ON SPEED DIAL Heath Ledger's masseuse first called Mary-Kate Olsen cell phone after seeing her number on Ledger's cell phone. The rolled up $20 in his apartment was found to have no drugs on it; there were also no drugs or alcholol in his apartment. New toxicology tissue tests from the actor could take up to ten days. [NYT]
CASE CLOSED A rolled up $20 was found in Heath Ledger's apartment. You know what that means: he was trying unjam his DVD player before his death. [People]
George Bush is always thinking about others:
The death of Heath Ledger prompted the White House to postpone President Bush's event Wednesday promoting an ad campaign aimed at preventing prescription drug abuse.
The president was to make a statement in the Roosevelt Room on the Office of National Drug Control Policy's television advertisement about preventing prescription drug abuse. …
White House press secretary Dana Perino said Bush's event had been scheduled for a while.
"We thought it would be better to postpone the event rather than run the risk of anyone thinking that we were being opportunistic in highlighting the issue," she said.
Yeah, the Bush administration is so above using the death of others for its own political gain.
• Owen Wilson was caught shopping for a bong in Venice Beach. He's back, baby!
• No one is interested in stories about Ashlee Simpson's new album. That goes does double for her new nose.
• David Beckham does goodwill work in Sierra Leone. That and a nickel will get you on the subway, buddy. Where's your goodwill adopted infant refugee?
• Amy Winehouse's rehab strategy ensures that we'll be seeing cracked-out pictures of her for some time.
• Hey, did you hear? Heath Ledger died.
• Kim Kardashian : So much more than a big ass.
Which is worse: That Jack Nicholson – in the U.K. promoting The Bucket List – didn't get a breaking news alert on his BlackBerry during dinner that Heath Ledger had died, or that he looks so smug when he reveals, "I warned him." and the photographers laugh?
A Best Buy in Mission Valley, San Diego has already begun honoring the passing of Heath Ledger by encouraging sales of his DVDs. We're still too raw to revisit Ten Things I Hate About You but Best Buy is there for those who are ready.
[BWE]
Screenshot of Google News, snapped at 10am EST, while searching for Heath Ledger.
This just in: The NYC medical examiner's autopsy report is in. What's it say? Not much. The results are inconclusive, which means they don't know what killed him. More tests are being ordered.
The Bush administration, however, reached a more rigid conclusion on its own. So distraught was our commander in chief, he postponed a promotional event for an ad campaign battling prescription drug abuse. Well, Bush wasn't exactly distraught, but concerned the media might jump on the chance to accuse the White House of linking the two events in bad taste. Because that's suddenly a concern.
That will be quite a field trip for the Westboro Baptists from Topeka, Kansas to Australia, where Ledger will be laid to rest.
Heath Ledger died in his own apartment, not Mary-Kate Olsen's. The Olsen's bodyguard was called following his death because he was a certified EMT and friendly with Ledger.
You’re forced into, kind of, respecting yourself more. You learn more about yourself through your child, I guess. I think you also look at death differently. It’s like a Catch-22: I feel good about dying now because I feel like I’m alive in her, you know, but at the same hand, you don’t want to die because you want to be around for the rest of her life.
-Heath Ledger, in an interview for WJW-TV, a Fox affiliate in Cleveland, about I’m Not There, via the New York Times
TMZ is reporting that Ledger was suffering from pneumonia at the time of his death.
Unfortunately, the Wednesday newsstand won't have any news of Heath Ledger's passing. The tabloids closed on Monday, shipped today, and will appear tomorrow morning with immediately out-dated covers.
Update: Turns out there are losers today, too. NBC Universal's Access Hollywood opens with nary a mention of Ledger's passing.
Courtney Hazlett, "The Scoop" columnist for MSNBC.com said, "In a lot of ways, this reminds me — we've almost had a dress rehearsal for this with Owen Wilson."
Good Morning America is probably already on the phone with Owen Wilson. Fortunately, talking to the media about another young star's death in the wake of his own attempted suicide is probably exactly what Wilson wants to do.
[Photo: scene in front of Mary-Kate Olsen's apartment right now.]
Heath Ledger was found dead in his SoHo apartment this afternoon surrounded by sleeping pills. He was 28.
He was found naked in Mary-Kate Olsen's apartment. A commenter at Gothamist says the apartment was listed at $23,000 a month.
First Brad Renfro, now Heath Ledger. Will the AP be ready for the next under-thirty actor death?
[Photos]
• Casting for a slutty blond pin-up girl in Hollywood is like going to a Star Trek convention and looking for a pimply-faced socially awkward guy who's never been laid. Trying to find a curvaceous size 16 in Los Angeles? Now therein lies the challenge.
• And today in crazy: "Sperm donor 'dad' hit up for child support.'" Geez. For that matter, any masturbatory emissions could be termed reckless abandonment.
• Lindsay Lohan may have cheated on her annoying rehab fling with recently divorced womanizer Heath Ledger. Discuss.
• John Edwards has yet to discover how to outshine fellow Democratic rivals Hillary "The Woman" Clinton, Barack "The African American" Obama and Mike "I Remind You Of The Grandparent You Never Call Or Visit" Gravel.
• Ever wondered what the inside of an interior designer's home looks like? It's easy! Just picture your apartment, except with rich colors, expensive couches and nothing from IKEA.
• When Ralph Fiennes travels, he typically flies first class and bangs the airplane stewardess. When John Stamos travels, he gets attacked by a crazy woman who slaps him and steals his seat. Worse? They cut him off after three in-flight scotches.
• With Heath Ledger looking like that in Manhattan, Brooklyn has never felt prouder.
• Matt Damon is People magazine's Sexiest Man of the Year? Eh, we were always on Team Affleck.
• Portia de Rossi doesn't mind getting type cast as a lesbian. A shemalé, however, is a completely different matter.
Where do you suppose Heath Ledger learned the homoerotic male-bonding skills that served him so well in Brokeback Mountain? I'm guessing it was in A Knight's Tale, the film that suggests that all the underdog sports-movie clichés you know and love are at least 600 years old.
Illustrating that notion is the movie's chief gimmick, the pairing of jousting scenes with a deliberately anachronistic soundtrack of '70s stadium-rock fist-pumpers like "We Will Rock You" and "Takin' Care of Business." That's so stupid it's brilliant.
–Gary Susman, senior writer at Entertainment Weekly, explaining why A Knight's Tale is the cinematic equivalent of an idiot savant. [EW]
• Jennifer Connelly shows us what happens when you accidentally confuse your mother's garish floral-print sofa for a dress and then accidentally get run over. Several times.
• Amy Winehouse gets arrested. Even tackier? It was at the Radisson.
• Lindsay Lohan gets manhandled (or should we say boobie-handled) by her bodyguard.
• Then again, it's not as though Lindsay's really been playing hard to get.
• Heath Ledger is in talks to reprise his award-winning role from Brokeback Mountain in what might very well be the most ill-conceived sequel in cinematic history.
• Apparently, Oprah's still reminiscing about the time when she used to be fat.
Page Six throws out this blind item today:
Which recently separated star had his sidekick secure two young ladies to join him for a wild night back at his new bachelor pad?
Let's go to the way back machine. Page Six also reported three weeks ago:
Our spies…spotted [Heath Ledger] leaving the Beatrice Inn in the West Village early Sunday morning, looking for a fresh catch. “He wasn’t drinking, but he was there with his friend,” we’re told. “The friend chased two girls as they were leaving and gave them Heath’s address. He told them to meet at Heath’s new apartment in SoHo.”
Heath, forget about what all this gallivanting is doing to Michelle. Think about what picking up two women in SoHo is doing to Brooklyn's self-esteem.
Like their relationship, Heath and Michelle’s effort to assimilate in Brooklyn is over. One or both of them is leaving their Boerum Hill town house; the picture above was taken in front of their house and sent to Gothamist.
They may have enjoyed the reasonable rents and casualness of Brooklyn, but they’re still not U-Hauling anything.
Editorial Director
