As you may or may not have heard, Heath Ledger, the celebrated young actor who died unexpectedly last month, was memorialized this weekend in Australia with a hideous beach blanket bingo party. The wacky weirdos who celebrated his life by diving, fully clothed, into the sea he so loved are definitely tapped in the head. Bizarro! [Daily Mail]
It sounds too ludicrous to be true, but unfortunately it is very real: financial news publisher TheStreet.com just launched a site that takes tabloid celebrity stories, gets your attention, and then segues into financial advice. The front page of the site, at MainStreet.com, recently included stories ostensibly about Shaquille O'Neal, Tom Cruise and Jason Biggs, but really about rolling over your 401(k), saving money on a motorcycle and buying a wedding ring. TheStreet.com cofounder Jim Cramer may have developed a taste for a large audience at his popular CNBC call-in show Mad Money, but this hardly the way to build one. The warmed-over celebrity news will not draw gossip hounds, while the financial advice would be better off on its own, for easy Googling when you need that sort of information. After the jump, how the site treated Heath Ledger's death, and other insane excerpts from this misguided mashup.
Take a listen to this original clip of former CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer crooning Honky Tonk Confidential's "How I Became An Anchorman," a version of which he sang for Viacom boss Sumner Redstone last week. This recording has Schieffer's original line.Rebuffing the advances of a gas-station customer, Schieffer warbles, "I said, excuse me, bud, but before you intrude, I ain't some Brokeback Mountain dude, my kind of cowboys live in Lonesome Dove."
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The line was changed after Heath Ledger's inconvenient death, so as not to appear, you know, callous or whatever. Because it was the death of the film's actor that made that particular line insensitive.
Terry Gilliam's pledge that the Parnassus show will indeed go on just got a shot of quasi-validity. Amid reports that production has been shut down, the movie's online marketing campaign began taking root this week. Not only did (an admittedly bare bones) official website go live, fanboy outpost Quick Stop managed to get their hands on the first official teaser image (with another to follow). However, there's still one little problem that needs resolving. Namely, what to do with Heath Ledger's remaining scenes?
Heath Ledger's family has issued a statement in reaction to the autopsy findings: "While no medications were taken in excess, we learned today the combination of doctor-prescribed drugs proved lethal for our boy. Heath's accidental death serves as a caution to the hidden dangers of combining prescription medication, even at low dosage." Read the rest by clicking on the link. [CNN.com]
Hey, everyone remember how Heath Ledger did all that cocaine and heroin at Hollywood "Drug Parties"? And how it killed him? Turns out, he was killed by legal drugs—perhaps ones given to him by doctors! The establishment killed him! Not, shockingly, all that deadly Mary Jane. No, the pills that did Ledger in are a bit more respectable, and all quite familiar to your standard self-diagnosing doctor-shopping members of the creative under- and over-classes.
Medical examiners have released results of Heath Ledger's toxicology report earlier today. The young star died of an accidental overdose — an "acute intoxication" — from the combined effects of hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam, doxylamine and oxycodone. The latter is the active substance in Silicon Valley's drug of choice, OxyContin.
This morning, the New York City medical examiner revealed the Heath Ledger autopsy results: His death was ruled an accidental overdose from five different prescription medications found in his system. (There was no trace, however, of the cocaine being shockingly ingested several feet away from him two years ago at the Chateau Marmont.) The official cause of death was from "acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam (Valium), temazepam, alprazolam (Xanax), and doxylamine." Developing...
The New York medical examiner's office declared today that actor Heath Ledger died of an accidental overdose of anti-anxiety drugs and sleep aids. Autopsy and toxicology results find that Ledger wasn't under the influence of illegal substances at the time of his death at his SoHo apartment on January 22nd. "The medical examiner released results of the toxicology report Wednesday, saying Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam, and doxylamine." [WNBC]
"I am convinced that if [Heath Ledger's] heart-wrenching video had aired, it would have gotten through and had a positive effect on young people in America. Perhaps it could have even saved lives." Also: "Had TMZ not videotaped [Britney Spears'] high-speed driving antics, her erratic mood swings, her British accent, those kids might still be riding around with her — and probably not in child-safety seats. And she might not be in UCLA Medical Center right now, with her parents around her, finally getting the medical help she desperately needs. [LA Times]
According to ABCNews.com, a coalition of arm-twisting publicists and sympathetic, outraged actors including Natalie Portman, Sarah Jessica Parker, Josh Brolin and Ellen Page were behind a campaign that persuaded ET and The Insider not to air their $200,000 video revealing that Heath Ledger stood in the same Chateau Marmont bungalow as some cocaine following the 2006 SAG Awards.
When a reporter spilled the beans that he had participated in drug use with Heath Ledger (and had even been the one to contact a dealer to buy more sweet, sweet substance) his magazine dropped the story it was going to run about the deceased gay cowboy's drug use. Quel scandal! Which magazine do YOU think it was? [FishbowlNY] (Originally from Popbitch so the mag could be British.)
Many, including us, have been wondering out loud how Warner Bros. plans on addressing the unique (and thankfully so) marketing problem currently facing The Dark Knight: Namely, what to do about a campaign that took fiendish pleasure in showcasing Heath Ledger's singularly bleak and twisted take on iconic Batman villain the Joker. Slate now reports that the studio's plan, in place since the beginning but perhaps being ushered in more hastily since the actor's death, is to shift the focus over to the film's other featured villain:
An allegedly shocking video of Heath Ledger attending a "Hollywood drug party" (or as such an event is more commonly referred to in Los Angeles, "a party") at the Chateau Marmont following the 2006 SAG awards, which may prove conclusively that the recently deceased actor has been in the same room as cocaine and may have discussed his own chilling marijuana use, has surfaced.
So quite how shocking is tape of dead actor, Heath Ledger, taking drugs at a party at Chateau Marmont? From the promo clips broadcast last night on The Insider and shown here, not that much. The revelation would be a party at the eternally fashionable Hollywood hotel at which celebrities weren't on something. The tape isn't worth $200,000, even if The Insider were to go ahead with the full broadcast. The closest thing to a money shot is someone (the actor?) leaning down to snort cocaine from a table. But most of the video consists of images of John Belushi, to underline the point that celebrity and drugs can be a fatal combination, talking heads to ensure the viewer is as shocked as she should be, and Ledger wandering the room in dreamy slow-motion. My unthinking reaction: even in blurry amateur video, the Australian actor looked good. But that's the amoral coastal cosmopolitan talking.
A "shocking video" of Heath Ledger "snorting what appear to be drugs off a table" at noted Hollywood drug haven the Chateau Marmont has "surfaced." Entertainment Tonight bought it for $200,000, teased it, then backed away from playing it. Same with The Insider. Not, according to the Daily News, the case with Australia's Channel 9, which will play the tape tonight. Expect to be shocked! Shocked to see an actor attend a party, after an awards show (2006 SAG Awards), and snort a line of coke! Ledger expresses "remorse" at his life of habitual drug-taking, saying he used to smoke a lot of weed. "'I'm going to get serious s—t from my girlfriend,' Ledger tells his companions. 'We just had a baby three months ago.'" Does this seriously sound like a man in the grip of, according to today's Post, a major drug habit?
