Wednesday evening, working, almost done

[cleolinda]

I have a number of Heath Ledger links--now that I'm over the initial shock, it kind of feels like we're having a James Dean-caliber national (global?) experience here. It's just that level of shock and loss--perhaps more so, since Ledger was in more than three movies and certainly had more than three great performances. I mean, go ahead and laugh, or scroll on by. I'm just seeing hundreds of comments across various boards and journal to that effect. So, some linkspam:

The current situation: Autopsy due for Heath Ledger, dead at 28; Heath Ledger autopsy inconclusive; family, fans grieve; Rolled up $20 bill found near Ledger "though no illegal drugs were found"; Confused? What The Media Does And Doesn't Know About Ledger's Death.

Reactions from people who knew him: Heath Ledger's family found out through the media; Heath Ledger’s Death Sends Shockwaves Through Sundance; Naomi Watts in tears at Sundance, cancels press appearances; Star tributes flow for Ledger (comments from Nicole Kidman, Mel Gibson, Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, John Travolta [?], and Charlize Theron); Heath Ledger: A costar reflects ("Christopher Plummer tells us about his late castmate on in-progress ''Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus' "); Production Shut Down for Ledger's 'Parnassus'?; Ledger Death Poses Problems for Warner Bros. (note: his work on The Dark Knight was, in fact, finished); Angry, or genius? ("I never wrote another bad word about Heath Ledger, not because he wooed me with his phone call, or because of the anguish in his voice, but because he really did 'learn to deal with things a bit better' "); Perth Angel (August 2000 Vanity Fair shoot. " 'When Heath smiles, it’s Errol Flynn,' says A Knight’s Tale director Brian Helgeland. 'Once every 50 years a guy like that comes along' ").

Reactions from people who didn't: Bush postpones anti-drug event after Ledger death; Heath Ledger On Entertainment Weekly Cover; Heath's People Magazine Cover; Best Buy rushes to cash in on Heath Ledger's death; Has modern tabloid culture made it impossible to "die young and stay beautiful"?'; Gawker Stalkers are assholes; An Actor Whose Work Will Outlast the Frenzy (NYT: "The dismaying sense of loss and waste at Mr. Ledger’s death at 28 comes not only because he was so young, but also because his talent was large and as yet largely unmapped.... Mr. Ledger’s work will outlast the frenzy. But there should have been more. Instead of being preserved as a young star eclipsed in his prime, he should have had time to outgrow his early promise and become the strange, surprising, era-defining actor he always had the potential to be").

Also: Westboro Baptist Church to Picket Heath Ledger's Funeral because he played a gay character. Yes, these are the same charmers who picketed Matthew Shepard's funeral. Don't read the flier at the entry unless you need to smash things sometime soon.

And finally: Every Window A Mirror at the Carpetbagger's NYT awards blog:

Late last night, Heath Ledger stories were being passed around Sundance parties as a kind of totem. It was touching and all, but here’s the thing: The Bagger had been drafted to phone industry/celebrity sources for reactions and hardly anyone would come to the phone and point out that the dead man was an incredibly gifted actor and a decent human being.

It was a reminder to the Bagger that, for everybody in the Magic Kingdom, it’s always about them. A guy dies and they need publicists to fend off reporters because they are in their trailers coping or because they might say the wrong thing. The whole publicity apparatus kicked in as if this were an event to manage.

Maybe other reporters had better luck, but the firm no’s the Bagger got told him plenty. This young man of 28, had one shot at a textured story about his humanity and his gifts. As it is, he will show up in the papers as a guy in bed with pills strewn about. Going forward, the stories will all be ghoulish forensics.

Ms. Hardwicke never mentioned her own loss. She was too busy paying tribute to a colleague and a friend.

(That said, I feel like people he actually had longterm relationships with--Michelle Williams, Naomi Watts--have a right to freak the hell out.)

And finally-finally, something to make you smile: Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal get the giggles at the SAG awards.

Comments

[honorh.livejournal.com]

Isn't Ledger going to be buried in Australia? Can't they tie the Phelps Nuts up in customs for, oh, a month or two? And then send then swimming with the jellyfishes?

I'm very saddened at this. He was so young and was just beginning a brilliant career, really. Not to mention his baby girl. At least she'll know what her dad looked like and the sound of his voice, thanks to all the movies he was in.

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

Aww. That's a nice thought. Plus all the interviews and award shows and stuff.

[life-on-queen.livejournal.com]

I kinda hope those Westboro clowns do go to Oz to picket Ledger's funeral - and discover what happens when you piss off a city full of grieving Australians. Not to mention that I'm pretty sure that Australian anti-hate statutes would consider the text of that flier alone criminal incitement to hate.

[allthelivesofme.livejournal.com]

and discover what happens when you piss off a city full of grieving Australians

That would be very, very nice.

Or if that idiot keeps this up, maybe sometime in the near future we'll get YouTube footage of a thirteen-year old fangirl beating the tar out of him.

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

now that I'm over the initial shock, it kind of feels like we're having a James Dean-caliber national (global?) experience here.
Right? I was thinking that too. James Dean, River Phoenix, that sort of thing. It's still so hard to believe.

Thanks for organizing the information. You're always such a good resource.

[ciara-belle.livejournal.com]

That must have been awful for his family to just find out from the media like that. I can't even imagine. :(

The Best Buy thing is incredibly tacky. Guys, too soon.

[megalion.livejournal.com]

Actually... I was in Amoeba Records in Hollywood last night specifically to find Casanova and Roar dvds and I almost didn't find the latter because the sole copy they had had been moved up to the information desk's "Pick of the Day" along with copies of Brokeback Mountain.

My feeling that it was done as a service to those like me who felt moved to go find DVDs of his movies for whatever reason...

Mine were that I already own the movies of his that I've seen (and loved) and I needed to watch something new with him, Casanova, and something I'd seen long ago before anyone knew who he was, Roar. I'd been meaning to watch Roar again for a long time anyways since I saw the dvds in a store a while back.

So I have a different take on it but the wording on the sign makes it seem more commercial...

[honorh.livejournal.com]

As for the Bagger, btw, to me, what his statement says is: When a brilliant young actor dies, it's all about *me* and the sound bites I can get. Ever think that maybe, just maybe, celebs hate being badgered as much as the rest of us do? Either they didn't know him and could only say what the rest of us know, or they knew him and were heartbroken. Yeesh!

[outinthestorm.livejournal.com]

Exactly my thoughts.

[fishsanwitt]

Thank you so much for these links.

[emisi.livejournal.com]

I really hope Heath is buried in Australia and the Phelps asshats try to picket it. Then try to claim their First Amendment rights. Oops, wrong country!

And that Brokeback clip that played at the end made me cry. Sad movie, sad circumstances. Oh Heath. :(

[greenwitch.livejournal.com]

I can't take all this, it's too sad. I've been trying to avoid the news but it's still the top story everywhere, plus everyone online posting about it.

[firei.livejournal.com]

...and tragedy is their fate.

[edda.livejournal.com]

I still feel bad about all this. Usually the day after any celebrity deah, I'm like, "....and moving right along..." but not this.

OK, I didn't know him personally, but still. It's like I wish he'dve, I dunno, called me or something.

I know exactly how goofy this sounds.

[allthelivesofme.livejournal.com]

I know how goofy it sounds, too-- but I also know exactly what you mean.

[nohara-megami.livejournal.com]

Best Buy doing that....I would have had some specific words to tell the manager if I was in that store.

I know that SGA Awards bit should have made me smile, but I'm crying.

[lilgoala.livejournal.com]

Re: Westboro Baptist Church, that makes me utterly sick. What the hell is wrong with people? :(

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

They picketed a memorial for four girls who died in a car crash not fifteen minutes from my home. I went to the counterprotest. They brought a child to upstate NY just to shout hateful words at a grieving community. Let me note that a lot of people chose to walk, anticipating parking issues, and had to pass right by those unprintables.

We were counterprotesting across the street, and I think the best moment of the whole thing was when the man who lived behind the WBC's designated area hammered a sign to one of his trees -- encouraging the Phelps family to go home.

They only have eyes for sin in the world. Not only is it a tragic way to live, it's utterly un-Christian.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

ow that I'm over the initial shock, it kind of feels like we're having a James Dean-caliber national (global?) experience here

You know, people keep going back to James Dean, and I keep wondering why -- nobody our age was alive for Dean's death. Also, not one person I've seen has mentioned Steve Irwin.

[callmesyd.livejournal.com]

Irwin was different in a lot of ways. He wasn't an actor... and while his death was tragic, it wasn't as unexpected. The man pounced on alligators and tickled poisonous snakes for a living to educate and entertain people, and we always worried we'd wake up one day and he'd be gone.

But Heath was just... no. If you'd asked me last week to write a list of the Top Ten headlines I would never see, Heath's death wouldn't even have been on there because the thought was just so foreign, you know?

They're both awful, tragic losses, both ages before their time... but one came as an almost expected jab in the nose, while the other was a suckerpunch from behind.

[chrismarlowe.livejournal.com]

The Phelps clan have made claims before they were going to protest a 'X' funeral, but have never followed through. I remember them saying they were going to protest at the funerals of the victims of the Minneapolis/St Paul bridge collapse. They and their words are worthless.

[ninepointfivemm.livejournal.com]

They were going to picket funerals of the Virginia Tech shootings, too. They were going to come to the funeral of the RA (who went to my high school and was friends with a ton of my friends), but I believe either the city or the state got some law against them.

[kvschwartz.livejournal.com]

Right this moment, I'm thinking it's sad that Heath Ledger had to die, rather than David Carr.

Except it's not just Carr. This is what "The New York Times" has been reduced to, in this era when FOX sets the standard for American "journalism."

[laerwen.livejournal.com]

I didn't even count myself as this huge fan of his, but I'm shocked at all of this, and just how much I've cried about it since last night. It's all just inexpressibly SAD.

Thanks for the links, Cleo -- as always, they're great. Also: Ellen DeGeneres dedicated today's show to Heath. (http://www.popcrunch.com/ellen-heath-ledger-tribute-video-heath-ledger-tribute-ellen-video/) The link is to a blog with the tribute clip from her show. It made me laugh and smile, and at the very end, I just shattered all over again.

[falco-conlon.livejournal.com]

Thank you for linking to that video. Ellen always makes me smile.

[jackieocean.livejournal.com]

It's funny, but that 2000 Vanity Fair article and photo shoot was one of the first things I thought of upon finding out he died. I'd noticed Heath in 10 Things I Hate About You and The Patriot. It was summer of 2000 when that magazine article came out and I remember buying that issue and thinking not only how attractive he was, with that killer smile, but that he was an actor for my generation that clearly had talent and was going somewhere. The quote about Errol Flynn always came to mind whenever word came out that he was going to be in a new movie.

That issue from Vanity Fair was one of the few older issues that I kept when I did some major closet cleaning last spring.

[rebel-waltz.livejournal.com]

i totally get it. i was telling my friend this morning how it really feels like he's our James Dean :(

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

Re: the Best Buy thing: At the library where I work, I was regretting that we didn't have enough Ledger movies to make a display. (We have Brokeback Mountain — which weirdly went in delivery to fill a hold request the morning before the news broke — and 10 Things I Hate About You and that's about it.) I routinely set up displays when a major author dies — I had big ones for Vonnegut and Mailer. The difference is that we're not profiting off it — we're just like 'Hey, here's some of the person's work. Get to know them.' Best Buy, on the other hand...that comes off pretty cheesy, like a way to move more units. Then again, our circulation stats do increase when people take display/tribute stuff out, so...I dunno.

[camisado.livejournal.com]

I work in a library too and it reminded me of library displays immediately.

I get how people can think it's insensitive, but when you think about it probably a lot of people are wanting to watch his movies right now to pay tribute and remember him. Those units would've most likely moved anyway, and the display is just making it easier for people to find them.

But yeah, the units probably would've moved anyway and if people see this as crass capitalism, it was a poor choice on that manager's part.

[pinstripe-bindi.livejournal.com]

For some reason Brandon Lee was the first comparison I made, even though he wasn't as big a star as Heath when he died, more like poised to become one. Maybe it's because The Dark Knight will be coming out posthumously, just like The Crow did. Or maybe it's just the facial (http://www.wallpaperbase.com/wallpapers/movie/thecrow/the_crow_1.jpg) make-up (http://entertainmentmusings.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/_1179708837.jpg)!

[wumbawoman.livejournal.com]

I think everyone is in such shock about this because he was found at 3.30pm EST and it broke on LJ (for instance) at 4.00pm EST. Rumors were flying around even before the proper authorities had a chance to verify that he was dead. Just imagine the turmoil yesterday would have been if he had been resuscitated. HEATH LEDGE IS DEAD. WAIT A MINUTE, NOW HE'S ALIVE. WAIT... REPORTS ARE STILL COMING IN. My heart especially goes out to his family in that they found out through the media instead of being properly notified.

And I disagree with carpetbagger's POV. Refusing to issue a statement isn't "managing an event" and turning focus on yourself. It's acknowledging that a terrible loss has occurred in one's life and focusing on grieving and providing support to those in need of it instead of worrying about if a statement has been issued to the proper media outlets.

[wumbawoman.livejournal.com]

I just saw the Best Buy issue and here's the possible irony.

When Stevie Ray Vaughn was killed in the helicopter crash, people flocked to buy his CDs. Stores everywhere were reporting how they couldn't keep his music in stock. Everyone was up in arms that they didn't prepare for the onslaught of people who were always interested in this artist and now that he's gone, would want to immerse in his work.

Now that Best Buy is trying to prepare for this, they are the bad guy. It seems like it's a situation of your damned if you do and your damned if you don't.

[viorica8957.livejournal.com]

Oh, his poor family. I can't imagine walking into the living room and seeing a loved one's death announced on TV.

Weirdly enough, the news articles aren't making me cry about this, but random mentions are. I can read those links without tearing up, but a Torchwood episode I was watching mentioned him in passing, and I just broke down.

[megmatthews20.livejournal.com]

He really is a Global actor...everyone that I know was shocked about his death...

I mentioned him before my acting class today and at break everyone was talking about him.

I also mentioned "the terrible news yesterday" and again EVERYONE knew what I meant...

Last night in my own way of mourning I dug out my Oscars DVD and watched Itzhak Perlman play violin to the best score clips...the last being Brokeback...I haven't cried like that in a long time...

cheers here's to an actor we're all going to miss

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

You know what, I really loved Perlman playing the Brokeback theme. It was beautiful in an entirely different way.

[falco-conlon.livejournal.com]

I managed not to cry over Heath Ledger, but then I heard that WBC was going to picket and I just couldn't take it. I don't understand how people can be so full of hate. I just don't understand.

[lotusbiosm.livejournal.com]

Slate's piece (http://www.slate.com/id/2182669/) is also very good.

[rahrahmah.livejournal.com]

Dude. That is the best thing I've seen yet. Everything else has had an edge of circus (read: gawker) or insincerity (read: just about every mealymouthed platitude from other celebs) to it. It's been all "ZOMG, pills and rolled up twenties!". I hadn't cried or even really digested this until I read this piece. I'm going to re-watch Brokeback Mountain tonight, and I'm probably going to weep. Thank you very much for posting that.