Lest you fret that enduring Hollywood success might somehow deaden you to the simple, everyman pleasures of spotting a good pal on the TV set, this report from Sundance about No Country for Old Men star Woody Harrelson should bring you much comfort: "After a hard day on the slopes, Harrelson retired to the MySpace Cafe, where he looked up at the TV screen and remarked, 'Wow, there's my friend Owen Wilson!' Another MySpace Cafe guest tells us, 'We think he thought Owen was actually there at the MySpace Cafe. I have never seen someone be so excited about seeing a friend.'" [nydailynews.com]

Let's just get on with this. A round-up of where we are so far with yesterday's shocking death of Heath Ledger at age 28:
· An autopsy has proven inconclusive, and will take another 10 to 14 days before toxicology and histology reports tell us what caused his death. [CNN]
· Heath had pneumonia. [TMZ]
· Kim Ledger, Heath's father, made a statement to the press, confirming the "untimely and accidental passing of our dearly loved son, brother and doting father of Matilda." [skynews.com.au]

Just when we'd successfully erased Diddy's home videos of himself urinating from our scarred memory, Diddy TV has made a rousing re-entrance to The Internets. But this time he's serious, yo! Standing awkwardly against a filthy window, Diddy has filmed his own introduction to the trailer for A Raisin in the Sun, a flick with the dubious honor of being the very first made-for-TV movie premiering at Sundance.

NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker announced NBC would no longer blow tons of dough shooting poorly thought-out but memorably expensive television pilots. He says it's due to the recession which totally exists (Zucker was at the bleak World Economic Forum conference in Davos when he made the announcement) but could it also be an act of retaliation against the striking writers? According to the NYT, other studios are likely to follow NBC's move. While this makes fiscal sense for the struggling studios—NBC has, in the well-chosen words of Zucker "At NBC Entertainment we've been flat on our backs for the last few years."—it is bad news for the public. From whence will the next LAX 2194 or Poochinksi emerge? How will future generations be able to sally forth in the absence of Fuzzbucket, a tale of love between a boy and his troll?

· Please believe us when we say that we're not regular viewers of Deal Or No Deal. That said, dig (if you will) the ridiculous gamesmanship on display between The Dealer and the retired New York City garbage (gahbage!) man who dared take him on. Fugghedaboutit!
· Rupert Murdoch's internet browsing history ... REVEALED! Take it with a grain of salt, though, `cause we're pretty sure he doesn't use a Mac.
· We think that Keira Knightley's chin got totally robbed, too!
· We're calling BS on the rumours that Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds got engaged.
· And, in case you missed it, Stereogum grabbed some viddy of The Moldy Peaches performing their surprise hit from Juno, "Anyone Else But You", on The View yesterday.

So how's The Dark Knight for goodbyes? Give us anything—Brokeback Mountain's heartache, Candy's cautionary tale of—gulp—heroin addiction, even Casanova (OK, not Casanova)—but not the The Dark Knight. Not that disfigured creep in the trenchcoat. Heath's last words to us can't be a menacingly growled, "It's all...part of the plan." His last note, not "Why so serious?" scrawled across a theatrical one-sheet in fingerpainted blood. Warner Bros. has issued this statement in response to his death:

How about some quick, late-afternoon strike news to break up the unpleasantness of today's dominant, thoroughly depressing story? OK then! In an e-mail blast to members, WGA West/East presidents Patric Verrone and Michael Winship say that they're happy to join in informal talks with the AMPTP, and that they've decided to pull their reality and animation proposals off the table to help get a deal done. Also, the Guild won't be picketing the Grammys, one awards show we really wouldn't have missed if it gave its life for the Cause: "In order to make absolutely clear our commitment to bringing a speedy conclusion to negotiations, we have decided to withdraw our proposals on reality and animation. Our organizing efforts to achieve Guild representation in these genres for writers will continue. You will hear more about this in the next two weeks." The full message follows after the jump:

Though recently spotted flirting with a roomful of celebrities in downtown New York, Heath Ledger was most recently linked to 21 year-old Australian model Gemma Ward. The blue-eyed blonde just wrapped her third feature film role (The Black Balloon, with Toni Colette) in Australia, but hasn't been spotted out and about at an event since November, when she attended a gala in Madrid solo.

· Music round-up: The Teenagers at the Echo; Poison the Well at the Troubadour; Merle Jagger at Spaceland.
· The Steve Allen Theater hosts another installment of Cartoon Dump!, cartoon scholar Jerry Beck and MST3K star Frank Conniff's unflinching look at the bad 50s/60s/70s-era animation that destroyed the best minds of several TV-corrupted generations.
· At Book Soup, Jim Henke, The Doors' John Densmore and Jane "Brother of Jimi" Hendrix will sign and discuss both the The Jim Morrison Scrapbook and Jimi Hendrix: An Illustrated Experience.

Though pronounced dead at 3:45pm EST, it took nearly three hours for the NYPD to survey the scene and ambulances to carry the body of Heath Ledger out the front door of his Broome Street apartment. Click through for footage taken by Gawker videographer Nick McGlynn.

The last known photograph of Heath Ledger alive was taken Saturday night in London on the set of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, the latest project from wildly talented yet notoriously cursed director Terry Gilliam. The auteur, who got his start as part of the esteemed Monty Python troupe, has suffered perhaps the worst streak of luck for any director not named Uwe Boll. His pockmarked career will, unfortunately, likely be remembered more for his role on big budget disasters like The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen and The Brothers Grimm (with Ledger in lead) than it will for creative triumphs like Brazil and The Fisher King. And then, there was the sad story of Gilliam's Don Quixote project, which was felled by floods and bad casting and subsequently turned into the total downer documentary Lost In La Mancha. As for the fate of The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus (not to be confused with Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium), we are awaiting word.

As unexpected as Heath Ledger's death of an apparent overdose has been to anyone currently scouring the web for every incremental update on the still-unfolding tragedy (does knowing whether or not Mary-Kate Olsen owns that apartment actually help anyone make sense of the situation?), a "close friend" tells UsMagazine.com that the actor had been struggling with his sobriety and that things were "very dark": "This is terrible and I'm in shock. But to tell you the truth... we saw it coming." Meanwhile, the HuffPo has already identified the tackiest reaction to Ledger's death, courtesy of the MSNBC reporter who remarked "In a lot of ways, this reminds me — we've almost had a dress rehearsal for this with Owen Wilson." In fairness, however, the clip of the remark does reveal she did couch that statement with two "almosts." [UsMagazine.com]

So by now we've all seen what the building where Heath Ledger overdosed looks like from the outside. But over at Corcoran.com, the NYC-based real estate site, they have photos of what the apartments at 421 Broome look like on the inside. There is a three-bedroom loft space currently renting out for $23k a month. [Corcoran, 421 Broome]

Australian-American screen actor Heath Ledger is dead. Ledger was an Oscar-nominated leading man with an admirable career both artistically and at the box office—he may currently be seen in 2007's art-house sleeper I'm Not There and he'll soon be opening across the nation as the iconic Joker, the lead villain in next chapter in the Batman film franchise. He died in Manhattan. He was 28.

At ten minutes to 5pm here in New York, only a few news crews had reached the scene of the loft building at 421 Broome Street, where Heath Ledger was just found dead. Just a handful of passersby were gawking at the small police presence guarding his door. But by 5, a pack of 15 paparazzi had arrived, acting far calmer than the usual frenzied pap scene, respectfully obeying the NYPD's orders to stay back. Almost everyone there, reporters both on-air and from various print outlets, collectively believed that the actor committed suicide using sleeping pills; a bottle of prescribed sedatives were allegedly found next to his bed.

OK—our hyperventilating has died down to the point where we were able to learn some more details surrounding (can't believe we are typing this) Heath Ledger's death. The NY Times's City Room blog reports:

Holy fucking shit—this just in: Heath Ledger is dead. From PageSix.com:

Looking to relive the rousing and not-at-all-vomit-inducing in-theater experience of going to see Cloverfield: The Movie? Still trying to figure out exactly what that monster (spoilers!) really was/is? Well, thanks to those lovable scamps at Hasbro, those of you with $99.99 and a lot of patience can soon own a Cloverfield monster of your very own! And by soon, we mean in October. Of 2008. Nothing like striking while the iron is hot, guys! [Coming Soon]

Nikki Finke reports that New Line's Michael Lynne and Bob Shaye will soon be having a heart-to-heart with Time Warner boss Jeff Bewkes about their expiring contracts, which her sources are "virtually certain" will end with the men leaving the building with cardboard boxes brimming with their favorite Lord of the Rings memorabilia. Though their tenure has recently been marred by disasters like The Last Mimzy and that little feud with Peter Jackson, we prefer to remember what is inarguably their greatest accomplishment at the studio: empowering a certain visionary to make his oft-controversial Art, no matter how many many Rush Hour installments it took to reach the limits of his hacky powers. [DHD]

· NBC's Jeff Zucker has been strongly hinting that his network's upfront presentation to advertisers may be scaled back this year, if not eliminated entirely; in lieu of the customary "dog and pony show," Zucker may instead ask lieutenant Ben Silverman to show a 30-second clip of American Gladiators injuries to a ballroom full of media buyers, then circle the room with a burlap sack into which they can place the portion of their ad budgets they'd like to spend on the Peacock's new primetime schedule. [Variety]
· Stop the presses! Sundance's money-burning glory days may have briefly returned! Focus Features has reportedly closed an early morning, locked-in-the-CAA-condo-until-someone-wildly-overpays, $10 million deal for "high-school satire" Hamlet 2. [THR]
[After the jump: The WGA/AMPTP Talks: A New Hope; Selma Blair is close to joining the NBC family; Gladiators still popular. ]