Heath -Brokeback- Ledger dies at age 28 :(
NEW YORK – Heath Ledger, the talented 28-year-old actor who gravitated toward dark, brooding roles that defied his leading-man looks, was found dead Tuesday in a Manhattan apartment, facedown at the foot of his bed with prescription sleeping pills nearby, police said.
Ledger had an appointment for a massage at the SoHo apartment that is believed to be the home of the "Brokeback Mountain" actor, Browne said. The massage therapist and a housekeeper found his naked body at about 3:30 p.m. They tried to revive him, but he was already dead.
"I had such great hope for him," said Mel Gibson, who played Ledger’s vengeful father in "The Patriot," in a statement. "He was just taking off and to lose his life at such a young age is a tragic loss."
Outside the Manhattan building on an upscale street, paparazzi and gawkers gathered, and several police officers put up barricades to control the crowd of about 300. Onlookers craned their necks as officers brought out a black bodybag on a gurney, took it across the sidewalk and put it into a medical examiner’s office van.
As the door opened, bystanders snapped pictures with camera phones, rolled video and said, "He’s coming out!"
An autopsy was planned for Wednesday, medical examiner’s office spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said.
While not a marquee movie star, Ledger was an award-winning actor who chose his roles carefully rather than cashing in on big-money parts. He was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as a gay cowboy in "Brokeback Mountain." During filming, he met Michelle Williams, who played his wife in the film. The two had a daughter, now 2-year-old Matilda, and lived together in Brooklyn until they split up last year.
It was a shocking and unforeseen conclusion for one of Hollywood‘s bright young stars. Though his leading man looks propelled him to early stardom in films like "10 Things I Hate About You" and "A Knight’s Tale," his career took a notable turn toward dramatic and brooding roles with 2001′s "Monster’s Ball."
Ledger’s publicist, Mara Buxbaum, said in a statement: "We are all deeply saddened and shocked by this accident. This is an extremely difficult time for his loved ones and we are asking the media to please respect the family’s privacy and avoid speculation until the facts are known."
The World According to Nancy
Film lovers will love this!
But while videos on the CAP and road safety are barely getting touched, a clip of sex scenes from European cinema has become a runaway success. Titled Film Lovers Will Love This!, it shows men and women having sex in different ways and places, and ends with the words, "Let’s come together". Supporters say it celebrates European cinema, but others term it "soft porn". British Conservative MEP Chris Heaton-Harris told BBC News the European Commission was wasting taxpayers’ money. "They do have an image problem but I think cobbling together 44 seconds of soft porn on the internet is not a brilliant way of solving it," he added.
Creativity
Godfrey Bloom, a UK Independence Party MEP, described the video as tawdry and tacky, adding: "It is like watching an elderly relative trying to be cool, very embarrassing." A Polish MEP from the conservative League of Polish Families has accused the commission of using "immoral methods" to promote itself. European Commission spokesman Martin Selmayr said there had been a flood of complaints from Poland about an intimate scene between two men – but refused to accept there was anything controversial about the film.
Fuming at what he called "quasi-religious bashing of the very important cultural diversity we have in the European Union", he said the lovemaking clips were excerpts from award-winning films, and that the commission was proud of the EU’s rich cinematic heritage.
"The European Union is not a bible belt, we believe in freedom of expression and artistic creativity," he added.
The sex-scene video is one of four made for screening in European cinemas to advertise an EU fund that helps distributes successful films made in one EU state to others.
‘Slap and tickle’
All four have been available on the European Commission’s website and YouTube since February, and until Friday one of the other films, with much less sex in it, was the most popular. It is only since the launch of the EU’s own YouTube channel, EUtube, that the Let’s Come Together video has outshone the others. Labour MEP Gary Titley said: "European films are about more than a quick slap and a tickle. It is bonkers that this clip gets so much attention."
At the launch of the channel on Friday, Commission Vice-President Margot Wallstrom said: "It is very important for the Commission to use all the means at its disposal when it comes to communicating with European citizens."
None of the e-mailers to the EUtube site has objected about sexual content.
The main complaint has been that few of the films are yet available in languages other than English, but the orgasmic cries of Film Lovers Will Love This! need no translation.
Source: BBC
The Da Vinci Code
No MI3 in China coz of drying underwear
Despite hitting American screens over a week ago, China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), is yet to approve MI3′s mainland distribution, the Beijing News newspaper said on Monday.
Underwear hanging out to dry and other images "harmful to China" might be responsible, local papers have suggested.
"In the Shanghai scenes, all the roofs and alleys have raggedy clothes hanging from bamboo sticks everywhere," said the Beijing Times.
The paper also said that many movie-goers found the scenes shot in Shanghai and the village of Xitang "inappropriate," given both locations "became places for the storage of terrorists’ chemical weapons."
"Chinese viewers will have trouble accepting this plot of foreign criminal elements fighting publicly in Shanghai," the paper quoted one viewer as saying.
SARFT’s final verdict on releasing MI3 is due this week, the Beijing News said, adding that an official had expressed that its distribution chances were "high" — but some editing would need to be carried out.
The official declined to provide further details, the paper said.
Brokeback Mountain gets 8 Oscar nods
)Brokeback Mountain
Finally a true gay love story, without the cliché stuff that we always see in gay movies (fags, aids, transvestites, drugs,…). And on top of that it’s an original setting (two cowboys) and such cuteys too (especially Jack Gyllenhaal, yummmmmm just check his pix in attach Gay and political films are dominating this year’s Academy Awards race with some experts expecting that Oscar will wind up wearing pink, either for left-leaning politics or sexual preference.
As Hollywood starts its annual awards season leading to the March 5 Oscars, key front-runners in main categories are either gay-themed or political films, with Ang Lee’s "Brokeback Mountain," a drama of love between cowboys, leading the pack in the all-important best picture race.
"It could be the gay Oscars this year because gay-themed movies could win almost all the major awards," said Tom O’Neill, show business awards columnist for The Envelope.Com., referring to the sudden dominance "Brokeback Mountain" has gained so early in the race.
"’Brokeback’ is going to be hard to beat. Rarely do we have this kind of award consensus for a movie, and its director (Taiwan’s Ang Lee) is long overdue for an Oscar," O’Neill said.
"Brokeback," the first gay romance to make a bid for mainstream respectability, has already won the top awards handed out by critics in New York and Los Angeles and copped seven nominations for the January 16 Golden Globes, often a key indicator as to which way the Oscar wind might be blowing.
