Heath Ledger - News Accounts

[serious crayons]

Yes, just a week or so before Heath died I saw "Hollywoodland", which is about the death of George Reeves, and included reenactments of it (the different possible scenarios).  It was relatively tastefully done (sympathetic to him and not graphic — way less so than a lot of TV these days), but still. 

OT, but I really liked Hollywoodland, and thought both the movie and Ben Affleck's performance were way underrated. Heck, it made me like Ben Affleck, which I previously hadn't. (Diane Lane is good, too.)

I imagine a few years from now Ledger's passing will be considered fair game for such dramatization, but hope there will be considerable pressure against it.

Or at least wait as much time as had passed since George Reeves died, which would make Matilda in her late 40s, Michelle and Jake 70-something.

[ptannen]

From New York Magazine:


(Untitled Heath Ledger Project)

In which the protagonist dies mysteriously, and the audience analyzes his final days for clues to his real character.

By Chris Norris
Published Feb 18, 2008

http://nymag.com/news/features/44217/

It is a long article, so I am just giving the link, not posting the whole thing, as I usually do.

L

the article is long, but I think it is very good.

Thanks Leslie! 

[ednbarby]

I thought it was quite good, too.  Thanks, Leslie.

[MaineWriter]

I thought it was quite good, too.  Thanks, Leslie.

Thank you, Pete, thank you Barb...

my pleasure..

L

[BelAir]

umm... does anyone want to summarize the article... for those of us too lazy (or, my excuse, tired) to read it...

[Fran]

Belair,

John Gallagher posted the entire article in the "Magazines Featuring Heath" thread here, so you don't have to worry about it suddenly disappearing from the Internet:

http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,16718.msg337163.html#msg337163

I think it's a well-written article.  You really should read it when you have some time.

[Kd5000]

New article in the Daily Telegraph on Shekhar Kapur, who was the last person to talk to Heath Ledger on the telephone. They were good friends. He's the director of Elizabeth, The Golden Age among other projects.  Here's an excerpt from the article.

When the Australian actor died aged 28 in New York last month, Kapur was devastated. He was the last person to talk to Ledger - on the phone - and recalls their final conversation with a painful bewilderment.

"He was jet-lagged, but he was looking forward to the next day. We were talking about meeting up, and laughing about synchronicity because I had booked a massage for him at three o'clock, and he'd booked one for himself at the same time.

"He told me to call him in the morning. I said, 'I won't disturb you if you're tired.' But he said, 'No, call me. Wake me up, and we'll meet.' There was nothing he said that gave me the impression he was depressed.

He was in talks with Heath to do a film together.  Here is the link to the article.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/02/23/bfkapur123.xml

[j.U.d.E.]

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From: - www.imdb.com/news/wenn

Ledger Painting Entered Into Australian Art Contest - A painting of late actor Heath Ledger is in competition to land a prestigious Australian art prize. The portrait, titled Heath and painted by Ledger's friend Vincent Fantauzzo, is one of 249 entries to date for the Archibald Prize, the winner of which is to be decided on March 7. Ledger, who was found dead in his New York apartment in January, signed a form to vouch for the painting's authenticity, but "signed it in the wrong spot", remembers Fantauzzo. The portrait features a bare-chested Ledger with two other whispering versions of the actor on each side of him. It had been hanging on a wall in Fantauzzo's Melbourne, Australia home until he heard the news of Ledger's passing. Fantauzzo says, "I just didn't believe it (that Ledger had died). When you paint someone, you meditate over them. I was painting Heath every day for 10 hours a day."

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I think it's so beautiful! It's like he's saying - 'too many Heaths in my head'.. I hope he wins!! Here is his website - www.vincentfantauzzo.com/index.htm

I wonder why Fantauzzo mentioned the "signed it in the wrong spot"..

j. U. d. E.

[Meryl]

I love that painting.  I hope it wins the prize! 

[Mikaela]

I wonder why Fantauzzo mentioned the "signed it in the wrong spot"..

j. U. d. E.

It's a little anecdote that serves to "humanize" Heath for us through the story-tellers eyes, I think. Just like Chris Nolan fondly remembering the way Heath went about quietly thanking everyone or coming in on his day off. It draws a bittersweet picture of a decent and kind human being, not a Moviestar. 

I like the painting too. Of course I hope it wins.

I also just realized that there are tattoos on the upper right arm that I'd never seen before. (All the stuff above the dragonfly). What is that?