Hollywood Mourns Tragic Loss of Young Life

As you all may know, 28 year-old Australian actor Heath Ledger was found dead yesterday afternoon in his Soho apartment by his housekeeper and a massage therapist. The autopsy today revealed inconclusive results but many, including the authorities, suspect a drug overdose. Whether it was accidental or not is still up for investigation though it appears that the actor (through what close friends and colleagues say), did not have a drug problem. Six types of prescription drugs (for insomnia and anxiety) were found but no illegal drugs were present. Also discovered was a rolled $20 bill in which some sources claim had a white substance on it.

Ledger, who will appear as The Joker in this summer’s highly anticipated sequel to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, said that he was having trouble falling asleep during the filming, only getting about 2 hours a night. The Dark Knight is now in post-production but something tells me that the movie experience just won’t be the same with his death so close to the release date. The actor leaves behind a 2-year-old daughter with former girlfriend Michelle Williams (of Dawson’s Creek fame) whom he met while filming his Oscar-nominated performance in Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain. (Sidenote: A review of Ang Lee’s latest film Lust, Caution coming soon.) Some would attribute his anxiety and insomnia to his breakup with Williams, but such assertions are insensitive and appalling. Whatever the cause, his death is tragic and we should all respect his friends and family by not prying into his life (I would be directing this towards such shameless celebrity ‘news’ programs such as The Insider, Inside Edition, Entertainment Tonight, Extra, TMZ, and so forth).

Best known for his roles in A Knight’s Tale, 10 Things I Hate About You, Brokeback Mountain, Monster’s Ball, The Patriot, and Casanova, Ledger’s death has cancelled the production of the Terry Gilliam film Imagination of Doctor Parnassus costarring Christopher Plummer (best known as Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music) and Verne Troyer (Austin Power’s mini-me). The film would have continued Terry Gilliam’s line of dark and imaginative movies such as 2005’s Tideland (based on the Mitch Cullim novel), a dark, twisted, and disturbing fantasy that rivals Pan’s Labyrinth.

News of Heath Ledger’s death is more tragic especially after coming only a week after the death of another young actor, 25-year-old Brad Renfro. It saddens me that his death, though equally shocking, received less media coverage. On Monday, friends and family paid their respects to the troubled actor a week after his mysterious death in Los Angeles. Renfro, best known for his young role in The Client (starring Tommy Lee Jones), struggled with a drug addiction that halted his promising career. There is no doubt that his untimely death is drug-related and there have surfaced some disturbing (and possibly unreliable) details about his final days as TMZ reported last week that he got a tattoo on his back that said “Fuck All Y’all” and this week, reported the discovery of Renfro’s son who supposedly lives with his mother in Japan. Though in a way, I think that the minimal coverage of Brad Renfro’s death is a means of showing respect and consideration for the feelings of those closest to Renfro and can only be a good thing. Consequently, I sincerely hope that in the coming weeks, the media will back down and allow Ledger’s family to properly mourn without having to hear about his death everywhere they go.

It shocks me that we live in such an intrusive society that thrives on the mishaps and tragedy of its celebrities to the point of being obnoxiously insensitive. We should all back off . . . we should stop watching trashy news shows . . . we should all stop reading the tabloids . . . maybe me writing and you reading this article is wrong. Maybe we should all (as someone once said): “LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!” but instead of just Britney, we should leave them ALL alone.

Written on January 23, 2008 in Entertainment by Vu Le. TrackBack URI.