Heath Ledger, Gone at the age of 28

[girl afraid]

It is disgusting. It's because he portrayed a homosexual. Mind you, these are the same people protesting fallen soldiers funerals, because "God hates the US," and some how homosexuals tie into that.

It's repulsive and really makes you weep for our future.

They really are deranged, the lowest of the low. Any connection to homosexuality - no matter how tenuous - has them up in arms and picketing. Brokeback Mountain was a beautiful movie and Heath was brilliant in it, but these idiots are unable to distinguish real people from fictional characters.

It's been interesting to see the tributes to Heath from his fellow actors. I found Daniel Day-Lewis's remarks very touching but John Travolta on the other hand, was cringeworthy.

[Raychelxluscious]

I gotta say, that I'm thinking the opposite, girl afraid.

Though, it was sweet that DDL mentioned Heath despite the fact he didn't know him, I was really put off by his display of emotion. It seemed fake to me. Whereas I thought JT was more sincere.

Either way, I'm amazed at how small the actor/celebrity/whatever community is. So many people have been affected by his death, no doubt partially because he was such a nice person (at least what I've read over the years), and people naturally just flocked to him.

[girl afraid]

Really? I just found statements like I would give back all my awards and all my nominations just to have him back and actually, my heart goes out to me, I really don't like it. I don't like it… a bit much, while DDL was upfront about not knowing Heath but would have liked to, etc. I guess for me, DDL doesn't really have a reason to not be sincere since he is known to be reclusive and not wanting much of the spotlight whereas JT seems to be quite the opposite. But we all see things differently. I hope they were both genuine.

The amount of grief over this death has surprised me, it makes me feel a little better knowing that so many people were touched by Heath and his work.

[Raychelxluscious]

I did *not* hear the "give back all my awards..." part. Yeah, that is a little over the top.

I was kind of surprised as well, simply because he was the type of person who - not necessarily was shying away from the cameras - but was definitely someone who kept to himself. Yet, at the same time, he was always willing to answer questions and such for the media, which I think it more the generous considering some of the stuff the media does nowadays.

So far, I've only come across interviews by people he know (somehow or another), but not very many from his co-stars. JG, Matt Damon, Julia Stiles? Granted, it's been almost 10 years since he starred in that movie with Julia, but I would have liked to hear something from them.

...How about Matilda? She looks *just* like him. It's really sad; she'll barely remember him as she grows up.

[girl afraid]

I would have thought that Julia Stiles might have said something, after all 10 Things I Hate About You was his breakout role and one of his most-remembered. I'm not sure how close she and Heath were afterward, but she might be too upset to talk, as with Jake Gyllenhaal who is reportedly beside himself with grief.

Matilda looks so much like Heath, it's crazy. It's terrible that she will grow up not having real memories of her dad, but I guess a tiny consolation of that is that in all the pics taken of them together, it's abundantly obvious that he loved her so much. Still, it's not the same.

[Raychelxluscious]

Matilda looks so much like Heath, it's crazy. It's terrible that she will grow up not having real memories of her dad, but I guess a tiny consolation of that is that in all the pics taken of them together, it's abundantly obvious that he loved her so much. Still, it's not the same.

Agreed. It was clear that he adored that little girl.

Is it weird that I wanted to cry a little when I heard about his death? I mean, it's kind of crazy how people get so invested in celebrities' lives, thinking we know them. I enjoyed Heath immensely as an actor; he was definitely one of my favs. I'm not sure I'll be able to watch the next Batman movie, though. It'll make me sad.

You're just a wealth of information, girl afraid. I've read articles, but I seemed to miss the one with JG being beside himself. I shouldn't be surprised he feels this way - when BBM came out, I heard they became pretty awesome friends (I guess you had to, considering the nature of their scenes).

Did you hear about the letters his family wrote to the Australian Newspaper? Those were hard to listen to. I was choking up; especially the passage his sister wrote. It's obvious they were a very close family. It's a terrible thing for them all to be going through. I'll be thinking about them a lot.

[Zanssoulmate08]

I cried when I found out.
It still doesn't seem real yet.