I agree with you that it’s sickening. The media’s fascination with celebrities is out of control, and the boundaries keep getting pushed more and more. There is no more respect shown even in morbid situations.
You can’t really blame people for being curious, though. Young, healthy people usually don’t just croak for no reason, and celebrities have been croaking for 60 or 70 years from drugs and/or suicide, so it certainly wouldn’t be surprising. I wasn’t intending to speculate, though, on whether he did or not, just pointing out that those blind items were supposedly not about him. Nor have I ever heard anything of that nature about him.
I understand that it’s natural to speculate, but what’s remarkable about this case is that people around the situation let slip little things that the media then ran with. Some cop says “drugs were found” (probably just meaning the bottle of sleeping pills) and oh boy, set off the frenzy. I hope that if nothing else, this case leads to a police policy of shutting the fuck up 100% because any little thing said is going to be transmitted around the world within seconds. I hope the NYC police get an earful from Ledger’s family.
Right now I wish the media would just shut the hell up until there’s more information from the medical examiner. It’s going to be another 8 to 10 days for the tox screen results, then we’ll know more. Anyone who’s ever watched Dr. G. knows that the cause of death isn’t always obvious from the autopsy. Sometimes the ME needs more information from other tests before he can make a determination.
Oh man, I agree. I mean, it was shocking enough for all (most) of **us **to see the title “Heath Ledger is dead!” on a message board. Can you imagine how it would have felt if his own *mother *is a Doper and read it here first? Gah. I feel, literally, nauseated at the thought. Please, if my own son is ever found dead in my lifetime, please don’t tell the newspapers or blog it before you tell me, okay? shudder
I agree that the media should just shut up, but if they quit speculating, they’d be reporting, “And in other news, Heath Ledger still dead.” In other words, they feel the irresistible need to flap their gums all the time, so it behooves us to just ignore them until they say something worth listening to.
As for the family finding out through the media, that’s just wrong, but it’s also the way things are now. We live in a plugged-in world. I don’t see how the people in charge of notifying next of kin have any control over what the media reports. If you’re the channel that does try to respect the family, you get scooped by all the other networks.
It’s not the media. If the magazines didn’t sell or the TV shows didn’t have an audience, they would vanish. The fascination is ours. Well, not mine personally. The public in general.
My girlfriend and I were talking about some upcoming movie. I expressed interest, because I’m a fan of the screenwriter and director. She said she didn’t want to see it because of one of the cast. I said, “Why don’t you like X?” And she proceeded to rattle off a complete dossier on the performer’s personal life, romantic history, and other stuff. I was completely baffled.
Well, except that it is partly the media. I remember a couple months ago, I turned on the morning news because I wanted to see some news. First I got CBS, and I heard “Britney Spears…” so I changed channels. On Nbc, I heard, “…photographs of Britney Spears…” so I changed again. On ABC, I hear, “…frontrunner in the Republican Primary…”
“Ah,” says I, “some news at last!”
“…And now here to comment is Ann Coulter.”
Back when it was announced that Jennifer Lopez is pregnant, one of the ladies at my workplace went on and on about what a great thing it was, ending with a teary-eyed “I’m so proud of her!” I almost laughed.
Sigh Every day the front page of the New York Post involves some sort of Mary-Kate conspiracy theory. If there wasn’t a real person who tragically died it could almost be an amusing farce. It is interesting to now be able to get some background on his split up with Michelle Williams. I always wondered about that. It’s too bad he wasn’t finished with the Gilliam movie, that probably would have been a more fitting send off than his role as the Joker.
Celebrity deaths don’t usually move me at all. While my female relatives were all having Princess Di memorials and bawling their eyes out I was rolling mine. But for some reason Heath’s death made me kind of sad. If the right song had played on the radio I might have had actual tears. Maybe there’s something about his performances that is raw enough to come across as a real human being and not just a character.
He wasn’t the type. Not depressive. Down because of his split with Michelle Williams, but not depressed.
No suicide note.
More than anything in the world, he adored his daughter and wouldn’t have killed himself because of her.
He was a consummate professional and wouldn’t have purposely left Gilliam in a lurch.
He was doing pre-production work on his directorial debut film, something he was looking forward to and excited about.
By all accounts he enjoyed life in general and loved his job.
He had VERY close friends and family (on the one hand a support system and on the other people who would have noticed had he shown any of the warning signs of suicidal ideation).
He had plans for the day he died that he made the night before.
Not one single sign has surfaced that pointed toward suicide.
BBC and CNN are both reporting some Breaking News: The official ruling has just been announced that Heath Ledger died from accidental abuse of prescription medicines.
