The Balinese fortuneteller featured in Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling memoir "Eat Pray Love" has been hospitalized because of a heart ailment — just days before a movie adaptation starring Julia Roberts hits U.S. theaters, his doctor said Thursday.
Ketut Liyer has become a celebrity in his village of Ubud since the book came out in 2006.
Tourists and locals have flocked to his house on Indonesia's resort island of Bali so he could read their palms. His granddaughter, Wayan Puspita Sari, said the 96-year-old has been asked to appear in several commercials and advertisements.
"He is exhausted by all of this," she said. "It may have affected his health."
Liyer, who also has a prostate problem, was admitted to the Surya Husada hospital over the weekend and underwent prostate surgery on Monday, said his doctor, Wayan Gede Wirawan. Though he has made a strong recovery and says he wants to return home, the fortuneteller is being asked to stay at least one week.
Hollywood star Roberts plays Gilbert in "Eat Pray Love," a story about a frustrated divorcee who takes a yearlong trip to Italy, India and Bali in search of inner peace. She met with Liyer during the shooting and filmed several scenes inside his home.
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