The "Heath Ledger" thing

Much has been made about, actor, Heath Ledger's death. Specifically, how it relates to the Dark Knight movie released this week. Any type of publicity could easily lean in the "ghoulish" category but Warner's has managed to handle it well. Yet, undeniably, Ledger's death will benefit the BatMan film in that for it's entire running time of 2hours and 30mins the movie's obvious dark tone will be given an extra coat of black.

That said, while I'm not the one to get all sensitive about respect for the dead, I do kind of feel the level of speculation coming from outside Warner Brothers (I hope) is a little crass and all too familiar.

Much has been made about why Ledger died. Alot of entertainment news has been pointing to the concept that Ledger immersed himself into the role of Joker to the point that he started to believe it. But that's expected from the media. What's annoying is how quickly people latch on to that concept. "Oh, he's crazy!" It's the simplest assumption people can make and, by that measure, the worse. It's dismissive and lacks sensitivity even if it may not be intentional. It turns Ledger's death into the equivalent of an actor gaining weight for a role or learning to do Capoeira for an action film. It makes his death an after thought, his life a foot note and his career just a prelude to his death.

I'm just saying:
http://movies.ign.com/articles/832/832612p1.html

And...

CLICKITY CLICK:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/07/11/ST2008071102551.html