Police outside of the Manhattan residence where actor Heath Ledger was found dead two hours ago say Ledger was pronounced dead at 3:45 p.m. His housekeeper, trying to awake the actor for a scheduled massage, found him in his bed at 3:26 p.m, according to reports.
The body of boho darling Heath Ledger won't be wheeled out of the 421 Broome Street residence where he was found dead today for several hours. The Academy Award-nominated actor was in full cardiac arrest by the time paramedics arrived, TMZ is reporting. CPR was performed, but Ledger was pronounced dead on the the scene of a suspected drug overdose.
In lieu of Golden Globes awards speeches, our East Coasted sibling site posted a memorable video package, via Hollywood Interrupted, fêting messianic Scientology mouthpiece Tom Cruise as he accepted their 2005 Freedom Medal of Valor. Like most of Scientology's sacred babblings, the text was never meant to reach outside eyes; the video quickly disappeared from YouTube, soon to shake off from the temporary effects of the tranquilizing serum plunged into its neck and find itself buried alive beneath a patch of carefully attended petunias on the grounds of Gilman Hot Springs HQ.
Apparently part of the Trump Tower building in Soho just collapsed after being hit by a crane. One person may have been killed, according to reports. An eyewitness says it was a top corner, another says two floors have caved in. "I was eating lunch in the conference room of my office on Hudson Street and we watched as one entire side of a building under construction collapsed," an onlooker told us. "There are ambulances and fire trucks everywhere." Curbed has more.
If the wearying writer's strike is finally to be resolved, this is how it will probably happen. The Directors Guild of America has begun negotiating on the movie makers' cut of online revenues; any deal would be a model for other groups such as the writers in their dispute with the Hollywood studios. Why are the directors any more likely to come to terms? Much of the membership of the Writers Guild of America was unemployed before the entertainment industry shutdown began. The directors' union is a more elite club; the movie makers want to get back to work, because they actually have projects.
In an internal email issued this afternoon, Los Angeles Associated Press assistant bureau chief Frank Baker notified his staff of a major policy change."Now and for the foreseeable future," he wrote, "virtually everything involving Britney is a big deal." OMG, did you hear? Britney is a BIG DEAL, y'all! Nervous breakdowns are totes the most efficient way to achieve household name status. Memo after the jump.
It's not just babies and lesbians anymore in Park Slope. There are hostages too. Gridskipper's Hunter Walker lives there and files this report, "The yuppified Sunday evening calm in Park Slope has been shattered by what is reportedly a hostage situation in a brownstone on 9th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. Neighbors heard gunshots and say that a man inside the home has taken hostages. The block has been roped off and the area is swarming with police personnel including a hostage negotiation team and a bomb squad robot." [Gridskipper]
We all know Britney Spears has been having a tough time of it right? Well, she may have just have had a psychotic break. As in, she snapped and the Britney Spears we knew as someone who flirted with insanity but never actually went there, has gone insane. Here's the deal: So earlier today she had custody of her kids, Sean and Jayden, for a finite amount of time before she had to return them to Kevin. At the end of that time, she didn't want to give up them up after her visiting hours were over. So the LAPD came. Her lawyers (who we though she fired, and maybe she did) came. Britney, they said, is "hysterical and just wants to keep the kids overnight." And, well—as an aside, this is really sad and doesn't give us that much pleasure to report—but PageSix.com is reporting "Paramedics just showed up at Britney's house. Paramedics just rolled gurney into Spears house. Sources are now revealing to PageSix.com that "someone is being transferred to the hospital for a mental evaluation." So it might not be Britney but if anything means anything ever it probably is.
The chemical explosion or fire or what have you at News Corp.'s midtown office building "is now under control," according to reported announcements from the city's Office of Emergency Management. "There are no safety concerns at this point," reads an email to employees of a neighboring building, detailing OEM's report. "All the evacuated floors in the impacted facility are once again populated. Incident closed." Is that the same as saying "conversation over"? Because we're still kind of wondering what someone was doing stirring around 30 gallons of "unidentified utility chemicals" in the first place.
An email sent to one News Corp.-adjacent building on Sixth Avenue says that the FDNY is reporting a possible reaction of "approximately 30 gallons of hazardous chemicals" as the cause of this morning's 10:39 a.m. explosion at the News Corp. building. There aren't any offices on the floors affected, which house the heating, cooling and utilities systems for the building. Fox News (whose offices are in the basement, insert satanic crack here), just wants everyone to know that "The explosion on the 45th floor has not interrupted the Fox News channel's broadcast," according to its website. New York Post offices are on the 10th floor. According to WNBC, a spokesperson for the FDNY says "We have some sort of reaction between two chemicals that caused a slight explosion." No word on which chemicals might be the culprits here, but um... 30 gallons of hazardous chemicals? Seriously? So far, the cops have closed "48th Street from 7th Avenue to Broadway and 6th Avenue from W. 47th St."
New York Post staffers just got word via panic-inducing NYPD email of a "chemical explosion" on the 45th floor of their News Corp. office building. The explosion was "POSSIBLY CAUSED BY OXIDIZERS REACTING WITH ACID," reads the memo. "HAZMAT TEAMS ARE RESPONDING," and several surrounding floors have been evacuated. One person has been injured, according to a story on the Post's website, which identifies the explosion as occurring at 1211 Sixth Avenue, "on the 45th floor of a midtown highrise." This might be one of those times where self-referentialism is acceptable, guys. You'll be pleased and much reassured to know that the fire department "HAS BEEN TOLD NOT TO ENTER THE 45TH FLOOR." Memo after the jump.
"Fire trucks outside News Corp., something about smoke at the top of the building," a tipster tells us. We knew someone would set fire to Rupert Murdoch's office someday. Apparently people inside the building aren't being evacuated, but the fire department isn't letting anyone inside. "All the news photographers who can't get into their offices are taking photos of the people standing outside!" Spot news in action.
In a memo issued this afternoon, MTV Networks performed a near-180, relenting to complaints from freelancers who were told last week their benefits would be cut. "We've implemented a process for evaluating freelance and temporary employee positions for possible conversion to staff positions," reads the announcement from JoAnne Griffith, MTVN's executive vice president for HR. "This process is currently underway." Freelancers will now have the choice to continue with their current health plan—including dental!—or sign on to MTV's Aetna plan. Either way, they won't have to make the decision until February of next year, nearly three months after the original deadline set by the company last week. Full memo after the jump.
From the mailbag: "One or more of the giant glass windows apparently fell off the side of the NY Times building. There are fire trucks everywhere along 40th Street."
