The highly rated sketch series has been a huge moneymaker for Viacom, which owns Comedy Central. Its second season is about to be released on DVD, on the heels of first-season sales that made it the top-selling television DVD in history.

Thanks in large part to the DVD sales, Chappelle last year netted a $50 million deal for co-writing and starring in the show. Sketches to fill about four episodes in the third season have been taped, but Chappelle's interstitial material with live audiences has not. The fate of the sketches has not been determined.