Heath Ledger

AP Picks Top 10 'Pop Culture' Moments of 2008

Stories

“Yes We Can”

dowThe Associated Press

NEW YORK–

In any normal year, it would be impossible to discern a coherent theme from a year of American pop culture, try as we journalists might. This year was different.

The presidential campaign seeped into our culture everywhere it could: into our music, our television, our street art, our Internet habits. And it was a symbiotic relationship, for pop culture seeped back into our politics, too. Remember the bizarre moment Paris Hilton and Britney Spears became part of the campaign, courtesy of a John McCain ad likening Barack Obama to a vapid Hollywood celebrity?

Or try this: Tina Fey and Sarah Palin, walking by each other at a fake news conference on “Saturday Night Live,” indistinguishable from each other in matching red blazers and Palin hairdos. Even Fey’s toddler daughter had trouble telling them apart that night.

Now Palin’s back in Alaska, Fey’s back on “30 Rock” and, oh yes, Obama’s on his way to the White House. But they weren’t the only big names in the 2008 pop culture firmament. A chronological journey back:

JANUARY

How can we begin without BRITNEY SPEARS still, amazingly, the most-searched term on Yahoo. A few days into 2008, she melts down spectacularly, ending up in a hospital after locking herself in a room with her young son. We don’t need Dr. Phil to tell us this girl needs help, though he does. Celeb magazines freely diagnose her as bipolar. (But more on Britney later.)

In politics, HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON has her first real pop-culture moment of the year when she chokes up talking to voters in a New Hampshire diner, a scene to be replayed endlessly on YouTube.

And true tragedy strikes when actor HEATH LEDGER dies of an accidental prescription drug overdose in a New York apartment, cutting short a brilliant career.

FEBRUARY

The Obama slogan “Yes We Can” ricochets across the Web in rapper and songwriter WILL.I.AM’s viral video hit, starring a host of celebrities. It’s not the only good news for Obama: His campaign raises a staggering $55 million this month, a success attributed to small donations gathered on the Internet.

And “SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE” spoofs the media’s fondness for Obama later, Clinton will refer to the skit in a real debate.

HOLLYWOOD WRITERS, meanwhile, end their 100-day strike. Days later, the OSCARS air to dismal ratings.

MARCH

Politics continues to enthrall, and this time it’s New York Gov. ELIOT SPITZER who’s on everyone’s mind. The most striking visual: the ashen-faced misery of his wife, Silda, standing next to him at the podium as he resigns over a prostitution scandal. The blogosphere and the airwaves buzz with the question: Why did she stand by him? Would you?

Obama may be the Internet candidate, but here’s an Internet sensation he’d prefer disappear: video of his former pastor JEREMIAH WRIGHT, making incendiary comments that will give Obama a major political headache.

APRIL

MILEY CYRUS is a genuine superstar at age 15, a role model to countless girls. So what’s the problem? A few pesky photos shot by Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair. They show the Disney princess, aka Hannah Montana of course, in a come-hither pose, with a bare back and shoulders. A rare bump in the road for this teen phenom.

In one of his many pop-culture moments, OBAMA displays true hip-hop cred, channeling Jay-Z with a “Dirt Off Your Shoulders” reference at a North Carolina rally. Mashups spread across the Web.

MAY

After four years and endless buildup, the “SEX AND THE CITY” gals return in a feature-length film. Will Carrie find happiness with Mr. Big? Yes, but even happier are the producers, after a $55.7 million opening weekend unprecedented for a chick flick. And this IS a chick flick. Men flock to root canal appointments.

HARRISON FORD returns as Indiana Jones at age 65! We doubt Hollywood would be so kind to a 65-year-old actress. And speaking of older women, they’re said to be behind the “American Idol” victory of 25-year-old DAVID COOK, who beats the baby-faced 17-year-old, DAVID ARCHULETA, breaking the hearts of countless tween girls.

Los Angeles street artist SHEPARD FAIREY creates his wildly popular poster of Obama, a red-white-and-blue hued image of the candidate gazing ahead, underlined by the word “HOPE.”

JUNE

TIM RUSSERT dies at 58 of a sudden heart attack, after more than 16 years in one of the most influential jobs in TV news moderator of NBC’s “Meet The Press.” The death causes some baby boomers to start to wonder about their own health.

A computer-animated science fiction romance? Leave it to Pixar. After “The Incredibles,” “Ratatouille” and “Cars,” another triumph for the studio comes in the form of “WALL-E,” a futuristic film about love between two robots.

JULY

Bonjour to the new JOLIE-PITT twins, who emerge in France, where parents ANGELINA JOLIE and BRAD PITT are hunkered down on their enormous estate. And BATMANIA reigns, thanks to LEDGER’S stunning (and posthumous) portrayal of the Joker in “The Dark Knight.”

BRITNEY and PARIS make their unwitting entrance into the campaign, fodder for McCain’s commercial mocking Obama as “the biggest celebrity in the world.” Hilton, though, gets the last laugh: The doe-eyed hotel heiress, lounging in a leopard-print swimsuit, offers up a much cleverer video riposte.

AUGUST

Call this the anti-celebrity month: Wary after that Britney-Paris spot, the DEMOCRATIC PARTY does its very best to de-emphasize the celeb factor at its convention in Denver. Meanwhile, McCain’s anti-celebrity campaign unveils its own, well, celebrity: the telegenic PALIN, who bursts onto the scene with a speech that galvanizes the GOP convention.

MADONNA turns 50! And the chiseled superstar is hardly alone. Also hitting the half-century mark this year: MICHAEL JACKSON, PRINCE, ELLEN DEGENERES, MICHELLE PFEIFFER, VIGGO MORTENSEN. Let’s imagine an amazing party at the royal palace in Monaco, where PRINCE ALBERT also hits the big 5-0, perhaps covered for CNN by CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR (yup, 50 too.)

SEPTEMBER

“I can see Russia from my house!” FEY debuts her impersonation of PALIN on “Saturday Night Live.” Kudos to the “SNL” writers, but you can’t say Palin doesn’t give them plenty of material including verbatim chunks of her rambling exchanges with KATIE COURIC. The CBS anchor, long plagued by low ratings and high expectations, makes a welcome comeback.

Also making a comeback: the ’60s, with all that guilt-free smoking, thanks to “MAD MEN,” the evocative drama on cable’s AMC. “Mad Men” wins an Emmy this month, thrilling its small but hugely loyal audience.

OCTOBER

Shall we just call it “HSM3”? And if you don’t know what that means, you probably won’t be seeing the movie. “High School Musical 3: Senior Year,” the big-screen sequel to the two Disney TV movies, sings and dances its fresh-faced way to the top of the box office, thanks to the durable appeal of Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale and the other “HSM” alums.

“SNL” scores its highest ratings in 14 years when it snags the ultimate prize: Palin herself. The VP candidate proves a game cast member, obliging happily when Amy Poehler shouts out: “All the mavericks in the house, put your hands up!” ”

And JOE THE PLUMBER makes his debut, as a constant reference in the third presidential debate. Later, Joe, aka Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, 34, campaigns for McCain and Palin.

NOVEMBER

Yeah yeah, Obama is elected, but we’ll reserve the pop culture prize this month for OPRAH WINFREY. Weeping on the shoulder of a stranger at Obama’s victory rally, and gushing uncontrollably on her postelection show, the talk-show queen can surely claim a little credit for the triumph of her “favorite guy.” Maybe MOST celebrity endorsements don’t mean much, but this is Oprah. Two economists even claim she brought Obama a million votes in the primaries.

DECEMBER

Any true pop culture story must end as we started: with BRITNEY for, after a year in which she seemed to reach the depths, this famously durable young woman is in the midst of an astonishing comeback, with “Circus,” her latest CD, reaching No.1 on the album charts, according to her label, Jive. At 27, she seems to be not only “the world’s pop princess,” as her manager says. She’s the world’s pop culture princess, too.

Heath Ledger Wins Supporting Actor Golden Globe For 'The Dark Knight'

Golden Globes, Heath Ledger, Hollywood Foreign Press

Director Christopher Nolan accepted the award saying in part:

“All of us on Dark Knight accept this with an awful mixture of sadness and extreme pride”

“…A huge hole ripped in the future of cinema”

“The  extraordinary response to his work all over the world helps with that gap….”

“He will be eternally missed but not forgotten”

hl

Heath Ledger Found Dead In New York City Apartment; Autopsy Is Inconclusive Official Says

Film, Hollywood

::Developing::

Heath Ledger

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FROM THE NY TIMES CITY ROOM  BLOG 

Ledger Autopsy Is Inconclusive, Official Says

By Sewell Chan

Updated, 2:35 p.m. | An autopsy of the actor Heath Ledger was performed on Wednesday morning, but the results are inconclusive, according to Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for New York City’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Charles S. Hirsch.

Additional blood and tissue testing needs to be performed before the manner and cause of death can be determined, Ms. Borakove said in a phone interview, estimating that the process could take 10 days to two weeks. “If you have no apparent cause, you have to do further testing,” she said.

No cause of death has been ruled out, she added. The autopsy, at the medical examiner’s headquarters at 520 First Avenue, near 30th Street on the East Side of Manhattan, began around 8:30 a.m. and lasted about two hours, she said.

The two types of tests that still have to be performed include toxicology, which examines the adverse effects of chemicals in the bloodstream, and histology, in which thin slices of tissue are analyzed by pathologists.

Ms. Borakove said the body was ready to be released to Mr. Ledger’s family for burial. “We don’t need to keep the body once the family is ready,” she said.

Mr. Ledger, 28, the Australian-born actor whose breakthrough role as a gay cowboy in the 2005 movie “Brokeback Mountain” earned him a nomination for an Academy Award, was found dead on Tuesday afternoon in an apartment at 421 Broome Street, between Crosby and Lafayette Streets, in SoHo. Prescription sleeping pills were found near his body, but it is not known if the medication played a role in his death.

WCBS-TV reported today that “along with the prescription drugs that were found in the apartment, police also recovered a rolled up $20 bill with narcotic residue on it” and that police “also found several drug packets containing an unknown substance.”

Asked about the CBS news report, Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said it was largely inaccurate.

Mr. Browne said that investigators found a “rolled-up $20 bill” in the apartment where Mr. Ledger’s body was found, but he said that the police “never said residue was found on it.”

He said the bill had not yet undergone forensic tests. “We have a rolled-up $20 bill and we never said it had residue on it or was tested,” Mr. Browne said. “It will be tested, because it was rolled up.”

Mr. Browne said no other narcotics were found in the apartment. He speculated that WCBS — in reporting that several drug packets were found — might have been confusing it with some “blister pack” of prescription drugs. He said some prescription drugs were in bottles and some in blister packs.

“There was no narcotics found in the apartment, period,” Mr. Browne said.

Mr. Browne declined to identify the name of any physicians listed on the prescription drugs.

Al Baker and John Sullivan contributed reporting.

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The Independant is reporting that the New York City Police Department is calling the death “possibly drug-related”

UPDATE:: NO EVIDENCE OF SUICIDE AS OF WEDNESDAY MORNING JAN 23 4:20 am

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FOXNEWS DOT COM

NEW YORK — New Yorkers clustered outside the Soho loft apartment building where Heath Ledger was found dead on Tuesday said they were “devastated” and “anguished” to learn of the tragedy.

Tamba Mossa, the superintendent of 421 Broome Street — where Ledger had lived for the past four or five months — called the “Brokeback Mountain” actor a “very great man” but said he was blindsided by the news.

“I wasn’t prepared to hear about his death at that moment,” Mossa told a crush of reporters at the scene. “I’m very, very sad.”

But Ledger had seemed depressed recently, according to the superintendent.

“He looked sad,” said Mossa.

New York City Police officers guarded the entrance of the white apartment building, which sits on a cobblestone street in the swanky SoHo section of New York City next to a Nanette Lepore boutique. Swarms of paparazzi, fans and passersby milled about on the sidewalk. One woman came carrying flowers.

The Australian-born Ledger, 28, was found dead by his housekeeper Tuesday afternoon, naked and at the foot of the bed. Sleeping pills and other medications that had been prescribed to him were discovered in the apartment, according to police.

“I’m devastated,” said a young woman who lives in the neighborhood and identified herself only as Jen. “There was never any news of him being involved in anything other than his acting. I’m definitely a fan of his. This is shocking.”

She said she had spotted Ledger in the area a few times while he was still with his former fiancée, actress Michelle Williams, whom he met on the set of “Brokeback Mountain” and with whom he had a 2-year-old daughter named Matilda.

The couple, who lived together with the baby in Brooklyn, broke up last year. In recent months, Ledger had been renting the SoHo apartment.

One passerby on his way home was stunned to learn of the actor’s death.

“I wasn’t familiar with his work, but I just feel anguished,” said David M. Rheingold, 35, who works for a nonprofit. “I feel terrible for his daughter. It’s horrible, just horrible.”

One SoHo resident marveled at the throngs of people who had descended on the scene of Ledger’s death.

“In life, he would not have drawn any kind of crowd like this,” said Roark Dunn, 50, who produces photo shoots. “He’s comparatively obscure.”

Many of those who stopped in front of Ledger’s apartment building said they admired the actor’s work.

“I was moved by the movie ‘Brokeback Mountain,'” said Paul Khor, 40, a fashion buyer visiting from Singapore.

Three Fordham University freshmen and self-professed Ledger fans said they came to SoHo as soon as they heard the news.

“We’re sad,” said Daria Tavana, 19, a playwright major. “He’s somebody who recently had begun to take on really hard roles. It’s totally unbelievable.”

Another onlooker said he appreciated Ledger’s acting and called his performance in “I’m Not There,” the recent Bob Dylan film, “tortured.”

“I respect him very much. He seemed like a legitimate artist,” said the 28-year-old journalist, who declined to give his name but said he works in the neighborhood. “In this day in age, it’s hard to get shocked about any celebrity passing, but he was a really talented actor. It’s sad he’s not going to be around anymore.”

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From The Seattle Post Intelligencer Blog

Update, 3:25 p.m.: Paolo Dayao, 26, attended Stadium High School in Tacoma and was an extra in “10 Things I Hate About You.” In an e-mail we asked what he remembered of Ledger. He responded:

I remember him being really nice and down to earth. I guess since he was unknown at the time we did that movie, he didn’t have that Hollywood snobbiness that some of the other actors had. He hung out with the extras in between takes and I remember that he didn’t always go back to his trailer like some of the others would when they were setting up the next scenes. I did get a chance to hang out with him and play hacky sack in between some of the scenes that we shot. He was a pretty nice guy.

Hacky sack with Heath Ledger. Wow.

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Two years ago this month, actor Heath Ledger learned that his breakthrough performance in Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain” earned him an Academy Award nomination. Today, hours after a new slate of actors heard about their Oscar hopes, Ledger was found dead.

Ledger was not a Seattleite. He was a not a Northwesterner. But for anyone who remembers the filming of “10 Things I Hate About You,” he was — at least for a short time — a presence in the region.

At Gasworks Park, he tamed Julia Stiles over a game of paintball. At Stadium High School in Tacoma, he frolicked over the bleachers, singing to Stiles during soccer practice and delighting dozens and dozens of student extras. The film also featured location shots at Seattle’s Fremont Troll and the Buckaroo Tavern. (See our 1999 review and the Seattle Film Office map for more.)

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