ET has confirmed that Bernie Mac has been hospitalized in Chicago for pneumonia.

The 50-year-old funnyman's rep says that the star "is responding well to treatment and will be released soon," and added that the illness is not related to Bernie's diagnosis of the autoimmune disease sarcoidosis, which causes inflammation in such organs as the lungs and lymph nodes.

Bernie has been in remission since 2005, when the "Bernie Mac Show" and 'Ocean's Thirteen' star announced that he had been suffering from the disease for the last two decades.

"He asked that his privacy and that of his family is respected while he gets well," says the rep.