Author Topic: Heath Ledger - News Accounts  (Read 1242104 times)

Offline louisev

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Accounts
« Reply #440 on: February 05, 2008, 01:29:58 am »
Apparently they didn'T land in Melbourne at all but instead went to Brisbane.  Why Brisbane - I have no idea.
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Offline Verona

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Accounts
« Reply #441 on: February 05, 2008, 09:55:41 am »
Apparently they didn'T land in Melbourne at all but instead went to Brisbane.  Why Brisbane - I have no idea.

Probably to throw off the paps and get some privacy. All the vultures were waiting in vain in Melbourne. hahahaha

Offline MaineWriter

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Accounts
« Reply #442 on: February 05, 2008, 10:05:52 am »
from the AP by way of the New York Times:

February 5, 2008

Ledger's Family Returns Home to Perth


By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 7:29 a.m. ET

PERTH, Australia (AP) -- Heath Ledger's family arrived back in Australia on Tuesday on the final leg of the Oscar-nominated star's long journey home following his premature death last month in New York.

The actor's father, Kim, and other relatives who touched down in the family's home city of Perth on Tuesday afternoon were ushered immediately from the plane and into an elevator by private security guards and at least one police officer.

Local media reported that the late star's father, mother, sister and others were then driven across the tarmac and out of the airport.

There was no immediate indication that the actor's remains were also aboard the flight.

Ledger died in his New York City apartment Jan. 22. He was 28. Authorities suspect a drug overdose, but the cause of his death is still pending the outcome of toxicology tests. Police said several prescription drugs were found in the apartment where his body was found.

Details of funeral arrangements for the ''Brokeback Mountain'' co-star have not been announced, and the mother of his 2-year-old daughter Matilda, actress Michelle Williams, has requested privacy for those in mourning.

The family will reportedly hold a private ceremony, and either bury his remains or have them cremated and interred at the family's plot at a cemetery in Perth, where his two grandparents lie.

Ledger's publicist, Mara Buxbaum, didn't immediately respond to an e-mail from The Associated Press seeking comment.

As Ledger's hometown prepared for his funeral, residents of this idyllic and isolated city in the southwest corner of Australia expressed sadness at his sudden death -- and outrage at rumors that he was a drug user.

''If a person dies, let him go in peace. All this rubbish they bring up about drugs and everything else, I think it's a lot of rubbish,'' said Margaret Byrne, a 58-year-old catering supervisor at Royal Perth Hospital.

Much of that speculation was fueled by video footage showing Ledger at a Hollywood hotel party where drugs were being taken two years ago.

Ledger was a big source of pride for Perth -- a metropolis of some 1.3 million people that lies one on the edge of Australia's vast Outback and is thousands of miles from the nearest major city.

''It's probably the biggest news we've had in Perth in a long time,'' said Shannon Harvey, film critic at The Sunday Times. ''He's probably the highest-profile star who's ever come out of Perth.''

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Heath-Ledger.html?scp=3&sq=heath+ledger&st=nyt
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Offline MaineWriter

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Accounts
« Reply #443 on: February 05, 2008, 10:12:53 am »
from the Sydney Morning Herald, Australia:

Ledger family arrives home in private to bury very public son


February 6, 2008


HEATH LEDGER'S family flew home to Perth yesterday for the film star's private funeral in the city where he grew up.

Flanked by police, Ledger's father, Kim, his mother, Sally Ledger Bell, and his sister Kate were among about 15 family members whisked out of Perth's domestic airport through a back entrance after an overnight flight from Los Angeles via Brisbane.

Ledger's relatives have spent the past week in the United States attending private memorial services after going to America to collect his body.

Details of Ledger's funeral remain secret and there was no immediate confirmation that the actor's body returned to Perth yesterday with his family.

But the family is expected this week to privately bury the 28-year-old actor in the family plot, near his grandparents, at Perth's Karrakatta Cemetery.

A passenger on the Brisbane to Perth flight yesterday said the Ledgers were diverted away from the airport's public entrance.

"They literally had police around them," the man said.

"They walked out of the plane, into the lounge and straight into the lift. That was it."

A convoy of three or four white cars left the back of the Perth terminal, drove onto the tarmac and away from the airport.

Soon after, one of the white cars arrived at Sally Ledger Bell's home in the Perth suburb of Applecross and was driven into a garage.

On the family's way out of the US, they had been escorted into the terminal at Los Angeles international airport by police, private security staff and Australian consular staff.

A photographer was pushed against the wall by a private minder as the family entered the crowded terminal.

Ledger was found dead in his rented Manhattan apartment on January 22. The cause of Ledger's death remains unknown, amid speculation he may have died from an accidental overdose of the prescription medicines found near his body.

The New York Chief Medical Examiner's office, responsible for Ledger's autopsy and deciphering the tests undertaken on his blood and tissue, is close to announcing the cause of death.

Other questions, such as the official estimated time Ledger died, will not not be made public.

There has been speculation since Ledger's body was discovered that he may have been saved if medical help was called earlier. Police found six different types of prescription drugs in the apartment, including pills to treat anxiety and insomnia.

AAP

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/02/05/1202090419896.html
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Offline MaineWriter

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Accounts
« Reply #444 on: February 05, 2008, 10:16:42 am »
from The Age, Australia:

Ledgers encounter frenzy as Heath prepared for rest


Chris Johnston, Perth
February 6, 2008

FIFTEEN days ago, the biggest news story on the planet — rightly or wrongly — was the grim death of 28-year-old Australian actor Heath Ledger, naked and alone and surrounded by prescription pills in his New York apartment.

Yesterday, in his home town of Perth, his grieving family returned to lay him to rest, probably this weekend and probably at Karakatta cemetery in the family plot. It is believed his body arrived in Perth in secret several days ago.

These things are unknowns. The family has attended two movie industry memorials in America, where his extraordinary Oscar-nominated work in the film Brokeback Mountain was acknowledged. Yet they have not disclosed what will become of their dead son in Australia. What is known is that there was a full-scale media frenzy in New York when he died. And so it was yesterday in the rather more mundane surroundings of Perth airport's domestic terminal.

There were around 50 photographers and camera crews there, some from paparazzi agencies. When the plane approached — many of these crews had waited two weeks for this moment — a succession of rumours and Chinese whispers swept through the pack, rumours and Chinese whispers being the very touchstone of tabloid celebrity coverage.

Some vanished outside and into the wilds of the airport after hearing word of white limousines on the tarmac. Others concealed small digital cameras and went through security to the arrival lounges with a view of runways and first dibs on those walking in.

"They're getting close," one paparazzi photographer from Sydney said to me as the tension and adrenaline rose. "They're getting so close I can smell 'em."

A large contingent waited downstairs in the public area assuming the grieving Ledger party of 15 — parents Kim and Sally and sister Kate, step-parents (his father and mother have divorced), uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews — would walk through like normal travellers to wait at the baggage carousel.

Except these were not normal travellers. The whole nature of how the handsome, talented actor's death turned into an unprecedented media event came to an uneasy climax yesterday in Perth.

The Ledger family got off the flight from Los Angeles. They were escorted through the arrival lounge by airport security and federal Protective Services policemen into a lift and down into a carpark where vehicles took them away.

The security guards and police had tried to eject media, many of whom were incognito. Three print journalists were escorted away. Only the Seven Network got footage of the family in the airport, shot by a besuited reporter with a digital camera. Ledger's sister Kate, a publicist, shielded her face as he approached. He was called a "vulture" by police as they blocked his path to the lift.

The cause of Heath Ledger's death remains unknown, but there is speculation he may have died from an accidental overdose of prescription medicines found near his body.

A toxicology report is expected this week.

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/02/05/1202090421848.html
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mvansand76

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Accounts
« Reply #445 on: February 05, 2008, 10:32:35 am »
Quote
"They're getting so close I can smell 'em."

For God's sake, can they get any creepier than this? Those people are really, really sick.

Offline MaineWriter

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Accounts
« Reply #446 on: February 05, 2008, 10:39:53 am »
For God's sake, can they get any creepier than this? Those people are really, really sick.

I know. Sigh...
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Offline Katie77

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Accounts
« Reply #447 on: February 05, 2008, 10:42:35 am »
They should be ashamed of themselves and ashamed of a profession that turns them into blood sucking vultures.......SHAME SHAME SHAME
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Offline chefjudy

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Accounts
« Reply #448 on: February 05, 2008, 10:45:31 am »


 >:( I was silly enough to believe they would never go to Australia to do their nefarious deeds because
of the distance involved - boy do I feel like a dunce ::)
Judy


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Offline Verona

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Accounts
« Reply #449 on: February 05, 2008, 11:27:23 am »
This is exactly why Heath never wanted to be a celebrity. He must be swearing a blue streak right now, UP THERE IN HEAVEN.