Amid Heath Ledger Fallout, Has Media Ignored Young Male Stars in Crisis?

Who knew the next blond starlet in crisis would be a man?

As I write this, actor Heath Ledger's death hasn't been attributed to Hollywood excess -- though police have said his room was filled with sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication.

But when I heard the 28-year-old actor had been found dead just months after splitting from his fiancee and the mother of his 2-year-old daughter, I wondered: Why hadn't we heard much about his problems before now?

At a time when we're drowning in dispatches about the various debilitations of Britney, Lindsay, Amy and Paris, news about the death of Oscar-nominated actor Ledger seemed to hit us from a pop culture blind spot.

Let's be clear about an important point: Because Ledger's death hasn't been explained, we don't yet know if he died from deteriorating personal circumstances. Friends and colleagues have said one reason his death is so shocking is because he wasn't the kind of party animal targeted by tabloid headlines.

But if addiction or suicide played a role, Ledger wouldn't be the only underreported male celebrity in crisis. Actor Brad Renfro, who nailed roles in the films Apt Pupil and The Client, struggled with substance abuse for years before his death Jan. 15. Wedding Crashers co-star Owen Wilson offered a clown's smile to the world before his suicide attempt in August.

And I've already written about how 24 star Kiefer Sutherland hasn't received one-tenth the media attention of Paris Hilton for his 48-day stay in the slammer over drunken driving charges in December. Hollywood lore says episodes of Fox's action adventure show may have been rewritten to cover Sutherland's injuries from drinking escapades, yet he escapes the caustic press attention lavished on young women self-destructing in Hollywood.

Even '80s TV icon Michael J. Fox sounded a sympathetic note in Esquire magazine: "I have such empathy for all these young women. I was there, and I did all that crap. We'd rip it up, y'know? And we never got busted on any of that stuff."

"I do think the celebrity news industry pays considerably more attention to the bad girls of the business," said Mark Jurkowitz of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, which found coverage of Anna Nicole Smith's death and Hilton's incarceration were the only tabloid celebrity stories to draw huge amounts of coverage in mainstream media.

"Let's look at obvious factors: three including Lohan extremely attractive blond women with sex and sexuality as part of their larger story," said Jurkowitz. "There's a level of voyeurism which has to do with basic sex and sex appeal which makes these women ripe for more press coverage."

The deluge of spotty reporting in the wake of Ledger's surprise demise -- even the New York Police Department spokesman was passing along spurious tales of the actor dying in an apartment owned by Mary-Kate Olsen, which was later dismissed -- highlights the dangers from the immediate demand for salacious details in the 24-hour news cycle.

There are legitimate journalistic reasons to find Ledger's death compelling: He was an Oscar-nominated actor who died the day this year's nominations were announced. He was a talented young actor some felt was a breakout role away from Brad Pitt-level fame.

He plays the Joker in this summer's new Batman movie -- a role that was a turning point even for film icon Jack Nicholson nearly 20 years ago. He was an intensely private actor who seemed the last person poised for Death by Hollywood Excess.

And he made the mistake of passing away in the world's media capital, literally around the corner from many of the media outlets which rushed to cover his death.

"Kiefer Sutherland ran really hard for a long time . . . (but) Heath Ledger was as close to a normal guy as you could get in show business," said Courtney Hazlett, author of the celebrity and pop culture column Scoop! for MSNBC.com. "It was impossible to be a New Yorker, hang out in certain neighborhoods, and not have an experience running into him."

Hazlett also noted the difference in coverage that male celebrities in crisis receive, noting that famous fathers rarely have their parenting abilities questioned in the way moms such as Spears and Smith endured.

The paper which employs me had a compelling story Tuesday cobbling together a possible obit for modern starlets from the details of past deaths, but it focused on females. And when the Associated Press admitted preparing an advance obituary on Britney Spears -- an honor usually reserved for much older celebrities -- the wire service's managing editor for entertainment news cited the death of troubled B-movie actor Smith as inspiration.

(My fave quote from that story came from a section on how it's tough to predict which stars will die when: "Who in the '60s would have thought Keith Richards would outlast John Denver?")

The hysteria over Ledger's death and the imbalance of coverage for women highlights an important need -- not for less journalism about troubled celebrities, but better journalism.

The memory of someone as talented as Heath Ledger deserves no less.

Comments

[kellygrrrl]

uhm, I don't think I'd wait for the MSM (middle school mentality) to identify any real problem. They are selling mugshots and upskirts, period.

[MyThought]

I fail to see where's the problems with these stars are anyone's responsbility other than their friends and family.

The "act" for a living - it's their job. That's all it is - a job.

[priorzola]

The reason why there is more reporting about young female starlets is because the people who tend to buy the garbage masquarading as newspapers/magazines and entertainment shows that obsess over these celebs are either women or gay men. It's part of a larger attempt by the media to con, particularly, young women into not fully trusting their own instincts and their own thoughts and, instead, spend their time and hard-earned money buying into the fashions, make-up, plastic surgery etc that are meant to disguise the fact that they are all too human and less-than-perfect.

The same tactics used to make all women feel insecure are used to make young starlets feel the same. Still, if these young women surrounded themselves with people who support them in the goals in their lives that are greater than making it onto the cover of a magazine (for whatever deed) and encourage them to look for acheivements other than mere attention alone, then they would see the exploitation that the media baits them into. It's just a hyper-real version of the same kind of con laid upon everyday women that results in unnecessary boob jobs and to change their entire wardrobe every 3 months.

The day that the media can fully fool young men into this mind-set (by selling the myth of the metrosexual, etc) is the day that the media will dog around young male actors in the same predicament.

[JTR40291]

Very responsible of you to wait for factual evidence before spouting your theory. Perez Hilton is my favorite source for news, also!

[meeneecat]

You know I agree that there is a big difference in the way female stars are reported and their male counterparts, but you know my biggest problem is not in the amount of coverage, it's how it's covered, frankly a celebrities personal life is their personal life, I don't think we should be prying and prodding and obsessing over what they are up to every second of the day (Britney) However, in the way these females are covered (Britney, Lohan, etc.) the stories are always presented as:
Look at this dumb bimbo,
what a bad mother she is,
look how fat she's gotten (even when they are thin),
look at her new boob, lip, butt (insert body part) job,
how dumb can you be for doing (insert latest mistake)
...and on and on.

These woman are only presented in a way that conveys "dumb female" and "looks obsessed". It make me feel like these women are only good for their looks and the mistakes they make-as an excuse for everyone to call them dumb as &$%# bimbos. It annoys the hell out of me first of all because there are plenty of young women who are extremely accomplished and smart but never get any coverage. It seems the media doesn't even want to talk about how there are many smart women who are doing admiral things to make a difference in the world. But no, we gotta focus only on these women doing dumb things and their looks. Barf.

Cont...
Can you imagine what it's like to be a young girl and seeing these women, who the media hold up on a pedestal and basically say "hey girls, if you want to be cool you gotta get boob jobs and act dumb, because your smart natural self is not good enough" I mean, I notice girls as young as 8 trying to act like little Lindsy Lohans, it makes me want to cry, I was never like that in third grade, I didn't even know how to put on makeup until I was in college.

Cont...

[PatA]

When was the last time anyone saw Heath Ledger abandon his children, by way of being an unfit father, flash his genitalia in public, drive all over LA for hours, cause wrecks, be found with coke in his car, go to rehab and leave, etc. etc.?
That should answer a lot of your speculation.
Leave it alone, PEOPLE. We don't know the details and I hope we never do. It is none of our damned business!

[AnthonyMason2k6]

In the city where I work, I encounter at least 10 drug addicts on a daily basis. Why should I be more concerned about some millionary actor, dumb enough to take a whole bunch of pills, when there are hundreds of thousands of people who truly need help and dont have the money or the publicity?

[SecretlyFamous]

Heres a poem on the theme:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tamsin-rothschild/pure-love-on-heaths-p_b_82831.html

The media has a lot to answer for, and not only in star and starlet coverage. The biased and completely propaganda filled network news and media is what is half the problem in this world. Where news should be about information - unbiased! Its not - its a bloody advertising campagain for the highest bidder. The mass population is just waiting (unconciously) to be sold the next thing.

Reporting about religious slander is my worst...where the journos quote people sprouting the very things they wish they could blantantly write - so they get to advertise the info and remain blameless. Its heartless. People dont read the bit that says - 'even through its yet to be proved...' BUT the sky is falling on our heads!...
Under education is fully exploited by the media - spin is out of control and the stars and starlets are not the only ones suffering.
Watch a movie called OUT FOXED if you are vaguely intrested in how the wool is SO being pulled over our eyes.

[charlot]

I said this in repsonse to another post about Heath Ledger's death, and I will say it here, too:
It is far too early to be speculating about such things. There is no evidence that Heath Ledger was either addicted OR depressed. It could very well have been (and looks more and more all the time like it was) a horrible and tragic accident: a result of the combination of prescribed medications to treat a physical illness, sleeplessness and anxiety.

What is beyond speculation is that he was an enormously talented artist and a very warm-hearted, compassionate and intelligent human being who left us way too soon at the young age of 28. We don't know how he died; only that he did die, and his loss is felt by so many people.

Out of respect for his family and friends, and for his memory, we would all do well to not make speculations or judgments; all we should be doing is remembering him and his contributions, and trying to smile through the tears.

And to the callous remarks of jimpryor99, I will say this: where on earth did you ever hear that Heath Ledger was a heroin addict, recovering or otherwise? And even if that were the case, to just so casually dismiss someone in such a cold and heartless manner speaks to your lack of humanity. How shameful to say such things.

[jimpryor99]

Took drugs, died. End of story. If he devalued life and his child enough to kill himself with drugs ("recovered" heroin addict), then why should anyone care that he died?

[roddenberry]

actually,young hollywoodian stars lack of intellectual backgrounds to support star-system and overmediatisation.

[mommadona]

Uh....
They become rich

They become famous

They have everything they would ever need for the American Dream

Then, they revert to human and can't handle the icon.

I have no sympathy. Pity, maybe, perhaps...maybe....but no sympathy.

You are what you eat.

You are what you see in the mirror in the morning.

Anything else is an illusion.

Once a person realizes that - they've become an adult.

(All this worship started with the untimely death of Valentino.....and the effect of that on his needy masses of fans)