Thank god you can’t, legally, libel the dead, or the Post might have had to run their items by counsel before running them.
The Post says it was cocaine and heroin that Heath was on, forcing Michelle Williams to kick him out after multi-day binges. But the real hook here, as the Daily News is on, is the video tape of Heath rambling on, after the 2006 SAG Awards, at the Chateau Marmont, about his drug use; in the background, someone is snorting “powder” off a table.
CBS’s Entertainment Tonight paid $200,000 for the video, thinking they had an instant ratings-win on their hands. At 3:30am EST, the network’s VP for business and legal affairs, Joseph Jerome, even sent out a notice to bloggers, always keen to beat the mainstream media with their own scoops, that they had “EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS REGARDING PROPRIETARY MATERIALS OF HEATH LEDGER AT THE CHATEAU MARMONT ON APPROXIMATELY JANUARY 29, 2006,” and, “ANY BROADCAST OR USAGE OF THIS MATERIAL IN ANY MANNER NOT AUTHORIZED SHALL CONSTITUTE AN INFRINGEMENT AND VIOLATION OF ET AND THE INSIDER’S VALUABLE EXCLUSIVE AND PROPRIETARY RIGHTS AND WILL CONSTITUTE INFRINGEMENT AND TORTIOUS INTERFERENCE BY THE INFRINGER, EXPOSING THE INFRINGER TO SUBSTANTIAL MONETARY DAMAGES.”
But then they backed down, bowing to … public pressure? Gross out factor? The understanding that they’d never get access to any other client that Ledger and Michelle Williams’ I/D PR represents?
By 6:46pm EST, ET publicist Kristin Miller, also a fan of caps-lock, was issuing a release announcing the recanting of their decision to air the video: “Out of respect for Heath Ledger s family, Entertainment Tonight and “The Insider” have decided not to run the Heath Ledger video which has been circulating in the world media.”
No worries, however: Australia’s Channel 9 also has the video, and insists on airing it. See you on YouTube.
Editorial Director
I wouldn’t call it backing down, really. As someone who had the misfortune of watching The Insider and Entertainment Tonight back-to-back on Wednesday night (which also replayed in NYC this morning), I saw them play enough of the video enough times that…damage done. How much respect did they have for the family then?
Jake Gyllenhaal is with ID/PR too, and it’s well known that he was devastated by Heath’s death. I’ve seen items posted online about Jake and I go back an hour later and they’re gone. The man has a very quiet power in Hollywood. God knows if it were my best friend and I had the power to stop the video from being aired, I’d have done it too. Kudos to everyone in Hollywood who is standing up and saying “we’ve had enough”.
What I found most disturbing is they completely misrepresented what actually went on in the tape. Someone is doing drugs but it is very clear that it was not Heath. Hasn’t his family and friends suffered enough without all this needless harassment?