The Business of Death
"I saw the worst play of all time," today's Cindy Adams column begins in the NYP. She waits until halfway through to drop the real bomb: photos of Heath Ledger's body may be out there—and up for sale. What else have the vultures been trying to cash in on?
1. Supposedly, just supposedly, his body was snapped, and $300,000 is the price on that photo. Stories floating around have the fuzz checking building personnel, 911 people, the bodyguard, masseuse, that maybe an old arrest for one of them turned up. [NYP]
2. Then there's the cocaine video that E! bought but didn't fully air—there's $200,000 down the drain).
3. They're still not stopping production on his final, uncompleted movie. Computers will save the day!
4. As the AP's entertainment editor Jesse Washington reminds us, "If we wait an hour to have a really good obituary for someone like Heath Ledger, we're totally out of the game. And that's not a place that I ever want to be." Yeah, you gotta be in it to win it, man.
5. Naturally, there are some pretty trashy memorial t-shirts on Ebay. They will wring $12 out of this tragedy even if they have to stay up all night silkscreening his photos onto an XXL Fruit of the Loom.