It's conventional wisdom that, by dying young, you at least get to stay pretty. Lots of stars burned out too fast: from Heath to Jimi, Janis and John Belushi, River Phoenix, Kurt, Anna Nicole. The consolation prize of an early death is that you get to avoid the indignities of age. Dead celebrities traditionally become more famous, more than they would have had they managed to stay alive, kind of a reverse fameball. They turn into legends, or at least an E! True Hollywood Story. But this may be changing.

These days, there's more and more information available surrounding the event of a famous death. Gurney shots, crime scene photographs-this is the kind of gristle previously only seen by forensics and hardened cops. We're all amateur detectives now, for reasons we have a hard time pinpointing.

The guilty glamour-drugs! luxe apartments!-has become the clinical: photos of Chris Farley's corpse online. Shots of methadone in Anna Nicole's freezer. Heath in a body bag. The hard business of death is more and more visible with each accidental overdose or suicide or overdose-suicide. It very well may be wearing away the glamour-and the possibility-of dying young and staying beautiful.