Jay Leno injured after fall down hillside in Westmoreland County

Celebrity talk show host Jay Leno reportedly fell while trying to walk to a Hempfield restaurant last week, badly bruising his face and eye.

The former “Tonight Show” host told “Inside Edition” he was staying at a Hampton Inn about 30 miles outside of Pittsburgh and he fell while walking to a restaurant close to his hotel.

He said he suffered multiple injuries but told reporters in Los Angeles he is fine and “it isn’t a big deal.”

Leno, 74, performed at the Palace Theatre in Greensburg on Friday while wearing an eye patch.

Daniel Stainer is director of marketing at Westmoreland Cultural Trust, which operates The Palace Theatre. Stainer said Leno’s professionalism and dedication were on full display Friday night.

“The poor guy falls down the hill four hours before the show, and he still puts on the show,” Stainer said. “The saying goes ‘the show must go on,’ and he did it. What a classy professional.”

Leno told “Inside Edition” he broke his wrist, lost a fingernail and is “all black and blue” from the fall. Leno said his face and the left side of his body are bruised. His left eye was swollen shut.

In another interview with TMZ on Monday, Leno said he did not have a car. He said staff at the hotel gave him walking directions to the restaurant.

Leno told TMZ that he decided to take a shortcut down a hill but slipped and fell while making his way. The specific restaurant he was heading to remains unclear.

“The hill doesn’t look that steep, about 60, 70 feet,” Leno told TMZ. “Let me see if I can go down there … (he screams) and then I fell down, boom, boom, boom.”

Chatter on social media suggested Leno must have been eating down the hill at Dino’s Sports Lounge in Greensburg, but manager Steve Smolleck said Wednesday that Leno was not seen at the restaurant.

“I was here on Friday night and definitely didn’t see him,” he said, working a shift from 3 p.m. until close.

Other employees at Dino’s didn’t notice Leno either.

“Nobody said anything,” he said.

If Leno had arrived at Dino’s, Smolleck said, he would’ve recognized him.

“It sounded like he may have been on his way over here when he fell,” he said.

Smolleck said he started talking to other Dino’s employees to see what they had heard when he noticed the online discourse.

“We’re the only restaurant that he possibly could’ve been walking to,” he said, when Leno fell down the hill. “There is one in the opposite direction, but that just wouldn’t make sense for him to be going down the hill in that direction.”

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During his tumble, Leno said, he “hit a bunch of rocks.” He performed three hours later at The Palace Theatre.

Stainer said Leno was staying at the Hampton Inn Greensburg off Route 30. A hotel staff worker Wednesday was not aware of Leno staying there.

Leno said he was treated in the hospital upon returning to his home in Los Angeles.

Stainer said the cultural trust wishes Leno a speedy recovery and hopes he returns for another show in the future.