Magazines featuring Heath

[Fran]

cmr107,even if you can get a copy of "The Advocate",here I post the articles about Heath on it,if it could be of any interest for somebody...

Thank you, myprivateJack.  I especially liked reading Diana Ossana's tribute.

[nova20194]

I'd love to get a copy of the Empire magazine with the Heath Ledger memorial cover.  I've been watching eBay everyday.  Two days ago, there were three copies available for auction.  They all disappeared before long before the auctions ended, but they did not have a "Buy It Now" option.  I have no idea what happened.

If anyone happens to have an extra copy (fat chance, huh?), or you know someone who has one to sell, or you think you might be able to get one, please let me know.

Thanks,

Bob

[ednbarby]

That last line of Dianna Osana's - "Heath was generous and dear, painfully shy and gifted, and I will miss him for the rest of my days" made me weep.  I also loved her comment that like Larry McMurtry, he was not concerned with his appearance, because "he lived inside his head."

I can't begin to imagine how hard it is to miss him when you've known him personally like she did.  I know I will miss him for the rest of my days, real life sight unseen.

[ednbarby]

Just wanted to add that I was fortunate enough to be given a copy of this issue of The Advocate by a gay friend of mine who knew I would love reading the tributes and who thought of me, he said, when he received the issue.

And I love, really, that people, gay and straight, think of me when anything happens that concerns Jake or Heath or Dianna or Larry or Annie or Ang or Anne or Michelle or anyone or anything else tied to this movie.  I love that they associate me with it.

I used to worry that they thought I was a complete nut for being so obsessed with a film that, in most of their minds, didn't have anything to do with my life.  But now, I think there's a respect there - at the very least, a respect for my capacity to be passionate about something - anything.  Us 40-somethings tend to lose that capacity along the way, or so it seems.

Most of them don't know the true reason I connect so deeply with Ennis Del Mar, yet the respect is still there.  That said, it was one of the ones who does know who called me the second she heard of Heath's passing, and it was another one who knows who gave me this copy of his magazine.

This is a movie that has irrevocably changed me, and all in good ways.  It has enriched my life like nothing but a true work of art can do.  It's a movie that rekindled my passion for movies.  And the reason for that is all of those people.  And the core and center of those people is Heath.

[cmr107]

He's back on the cover of People. I was in a hurry when I saw it in the store so I didn't have time to look at it, but the cover says something about his "secret child." 

[Ellemeno]

He's back on the cover of People. I was in a hurry when I saw it in the store so I didn't have time to look at it, but the cover says something about his "secret child." 

It doesn't seem like anyone is denying the "secret child."  I'm guessing it's true.

[RouxB]

I guessing it isn't.  The mother of the child states in the article that it is ridiculous and won't even discuss it - again.

[bluewater]

  Just wondering- has anyone heard of an article coming out in Vanity Fair, on Heath and those near to him?

[Penthesilea]

Heath is the cover story of a German magazine this week. The magazine is "Gala" and the issue is #37 of September, 4th.

Believe it or not, I translated the whole article. I did it just for fun, not as a serious work. Therefore it's not the best translation I am able to do, there will be typos (plenty, I guess) and awkward phrases. The frequent time changes are directly from the article. Well, most of them are, some of them are probably my mistakes.
The style is emotionally manipulative, which derives from the original German text.
There are half-truths, exaggerations and speculations. I didn't comment on anything, just translated the article as it is.


This is the cover of the magazine:




The words on the cover are: The last days of Heath Ledger. How the star of Batman broke to pieces over the separation of his family.


The article:


His escape into reclusion

The Dark Knight beats all records – and reminds us painfully of the fate of a quiet star. GALA's protocol of the last days of Heath Ledger


September 1st:
On the kitchentable: Chaos. Empty glasses, books, chessmen, in between a photo of Matilda. In his head: even more chaos. Loneliness, guilt, sleep deprivation. When journalist Sarah Lyall meets actor Heath Ledger in fall 2007, he appears erratic and lugubrious. And apparently he is aware of this impression – seemingly he wasn't comfortable with the fact that he couldn't show a better version of himself to the public.

The New York Times journalist remembers: „ Heath stood up and got coffee. Out to the yard for a smoke. Taking down the hood of his sweater, shaking his hair, tying it with a rubber band, taking out the rubber band again, putting a hat on, hat down. Then again for a smoke.“ Three months later Heath Ledger dies lonely in his New Yorker apartment, after half a year of suffering agonies.

The day when he left the joined Brooklyn home, the day of separation of Michelle Williams – that was the day when his life derailed. Yes, even prior to that he had drunk more than he liked the next morning – every now and then. Yes, even much earlier he had dropped a handfull of Ecstasy pills or did a line of cocaine from time to time. And yes, even prior to this first day of September 2007, when the three year relationship broke up, there were days when he couldn't find himself, when he felt tired and unresting at the same time, as if he would be in invisible chains. But somehow he had managed to have it somewhat under control  up to that day: his life, his gloom, the drugs.

He was a daddy and a loving friend. His little family, Michelle and Matilda, kept him grounded. Thanks to them he had found prospects for himself, which kept him on the right path. „I'm Mr. Mom: I buy granola and boil eggs, do the dishes and make lunch. I love my new job!“ he gushed.  It fulfilled the media-shy star to give himself completely to his family, far from Hollywood.
„I've never been so close to leading a completely normal life“, he told New York Magazine shortly after he settled in Boerum Hill, a quiet quarter of Brooklyn. There's no place I'd rather be. We are very happy.“


September 3rd/4th:
But the bliss did not last. In the first week of September moving trucks carted Heath Ledger's belongings over the bridge across Hudson River to the bohemian side of the town, SoHo, where he had rent a loft in Broome Street 421 for 15000 Euros per month.
Saturday evenings the newly single hurled himself into the nightlife. With his friend Nathan he went to „Beatrice Inn“, an exclusive club in West Village. There, chances were high for Bohème stars like Kate Moss, Kirsten Dunst or the Olson twins staggering in in the early morning hours.

The following months the „Beatrice Inn“ should become Heath Ledger's favorite locality. Nathan hit on several women, asked them to type their numbers into Heath's cell phone. Some of them he even invited to some sort of after show party into the apartment in Broome Street. „We went with them, played backgammon with the guys“ a partygoer remembers. Heath was said to be friendly and quiet. And sober, she stresses. Allegedly somebody had drugs. „But his friend Nathan had said the stuff has to disappear immediately, Heath must not see it.“ Because the temptation was too much?


November, 15th:
Heath would have needed good friends by his side in the following weeks. But more and more he appeared alone in the „Beatrice Inn“, in the „Bungalow 8“ and the „Bar Martignetti“. „Last time I met him was Thanksgiving reports an acquaintance. „ He was totally beside himself, drugged up to the eyeballs. He didn't have the least bit control over himself. Forever he tried to drag my friend to the restrooms, to sniff some snow. He barely managed to bring out out a coherent sentence.“
Around the same time, but during daytime, Heath Ledger gave the New York Times the legendary interview , in which he gave horrific insights into his psyche.
„Last week I slept maybe two hours a night. I couldn't stop thinking. My body is totally exhausted, but my mind just goes on and on.

That was short of finishing shooting of  The Dark Knight, and the exhaustion was apparent. He was burnt out, the eyes flickering. One night he took a sleeping pill. As it didn't help, he took another. Then he slipped into sleep, perhaps for an hour.

When in company, he always talked about Matilda, and that he couldn't be with her. „It feels as if your whole body is one big lump.“


Around December, 24th:
Four weeks later a small ray of hope: he finds peace with his family in the Australian city of Perth. He stays there for two weeks over Christmas and New Year's Eve. „That's wonderful“ he says to an Australian newspaper at the end of the time. He goes riding with an uncle, goes out for dinner to the Indian restaurant „Maya“ with his parents and sister Kate, he frolics with his nieces at the beach.

There's even a little date: he invites model Gemma Ward, who also visits her parents, to the movies. They see the romantic comedy „2 Days in Paris“. The best thing for him is that he stays incognito. „Finally I feel like a small boy again. It's almost as if I had never been away.“


But the short high is followed by a severe low. First week of January he flies to London, to shoot „The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus“. He is worse off than ever. Ashen, fevered and coughing he's sitting on set in the wet and cold English winter. Possibly he has a walking pneumonia, his colleague Christopher Plummer, who also is in „The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus“, later surmises.
Another crew member remembers Heath a week before his death: „He didn't look like himself anymore. The great amount of travelling and filming took its toll.“
The plan was to continue the filming of „Parnassus“ one week later in Vancouver, on the other side of the world.  But Heath Ledger wasn't able to keep the appointment.


January, 20th:
This evening, he hangs out at the „Beatrice Inn“ once again and orders a drink. And a second one. And another. His looks give you the creeps: „He wore a ski mask. Only the eyes and the mouth were  cut out [of the mask]“, an observer says. At one point Heath Ledger gets up and leaves. Alone into the night, alone with his thoughts.


January, 21st:
The next morning he has breakfast in the brasserie „Le Pain Quotidien“: a bowl of granola; alone with his iPod. Later he roams the icy streets. Everything is in the grip of the post-Christmas-blues. Around midday he meets with Gemma Ward for lunch. It's a flirt, a try. Just like the making-out with Lindsay Lohan, the hanky-panky with Helena Christensen and Mary-Kate Olsen. All of them party acquaintances, one-night-stands perhaps, nothing serious in any case.
And definitively no solace for an endlessly forlorn person.

Around 6PM Heath Ledger is shopping for groceries in the „Gourmet Garage“ near his apartment. „Three bags full of fruit and vegetables, downright stocking up on supplies“, says a salesperson. „I remember organic sausages were also among his shopping.“

Then he goes home. Director Shekhar Kapur calls, asks for a spontaneous get-together. Heath declines „but he said he absolutely wanted to meet me the next day. I should give him a call and wake him up the next morning.“

What the actor does after this call is still unclear. Probably he couldn't sleep again. Perhaps he strolled around Central Park that night, as so many nights before; restless, desolate.
At one point he swallows sedatives, then a sleeping pill, later two highly dosed painkillers.


January 22nd:
While in Hollywood the Oscar nominees 2008 are announced at a press conference, in Manhattan housekeeper Teresa Solomon opens the door to Heath Ledgers apartment. It is noon, the householder is still in bed.
Nothing out of the ordinary. Teresa Solomon starts to tidy up the living room and clean the kitchen. Then she goes to the bathroom, to exchange a light bulb. Doing so, she passes by the bedroom. The door is ajar. Teresa believes to hear her boss snoring gently.
Whether Heath Ledger woke up for a short time after that and took another pill? The one which cost his life? We'll never know for sure.

At 2:45PM masseuse Diana Wolozin rings the bell – Heath had made an appointment with her. The housekeeper opens the door. Diana knocks gently at the bedroom door. No response. She calls Heath on his cell phone. Nothing. Five minute past three the two women decide to go into his room. They find Heath Ledger naked and lifeless on the floor in front of his bed.

Diana attempts CPR. When it fails, she grabs Heath's cell phone and redials the last number. She gets Mary-Kate Olsen and tells her what happened. Mary-Kate, who is in a meeting with her manager in Beverly Hills, immediately sends a team of security staff to the loft. Apparently she believes Heath to have become unconscious while druggy – and she intents to prevent the public  getting  wind of it.

Meanwhile Teresa also calls the police and paramedics. All units arrive almost at the same moment. A second attempt of CPR by a doctor falls through.

Still on location, Heath Ledger is pronounced dead.  Time of death is 3:36PM.

About three hours later policemen bring out the gurney with the corpse through a crowd.



February 6th:
Medical examiners release the following press release: „Mr. Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine." Those are the substances of content of all his prescribed pharmaceuticals..
His death was an accident. Like the raft of a castaway finally capsizing in a storm after days of  floating on the high seas.



September 2008:
Fans and critics all over the world praise Heath Ledger in the role of Batman antagonist  Joker. The Dark Knight breaks all records. But for Heath Ledger during his last days even that fact would not have been a consolation.

[LauraGigs]

Wow, great job.  Thank you Chrissi!!!

Yeah, definitely a lot of conjecture in there.  But quite an interesting article, nonetheless.