• The messy divorce case between Peter Cook and Christie Brinkley has just gotten messier. Days after a judge ruled that the trial would be kept open, it was revealed that Cook handed over $300,000 to Diana Bianchi, the 20-year-old girl he cheated on Brinkley with, in exchange for a promise that she wouldn't sue him for sexual harassment or discuss the affair. Of course, the cash won't prevent her from speaking out in court if she's called to testify. [NYP]

We can think of any number of uses for the special talents of James Van Praagh, co-executive producer of The Ghost Whisperer, bestselling author and psychic medium to the stars. On one hand, the news of his recent consorting with Heath Ledger's ghost has us surmising that he might just be another facet of Warner Bros. viral marketing machine for The Dark Knight. Reading on between the lines, however, our own Spidey-sense tingled upon perceiving the true implications of Van Praagh's power:

Deciphering your moviegoing options for the third week running, Defamer Attractions returns today with a look at the final weekend before the studios spill summer in our lap. Today we gauge Tina Fey's chances for box office superiority, corral the highest-profile dog since 88 Minutes (that was only last week? Really?), recommend a certain Oscar-winning actress's directing debut and scan the new arrivals shelf for DVD's of notice. As always, our opinions are our own, but they're also right. You can thank us later!

We weren't the only ones disturbed by that scratchy and highly controversial video showing Heath Ledger at a cocaine-filled party that emerged days after his untimely death. And now, an ex-girlfriend of one of the photographers present at the party is suing her ex's paparazzi agency under the alias "Jane Doe" for setting up the actor in an attempt to secretly tape him using drugs:

Though Heath Ledger was busy racking up film roles in the years leading up to his death that fattened his wallet, there was one practical economic task he overlooked: updating his will. According to the Daily Mail, Ledger hadn't rewritten the document since 2003, one year before he met Michelle Williams on the set of Brokeback Mountain. As a result, the actor's sole beneficiaries will be his parents and now-estranged sisters, which leaves his daughter Matilda and Michelle out of the picture. But a surprising lack of assets in New York begs the question: how much did Ledger have to give, exactly?

According to an extensive New York profile out today, Heath Ledger spent his final days deeply engrossed in researching and writing a script based on the life and death of Nick Drake. In case you missed the whole Drake resurgence of the late `90s (spurred by Volkswagen's usage of his song "Pink Moon" in a now-classic advert), he was an English singer-songwriter who battled insomnia and depression before overdosing in his bed at age 26. Sounds sickeningly familiar, right? According to the piece, Heath's last weeks involved saying goodbye to the Nice Guy character he'd played publicly since the birth of his daughter Matilda and falling into another role altogether: a depressed, masked public figure who, consumed with writing the Drake screenplay, just might have got too close to his subject.

No one ever said the paparazzi were tasteful (far from it!), but sometimes they still manage to surprise us with their indelicate lensing. Like the photos of Michelle Williams that are floating around today. The images show Williams, who had a relationship (and a child) with now deceased actor Heath Ledger, walking past, get this!, a skeleton. The fake set of bones is being used in a film shoot or something. OMG, because her ex-boyfriend just died! Poetry! If you're curious about what sadness looks like, a photo lies after the jump.

The former Dawson's Creek star and ex-fiancée of the late Heath Ledger, Williams has managed to transition from teenybopper star to serious film actress.

Instruct your assistant to hold all your calls, poor yourself a tumbler of whiskey, and fire up the Bose Wave to ease you into haunting opening strums of Gustavo Santaolalla's "The Wings"—this next one's going to be a little rough. Sources from the New Mexico set of Jake Gyllenhaal's new movie Brothers tell People that the actor is "devastated" since learning of his Brokeback Mountain sharpshooting partner's death:

[Pat O'Brien, host of celebrity trash TV magazine "The Insider" smokes and stalks outside Michelle Williams' Brooklyn apartment yesterday; image via INF]

• Heidi Montag's song 'Touch Me' is online and it makes you realize how talented Britney Spears is. [P*r*z, sorry!]
  

In the new Todd Haynes weirdo-biopic of Bob Dylan, I'm Not There, former Brooklyn mascots for attractive domesticity Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams are reunited—sort of. Williams plays Coco Rivington, "the love interest of [Cate] Blanchett's [1966] Dylan"; Ledger "plays Dylan the media superstar, a charismatic, swaggering figure who parties with celebrities, wears look-at-me-but-leave-me-alone sunglasses and watches his personal life collapse under the pressures of his public persona." So poignant! [NYT]

• Michelle Williams is rumored to be joining her estranged husband Heath Ledger in leaving her giant Brooklyn house behind in favor of Manhattan. Time to call up Celebrity Movers! [Page Six]
  

In a trenchant piece of geosocial commentary, not-a-she Alex Williams tackles some big questions: "What if Brooklyn's recent cachet as the locus for what's next is little more than a thin and fragile crust of chic, hiding the insecurity of people who constantly measure the social currency of their ZIP code by Manhattan standards?" Gee, what if!

From the mailbag, overheard in the no longer star-studded streets of Boerum Hill: "Michelle's assistant snapping that it was Heath's assistant, not her, who'd set THAT one up."

Boerum Hill celebrity mascot Michelle Williams maybe isn't taking her ex's rebounding with Helena Christensen too well: She's getting all para on the F train! Says an observer: "I felt someone's eyes on me and it was her and then she looked away like I had been the one staring. Then she moved further down the car like I was going to attack her. Then when we both got off at our stop, she ran out like the devil was on her heels. She even looked back to see if I was behind her! Since when did Asian girls become scary?" Actually, since "The Grudge"?

From the mailbag, we learn that Michelle Williams is still working through the pain of her breakup with Heath Ledger—now she's in the dangerous "wild Williamsburg nights with her daughter's godmother" stage. Says a stalker: "Went to the Modest Mouse concert last night and after proceeded to go to Enid's diner, a local bar and hangout that attracts the likes of hipsters, skateboarders, etc. [Ed. Note: Indeed.] As we were going out the front door to smoke I caught sight of Michelle Williams sitting with a group of friends including Busy Phillips, former castmate on "Dawson's Creek" (Joeys college roommate) sitting at the corner table near the entrance. Michelle looked very tiny but very cute with her pixie brown hair. Busy Phillips was a slut and made out with my friends ex boyfriend. Other than that they were pretty cool."

• Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger amicably split a few weeks ago, a source confirmed to Us Weekly on Labor Day (sneaky!). Was it her haircut? His male pattern baldness? Did the height difference eventually prove insurmountable? [Us Weekly]
  

• "According to a frighteningly observant mommy source, [Michelle] Williams was looking very late-60's Mia Farrow with her blond pixie haircut, wearing a striped lavender-and-black baby doll knit jumper and dark Ray-Ban sunglasses, and pushing a pink Maclaren stroller that contained her 21-month-old daughter, Matilda (clad in a simple red cotton dress, diaper and purple Crocs)." What, the observant mommy didn't get a peek at her bra strap to determine the color of her undies? [NYO]
  

^{Live from the pages of The Underminer: The Best Friend Who Casually Destroys Your Life, we invited everyone's favorite frenemy to chime in from time to time on various hot topics. That's right, The Underminer has a Gawker column now. But keep trying! You'll get one someday! You trouper!}