Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Heath Ledger Remembrance Forum
Heath Ledger - News Accounts
Aloysius J. Gleek:
From New York Magazine
In Other News
1/25 | 4:30 PM
Heath Ledger: To Belabor or Not to Belabor?
Those of you who, like us, watch Anderson Cooper 360 religiously, probably noticed last night that Manderson didn't have much in the way of Heath Ledger coverage. While many other news outlets were repeating the same information over and over, he decided to focus on other things. He explained this decision on his blog last night:
[Ledger's] shocking death is clearly a story a lot of people are interested in, but tonight we will not be reporting more on it. The truth is there is not really anything new to report. The full results of the various tests done on Mr. Ledger will not be ready for perhaps a few weeks and there is very little new information.
I have no doubt other networks will spend a lot of time tonight discussing his death and the various rumors about what might have caused it, but I am not a fan of speculation, so unless there is something really new to discuss we probably won't be covering it anymore anytime soon.
Wow, that makes sense (unless, like us, you are covering the coverage). Frankly, it's a sober, levelheaded choice to make when deciding how to handle Ledger's death. But it's certainly not the only one. In fact, we were just watching Fox News and heard this teaser for Bill O'Reilly's show later today:
"ON THE O'REILLY FACTOR: DO AMERICANS CARE MORE ABOUT THE LIVES OF CELEBRITIES THAN THE LIVES OF OUR TROOPS?"
Mmm.
Aloysius J. Gleek:
From: The New York Times
Funeral Plans for Ledger Remain Cloudy
By JAMES BARRON
Published: January 25, 2008
Two days after the actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his apartment in SoHo, reporters and paparazzi converged on Thursday at the funeral home where his body had been taken.
The police set up barricades outside the Frank E. Campbell funeral home, on Madison Avenue at 81st Street, while a stream of mourners left flowers and scribbled tributes at a makeshift memorial outside the loft building where Mr. Ledger, the Australian-born star of “Brokeback Mountain,” died. By Thursday afternoon, someone had tacked an Australian flag beside the front door of the building, at 421 Broome Street.
Mr. Ledger, 28, was found in his apartment on Tuesday by a masseuse who arrived for an appointment and went into his bedroom, where he had been sleeping.
The police have said that the masseuse, Diana Wolozin, called the actress Mary-Kate Olsen, a friend of Mr. Ledger’s, three times before she called the police and once afterward. Ms. Olsen, who was in California, sent private security agents who arrived at the same time as emergency medical workers.
The police also said that Ms. Wolozin shook Mr. Ledger twice — before she placed the first call to Ms. Olsen, and again before she dialed 911. She could not rouse him, the police said.
Dominick Carella, an official at Frank E. Campbell, said on Thursday evening that that funeral arrangements had not been completed.
“Everyone assumed funeral arrangements were going on today, which they were not,” he said. There had been speculation during the day, heightened by no-parking signs the police posted up and down Madison Avenue, that Mr. Ledger’s father, Kim, would arrive from Australia on Friday and would then accompany the body back to Australia for burial. “I never commented on that and I haven’t gotten word on that,” Mr. Carella said.
Mr. Ledger’s spokeswoman, Mara Buxbaum, said she would not comment on when or where services would be held.
Outside the funeral home, the police stood watch in anticipation of crowds. Their mission was to prevent anything approaching the turmoil that surrounded the funeral of a far more famous movie star, Rudolph Valentino, in the Roaring Twenties. Thirty thousand fans swarmed the funeral home, then on the Upper West Side, hoping for a last glimpse of the matinee idol. In the chaos, more than 100 people were injured.
BelAir:
This is how the host of The Soup concluded tonight's show... "Heath Ledger passed away this week and in all the years we've been doing this show, we've never had cause to mention him, so stop digging through the dirt, weasels. A talented, decent guy is gone, and our thoughts go to those who knew him."
(for those that aren't familiar with the show, it is on E! and covers various talk shows, reality shows, and Britney/Lindsey hoopla)
MaineWriter:
From the New York Times:
January 26, 2008
Actor’s Body Is Leaving New York for Burial in Australia
The body of the Australian-born actor Heath Ledger was taken from a Manhattan funeral home on Friday, and police officers who had been assigned to the funeral home said the body would be flown to Australia for burial.
Mr. Ledger, 28, was found dead in bed in his apartment on Tuesday. A bottle of prescription sleeping pills was nearby.
An autopsy on Wednesday was inconclusive, and the medical examiner’s office is awaiting the results of blood and tissue tests before announcing the cause of death.
About 100 fans, reporters and photographers spent hours on Friday waiting outside the funeral home, Frank E. Campbell, on Madison Avenue near 81st Street.
The police set up barricades there on Thursday and posted signs prohibiting parking on Friday along a two-block stretch of Madison Avenue around the funeral home.
Shortly before 4 p.m., a plain wooden box was loaded into a hearse, and the hearse pulled away. Officers who had been assigned to the funeral home said the box contained Mr. Ledger’s body.
There had been speculation that a service would be held in Los Angeles. But Mara Buxbaum, the publicist who had represented Mr. Ledger, wrote in an e-mail message, “There are no plans for a public service.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/26/nyregion/26ledger.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin
MaineWriter:
From The Age, in Australia:
Ledger's final journey home
Melissa Kent
January 27, 2008
FOR a man who in life was often at odds with the limelight, in death Heath Ledger found no reprieve yesterday.
In an anonymous pine crate, the Perth-born actor began his final journey home amid chaotic scenes, as photographers jostled with police outside a Manhattan funeral parlour.
Police were forced to hold back more than 50 members of the paparazzi and news crews as five employees from the Frank E. Campbell funeral home carefully loaded the crate into a black hearse. "Back up. Back up, please," a police officer yelled at swarming photographers.
Just hours earlier, Ledger's grieving parents Kim and Sally and older sister Kate arrived in New York from Perth to claim the body and attend a private memorial service. Ledger's former fiancee Michelle Williams, mother of his daughter Matilda, 2, also attended the service.
Yesterday the Ledger family and friends went public with their grief in death notices placed in The West Australian newspaper.
"My body aches for the sound of your voice, our chats, our laughs and our life and times together. Your truly varied artistic skills, insatiable desire to improve and eclectic abilities set you apart from any other person on the planet," his father wrote.
It is now five days since the Brokeback Mountain star, 28, was discovered by his masseuse lying unconscious face down on his bed in his Manhattan apartment surrounded by sleeping pills.
The mystery surrounding his death then deepened when the masseuse changed her story.
Diana Wolozin, 40, who had visited Ledger's flat on Tuesday afternoon for a massage, initially told police that she rang actress Mary-Kate Olsen twice before calling for an ambulance.
However, police now claim Ms Wolozin actually rang Olsen four times, spending nine minutes on three calls before she dialled the emergency services and ringing her again later.
According to investigators, an increasingly anxious Ms Wolozin told Olsen that Ledger was unconscious and she did not know what to do.
Investigators believe Ledger may have overdosed on prescription sleeping and anti-anxiety pills. Police, who have ruled out foul play, say that the calls to Olsen do not have any significant bearing on the investigation because they believe Ledger was already dead. But they have asked to see security video from the building.
Olsen, who is rumoured to have been casually dating Ledger for three months, yesterday broke her silence over the death.
"Heath was a friend. His death is a tragic loss. My thoughts are with his family during this very difficult time," she said in a statement.
Ledger's journey home to Perth is expected to take two days.
A public remembrance has also been proposed for Los Angeles in the coming days, Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith told reporters in New York, where he was visiting the United Nations.
"I understand there's a private memorial service today for family members. I also understand it's proposed there will be a public memorial service in Los Angeles later this week," Mr Smith said, adding that Australian consular officials had offered to help the family repatriate the body.
The family is still considering an offer from Guildford Grammar School, Ledger's Perth high school, to host a memorial service, a school spokesman said.
with AGENCIES
This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/01/26/1201157739179.html
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