Michael Douglas knows he has a tough road ahead – but he's ready to face it.

"It's a fight," says the 65-year-old Oscar winner, who is undergoing a grueling course of radiation and chemotherapy to treat a tumor at the base of his tongue, and adds of his treatment: "It really knocks you out."

Douglas reveals in this week's PEOPLE cover story that he received the diagnosis of throat cancer in early August after suffering persistent throat and ear pain.

Douglas's wife, actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, 40, says she has struggled with seeing her normally tireless husband slowed by the effects of his treatment.

Throat cancer can be a devastating illness -- hard to diagnose, hard to treat and especially hard on the body, with the possibility of losing the voice and even the ability to eat, but doctors say that actor Michael Douglas seems to have a positive prognosis.

Last night on the David Letterman's "Late Show" the actor said his doctors told him he has an 80 percent survival rate from a stage four cancer.

I love Eminem, new album didn't really do it for me (though better than the previous three, with some exceptions). Not a bad choice. But was hoping for something funnier.

Hurricane Earl lashed the northeastern Caribbean with heavy rain and strong winds Monday, causing flooding in parts of the low-lying Leeward Islands and emptying the streets and beaches as people waited out the storm.

None of the major hurricane models run on Monday morning show the hurricane to be a threat to Long Island, although the South Shore may probably get pounded with waves and high surf.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Earl, which formed on Sunday, already had sustained winds of 110 mph and was likely to keep growing.

"It is possible that Earl could become a Category 4 hurricane as we get into the middle to late portions of the week," hurricane center specialist Michael Brennan said. Category 4 storms have sustained winds of at least 131 mph.

The storm's forecast track would carry its center north of the Caribbean, then forecasters say it is likely to bend to the north, moving roughly parallel to the U.S. East Coast.


Early Monday, Earl was about 25 miles north-northeast of St. Martin and headed west-northwest at 14 mph, according to the center in Miami. Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 50 miles from its center.

Earl has grown rapidly in strength, fueled by warm ocean temperatures of 86 degrees.

Earl could bring battering waves and storm surges of up to four feet above normal on some islands, as well as downpours that threaten to unleash flash floods and mudslides.

Forecasters say there is a chance the hurricane could brush the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region toward the end of the week, with its closest approach to North Carolina on Friday.

In any case, the U.S. East Coast is likely to see pounding surf.

"Folks from the Carolinas northward through the Mid-Atlantic and New England need to be paying attention to Earl and the forecasts as they get updated through the week," Brennan said.

Exclu: Kate Gosselin is about to get some company: A new family of sextuplets is moving in at TLC.

The network has ordered eight episodes of “Sextuplets Take New York,” which will chronicle a family billed as America’s first Latino sextuplets. It is set to premiere Sept. 14.

The series revolves around Victor and Digna Carpio, who are raising four boys and two girls in Queens, N.Y. All are 22 months old, recently have mastered the art of walking and soon will be talking. Each episode follows the daily challenges of raising the babies (50 diaper changes a day) and a 9-year-old son in a modest-sized home.

Nancy Daniels, senior vp production and development at the network said the network cast the family after doing a special on three sets of parents struggling with a multiple birth.

"We fell in love with them," she said. "All of our shows look at interesting families and interesting live. They're struggling with taking care of a lot of small children who are all the same age and overrunning their house."