Heath Ledger on The Huffington Post

Ruth Fowler: Brittany Murphy and the Hollywood Fishbowl

2009-12-21T14:57:41Z

Yet another young starlet felled far too young: whether by heart disease, diabetes, Vicodin or an ominous British husband has yet to be determined. What Brittany Murphy's death stirs up, though, is an odd disquiet, a sense of unease, sadness, suspicion: the same kind of feelings we had when we heard that River Phoenix had gone, Heath Ledger, DJ AM. If Brittany's autopsy does reveal that her death was due to substance abuse, she joins an increasing line of the beautiful and the young who died unintentionally at their own hands, while us rabid culture-consumers separated from their lives merely by a glossy weekly shake our heads and tut in disgust. These people had everything, and they threw it all away because of their dependence on illegal drugs or legally prescribed pharmaceuticals.

It seems incomprehensible to most of us that the young, the talented and the beautiful could be so stupid. But then, most of us don't have a comprehensive grasp of what comprises addiction and a dangerous misuse of substances. I stopped drinking in February of this year to almost universal cries of "What for? You're not an alcoholic! You're just someone who abuses alcohol!." And cocaine. And ecstasy. And psychedelics. And legally prescribed drugs. But I didn't consider myself an addict or an alcoholic because I didn't have a physical dependency on drugs and alcohol, and I didn't use every day. Oh, and I never used heroin or crack, and that's the bad stuff, right?

I could go weeks without drinking, and I rarely actively sought out drugs. However, if I drank and there happened to be drugs in the vicinity, drugs of any kind, I would find them, and I would consume them. In vast quantities. I couldn't say no. Because I didn't have a daily habit it didn't seem -- to me -- to be a problem. I only realized I had a problem when I tried to stop completely, and I couldn't. I only realized I had a problem when I started dating a guy with a long history of substance abuse, and I recognized myself in him. When I drove from Culver City to West Hollywood on the wrong side of the road one night because I was drunk. When I turned up to a meeting with a director who wanted to option my book, and slobbered my way into breakfast at The Ivy after a night of coke and tequila. When I attended an audition out of my head on ecstasy, champagne and coke, having not slept for 48 hours.

Oh, the list goes on.

It's easy for those of us who have stopped the abuse -- or temporarily postponed, I should probably say, not really knowing what the future may hold should I ever fall off the wagon -- to point fingers at others' 'recreational' use and scream "Addict!" or "Alcoholic!" Indeed, it seems to be a veritable pastime amongst some of my AA contemporaries. But since getting sober, I've come to a greater understanding of the ease and the extent to which substance abuse of any and every kind is acceptable in today's society, rendering recognition that one has a problem really goddamn difficult.

In Britain, where I was born and lived until I was 21, binge drinking has, in the last decade, come to be recognized as a huge problem in society. I grew up in a house where alcohol was drunk everyday, and yet my parents aren't alcoholics. I started drinking in bars aged 15 and that was the norm. In college we drank until we blacked out, we drank until we were face down in the gutter in a pool of our own excretions, we drank as much as possible for as little as possible -- and it was just "being young." It was just "our culture". I go back to Britain now and after years in the US, it's a completely alien culture. Britain has bred a nation of alcoholics, and I daresay the same journalists shrieking about how shocking it is, are doing so with a large glass of their daily Pinot Noir sitting next to the laptop, congratulating themselves that their daily tipple is 'under control' -- even if it does take them over the weekly units of alcohol that doctors recommend.

In the US I know few people who haven't used their Vicodin, their Oxycontin, their Ritalin or Adderall for purposes other than what they're prescribed for. It's easy to get a doc to prescribe this shit, and even easier to swallow a Vicodin after a stressful day at work. My sister called me in great excitement the other day because she'd discovered this amazing stuff called Ambien which a college friend had given her. It made her 'sleep really well' and gave her 'fucked-up dreams'. She had no idea the stuff she'd taken all week was addictive -- dangerously so.

My point is that recreational 'use' of substances is so widely accepted that it seamlessly slides into abuse without much effort or recognition, and while the nuclear fall-out seems apparent in the deaths of those who adorn the pages of Us Weekly, it's accepted and acceptable at all levels of society, and isn't confined to the talented, the beautiful and the young. By highlighting these tragic deaths as somehow related to fame, to celebrity exposure, to the effects of Hollywood and the movie industry, we don't take into account the fact that substance abuse is shockingly common in the majority of American and British households today. All of us sitting at home having a few pills with a glass of wine now and then, imagining that Brittany and Heath and DJ AM were somehow 'different' and 'special', are compounding the problem of ignorance.

The month before I quit drinking, I remember reading yet another story about Lindsey Lohan falling out of a nightclub, of Amy Winehouse pictured with white junk up her nose, of someone else getting drunk at an airport, assaulting the paparazzi. Rehabs and detoxes and twelve step programs seemed to be for these people: people with serious issues and money to burn and a self-loathing which couldn't be assuaged by fame or Vogue covers or billion-dollar movies. They were in the fishbowl, swimming around, and we were standing outside clutching Star magazine, hurling the fish flakes of fame into dark and murky water, watching them all go wild for it. I thought I was someone who partied on a lesser scale than the people I read about. Without the paps or the tabloids to capture it, my transgressions seemed inconsequential: therefore death and catastrophe would evade me.

I stopped abusing alcohol and drugs before it ever got too bad. If I ever start again it will be because I have an irresistible and distorted urge to enjoy illicit substances 'recreationally,' 'without harm' -- not like all these fucked-up Hollywood stars.

The sad thing is River, Heath, DJ AM and Brittany probably thought the same.

Qanta Ahmed, MD: From Wall Street to Neverland: The Year America Didn't Sleep

2009-11-16T11:11:19Z

America didn’t just lose money in the Crash -- America lost a lot of sleep. The annual Sleep in America Poll published by the National Sleep Foundation focused on Health and Safety this year. The report is available on line for anyone to download. It makes for compelling reading.

From Wall Street to Neverland, Americans have been sleepless. The starkest example of the struggle with insomnia came earlier this year on June 25th, when Michael Jackson’s quest for sleep resulted in death. In these columns we have discussed some of the painful lessons derived of those Propofol Lullabies. A year or so earlier, in an anonymous New York City night, we had quietly lost the incandescent talent of Heath Ledger who had also struggled with insomnia in the weeks leading up to his death. This had followed Britney Spears' very public insomnia, preceding her hospitalization for mental illness. The lives of these celebrities is far, far removed from those of my patients, but the struggle for rest and sleep is a universal experience. And money simply can’t buy it.

One in three Americans is experiencing a sleep disorder due to economic concerns. Astonishingly, these findings have been little discussed in the professional academe or in the public sphere. This past week at the annual congress of the American College of Chest Physicians, in San Diego I discovered my colleagues were not always aware of such dramatic observations.

Since I first read the survey this spring, I began adding a single question to my interviews when I meet new patients for the first time: “ Without intruding into your financial affairs, do you believe the economy has affected your sleep?” The response has been startling. Every sector of the population relates to this question, whether the patient is a 42 year old account manager for a hedge fund describing a flare of insomnia as Lehman Brothers began its plummet over the edge, or an 87 year old grandfather concerned about his grandchildren’s future, or an overworked physician struggling to make college fees, or a single mom working in a pet store late into the night, or a 60 year old ex-service man taking on an extra shift at UPS for health insurance benefits or even a loan book manager for an international investment bank. There has been almost no patient I have interviewed who cannot relate to this observation, yet the discussion is barely beginning.

Americans are extremely concerned about the economy. They list economic fears, including the economy in general, more specific fears relating to job security and health coverage, ahead, way ahead, of concerns about the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan or the interminable global war on terror. Americans are anguished and hurting and its affecting their sleep.

Speaking to a physician colleague recently about this survey I was met with irritated resignation. Well, what can we do about this? We can begin by acknowledging the realities that many more individuals are experiencing insomnia in the slow motion collision that has been our economy of recent. Empathizing about this problem as a shared, national experience can be helpful and patients often sense that they are finally being heard in a climate where economic decisions are being made by faceless suits remote from reality. To quote my mentor from residency, Dr. Michael Ammazzalorso, "as physicians we are privileged to be closer to our patients than a priest is to his parishioner". These are times when we need to remember to minister to ourselves and each other. Sharing a nation’s loss and beginning to examine its many manifestations by spending time hearing about them from our patients can accomplish much.

In the endless 24/7 news cycles since the 2008 implosion of the Dow from the vertiginous altitudes of 14,000, the impact of the economy on sleep, or the impact of sleeplessness on the economy, has been a silent void. We live in a culture of not-so-wholesome Sleep Machismo and economic hardship is bringing the extremes of American lifestyles into sharp relief. Patients who are parents are contorting their schedules to accommodate work hours, long commute times, shift work, child responsibilities, homework and even higher learning. Patients who are unemployed are struggling fiscally, emotionally and without the structure of work, which has become a form of puritanical Americanism. As a nation we are known for our long work week, few vacation days and endless work hours. In contrast, the unemployed have lost their church of redemption -- workaholism, which has been, for a long time the foundation of a uniquely American ethos. Possibly only the Japanese rival us in this pursuit. Outside of a workplace, Americans often find themselves deprived of purpose, community, means and hope. The speed at which health coverage is lost following the end of a job adds to calamity and many patients attend for consultation under pressure of a rapidly uncoiling COBRA coverage.

In times like these, it is, as my colleagues have pointed out, hard to offer constructive help. In a health care system where patient encounters result in investigations and financial burden, we have to remember how to dispense practical advice. We must target behaviors in a way that results in meaningful change for our patients without submitting to the model of medicine as a diagnostic temple serving evaluation yet eternally devoid of healing. We must help and heal, even without a DRG code check box.

We begin by educating our patients about how we sleep, why we need sleep and how to sleep better. Many times a detailed interview can uncover obvious behavior to target. As a nation we are growing up without learning how to fall asleep or how to build an environment which promotes sleep at bedtime. Enter economic calamity and transient, acute insomnia quickly becomes chronic and untreated insomnia contributes to depression. Daytime performances decline, memory is impaired, attention wavers. Tempers fray, workplace litigation costs rise, health care utilization goes up. Workplace conflicts proliferate. I could go on.

The public health burden of insomnia on the United States is measured in the hundreds of billlons of dollars. While some of the costs are direct, many are indirect: covering for staff shortages due to absence, accidents triggered by sleeplessness and the impact of sleeplessness on wider society. Much of this decline is unaddressed in employee wellness programs, or in regular visits to the clinician. While as a nation we routinely cut calories, or cram exercise into demanding schedules, sleep has not even entered the conversational lexicon.

At a time of extraordinary hardship, we can ease suffering by shining the spotlight on America’s sleep habits. We need to look at our culture of Sleep Machismo which views sleep need as an expendable luxury rather than a biological necessity and the brilliant lessons extracted from Dr. Mathias Basner’s evaluation of the federally administered American Time Use Survey and his work at the Philadelphia School of Medicine. I will be devoting a specific column to his fascinating work. We need to acknowledge the socioeconomic impact of a sleepless, overworked nation in a climate of economic volatility and ignite a dialogue on protecting our most vital function of wellness: sound sleep in unsound times.

Without doubt, this is a conversation long overdue. From Wall Street to Neverland, it is time we realized: unlike Greed, Sleep is indeed Good. Americans are not only in financial debt but also rapidly spiraling sleep debt. Losing sleep is costing us money and losing money is costing us sleep.

Its time to stem the losses.

E. Annie Proulx Donates Papers To New York Public Library

2009-11-03T09:09:09Z

NEW YORK — A celebrated chronicler of rural life, E. Annie Proulx, has found a literary home in the big city.

Proulx, whose works include the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Shipping News" and the short story "Brokeback Mountain" that was the basis for the film starring Heath Ledger, has donated her papers to the New York Public Library.

Heath Ledger-Directed Video Hits The Internet (VIDEO)

2009-10-30T07:37:24Z

**AP text, scroll down for video**

SYDNEY - An Australian rapper who was a boyhood friend of Heath Ledger has released a music video the star directed shortly before his death.

N'fa Forster-Jones posted the 3 minute, 31 second-clip for his song "Cause An Effect" on his YouTube and MySpace pages on Thursday, along with a video in which he explains how the project came about.

Ledger, the celebrity-shy star of Batman blockbuster, "The Dark Night," and the posthumously released "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," shot a handful of videos for low-profile artists he liked. Ledger died aged 28 in New York from an accidental drug overdose in January 2008.

Forster-Jones, who had been friends with Ledger since they were toddlers in the Australian city of Perth, said the video was shot in one day in the garage of Ledger's beachside apartment.

"He gave me a call one morning, as he often did at crazy hours, and he's like, 'N'fa, I've got this idea for a video,'" the rapper says in the online posting.

"He was basically running around directing me each shot," he said. "It was a really cool day."

"Every day I count my blessings that I got to have him direct this piece of art," he said.

The video was first shown at a collection of Ledger's work at the Rome Film Festival earlier this month.

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Dr. Nicholas Perricone: The Dark Night: Secret To Breast Cancer Prevention?

2009-10-02T13:50:23Z

You won't find Batman, Christian Bale, the Joker, Heath Ledger or Gotham City anywhere in today's tale of the Dark Night.

Instead, you will discover the link between darkness and light, sleep and sleep disruption, and breast cancer.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and our blog will be dedicated to sharing important scientific information on the prevention of this disease.

The good news is that there are a great many ways to help prevent breast cancer that are both easy and accessible to everyone. We will discover the wonderfully delicious foods that offer proven prevention benefits as well as targeted nutritional supplements backed by solid science. Other blogs will reveal what foods we must avoid to decrease our disease risk.

But today's blog is going to start with a very basic statistic that is quite surprising. Women who sleep less than six hours a night could be raising their risk of breast cancer by more than 60 percent.

According to a fascinating research study that took place in Japan, women who regularly had six hours of sleep or less every night were 62 percent more likely to have breast cancer compared to those who slept seven hours.

Melatonin is an important hormone that is secreted by the pineal gland in the brain while we sleep. It regulates our circadian rhythms (the body's internal clock). It is implicated in the regulation of sleep, mood, puberty and ovarian cycles. Many scientists believe that melatonin helps suppress estrogen levels, a causative factor in many cases of breast cancer.

One other note on sleep--an illuminating (pun intended) study has demonstrated the importance of sleeping in total darkness for many health reasons, including breast cancer reduction. It was found that women who worked night shifts, such as nurses and flight attendants, had a 60 percent higher rate of breast cancer.

The research, conducted at the National Cancer Institute and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, revealed an alarming finding: Exposure to light during the hours of sleep appears to aggressively promote breast cancer by shutting off the production of melatonin, which is also a strong immune system booster. According to research findings, its presence also impedes the growth of cancer tumors by as much as 80 percent.

A number of studies indicate a link between the possibility of both--night workers exposed to light upsetting circadian rhythms on the one hand and those who slept less than 6 hours also having an increased risk.

So you see, getting a good night's sleep is important for many reasons, including cancer prevention.

As an active researcher, I welcome your comments.

Qanta Ahmed, MD: Sleepless Supernova: Propofol Lullabies In Neverland

2009-10-01T14:32:25Z

Michael Jackson's death is already a fading memory despite an acute expression of global despair as we witnessed the untimely extinction of a supernova. For physicians, struggling against a climate of national examination in this era of healthcare reform, there is a distinctly darker anguish which must finally be examined, an anguish which has been little discussed in the public arena. What has become of a profession which repeatedly fails its most important client: the patient, all the while profiting from the hapless same? At a time when an entire industry stands accused of cavalier profiteering, this is an important question to consider.

Michael Jackson was a patient failed by those who attended him. Even though some (including Jack Kevorkian in a recent article here on HuffPost) may argue that 'he got what he wanted", the discovery of propofol in his home brought our profession to new levels of mercenary depravity. Physician colleagues expressed shock and disbelief. Patients in consultation talked about their fears of becoming dependent on sleep aids, sometimes even referring to Michael's cautionary tale.
The cumulative pain from these decades of assaults on Michael's privacy, identity, and self, all contributed to the erosion of his identity. Was it any wonder the man would be in severe psychological pain from his first memories until perhaps his last hours? The accounts of a desperate insomniac entertainer craving propofol-induced 'sleep' were, to me, the most staggering salvo in the final, painful ballad of a dying star. Propofol lullabies in an unmonitored, non-sterile bedroom could be no more certain a prescription for death than a smoking gun.

A drug I have prescribed with due respect in the critical care arena when I was a practicing intensivist, propofol was a wonderful tool to induce sedation and facilitate difficult procedures which my patients needed. But using this agent required a team of monitoring professionals and devices in an advanced, high-tech environment to maintain both the safety of my patients and the peace of mind of their doctor. That an anesthesiologist could be on tour with Michael administering this drug for sleep onset is both baffling and repugnant. The King of Pop was effectively anaesthetized every night, while our profession was asleep at the wheel.
Everyone recognizes the disability of the poor but few recognize how handicapping extreme wealth can be, holding its victims hostage to boundless access. In the world of the uberwealthy, doctors become enablers, dispensers, predators, little more than licensed pushers.

Michael Jackson had spent a lifetime entertaining us at late, adult schedule hours from the time when he was barely out of infancy himself. This was a man who never had the benefit of unscheduled time, never learned the first experience of parental discipline so fundamental to a child's development: a fixed sleep-wake routine. Instead, at five he was already performing during the evening. By the time he appeared at the Apollo in 1969, he was a veteran of late night entertainment. Peter Pan's insomnia was yet another feature of not being allowed a full and healthy childhood.

Entertainers often experience delayed sleep phase syndrome.....a delayed physiologic timing in the arrival of sleep which the patient experiences as sleep onset insomnia. Bill Maher has described suggestive features reporting in one interview in his own words that he 'keeps VERY late hours'. Unsurprising, if one thinks about this. A natural tendency to sleep later and stay up later, easily described as being a night owl, may be a draw to the professional nightlife.
While some entertainers may gravitate to the industry because of their night owl tendencies, most are likely permanently rendered 'delayed sleep phase types' because of their exposure to late night bright light, stimulation, social interaction and stimulating substances including caffeine, nicotine or in some instances recreational drugs which all drive to delay the bedtime further.

Television itself can inhibit sleep onset because of the impact of ambient light from the screen on the body's intrinsic hormone of darkness, melatonin, Television watching, in a recent American survey published this spring in the Journal Sleep "Dubious bargain: trading sleep for Leno and Letterman' has been identified to be responsible for delaying sleep by up to 52 minutes in 68% of Americans. A dubious bargain indeed, when the nation is so frequently sleep deprived.

Out of desperation, insomniacs may problem-solve independently, most commonly resorting to alcohol as a self medication, not understanding that there is in this country, more so than anywhere else, a certified subspecialist sleep medicine community which exists to solve exactly these problems. Michael would have been exposed to this environment and these behaviors at an extremely early age, setting the scene for a lifetime of sleep disorders and drug dependencies.

The absence of response from the professional sleep medicine community to the abuse of propofol as a sleep aid in the setting of profound insomnia is puzzling to me but possibly intentional. Michael's insomnia, like that of Heath Ledger's was a lost teachable moment and in their lifetimes, a lost opportunity for intervention. Unrecognized insomnia has become a familiar motif in our most vulnerable icons, one which steals them away in the night. Too frequently insomnia is ascribed to 'drugs' without looking at why these individuals may have resorted to drug dependency in the first place.

Trouble sleeping is a serious multi-factorial disorder, one which needs careful evaluation. Insomnia is a disorder characterized by symptom focused definitions: trouble falling asleep, trouble staying asleep, waking up before socially desirable or sleep which is simply not rejuvenating, Insomnia patients can have several of these symptoms together. Insomnia however is no longer considered merely a symptom but seen as a viable disorder itself, requiring detailed evaluation, multidisciplinary approaches and sometimes long term therapies. Board certified sleep specialists can guide a patient to treatment, which often involves more than solving an isolated psychiatric disorder or drug addiction but actually involves the teaching of new behaviors, restructuring disordered beliefs relating to insomnia, examining medical conditions, searching for primary sleep disorders and exploring all the factors which are contributing to disrupted sleep. Many patients who are resistant to seeking psychiatric help which may be very much needed, can be coaxed to such aid through a sleep specialist. An ethical sleep specialist in the setting of Michael Jackson's insomnia could have been a life line into the chaos surrounding him, though agreed, Michael was recalcitrant to sensible intervention, as Dr. Deepak Chopra sadly relayed in his CNN interviews shortly after Michael's death.

Unrecognized sleep disorders are often a harbinger of coexistent anxiety and depression. We know that Michael could well have experienced major depression at being stripped of a childhood and compelled 'to be an adult' very early, in the words of Brooke Shields as she eulogized him. Finally, the last decade of his life punctuated by a punishing trial would be very likely to have triggered severe depression as a reaction whether or not it touched on the truth of his inner life.

Most of all this event speaks to the national culture of Sleep Machismo a phrase which captures American workaholism as a disordered belief system, almost uniquely American. Imagine a performer so desperate for sleep he resorts to anesthetic sedation and yet so pressured to perform he was committed to dozens of concerts in a compressed time frame. His doomed concert was even aptly named as 'THIS IS IT". For Michael at that point in his career it was 'Do or Die'. Unfortunately, this time it would be 'Die'.

In this country, we value, emulate and even laud sleep loss in the pursuit of achievement, accolade and advancement. Michael's lifestyle and his learned behaviors of self-medicating sleep disorders were an exaggerated form of Sleep Machismo which appears in my office every day in a number of guises. His loss leaves many questions and an agitated hunger to pin blame on a single miscreant. Indeed major responsibilities are borne by the clinicians prescribing and administering him drugs at the patient's whim, which ultimately would be likely to act as cumulative respiratory depressants. Yet to me his loss was, in sum, a collective responsibility of an unfettered culture which has become almost singularly oral and consumptive, a culture with an insatiable appetite for interminably 'more' at the expense of our icons, our sanity and often our sleep.

As physicians we would do well to remember the Hippocratic Oath of first doing no harm. Clearly in the misery of his sleeplessness, his physicians betrayed the most basic of ethical boundaries. They put self interest ahead of patient interest. Sadly, the icon had become the golden goose for failing careers. These physicians too suffered from the drive to consume and appease an insatiable appetite for cash, celebrity and personal gain. My profession failed a national treasure, no matter how disordered, and failed him in pursuit of personal greed. We failed in his diagnosis, in his treatment, in disengaging from the dance with a manipulative addict and ultimately failed in the recognition of a critically important sleep disorder. Let us not fail in his wake to examine the lessons to found in the debris of destruction and share them with Americans everywhere.

2morrowknight: Riddle Me This: Why Not Let Stephen Colbert Play the Riddler?

2009-09-01T14:20:58Z

With the late Heath Ledger's academy award-winning turn as The Joker, studio heads at Warner Brothers are reportedly giddy about the prospect of hitting a home run with another villain in the next Batman sequel. I believe that villain should be The Riddler, and I believe comic and pop culture icon Stephen Colbert should play him.

Yes, Stephen Colbert. (I'm serious, and I'll explain why in a second.) But of course, many at Warner Brothers have someone else in mind: Johnny Depp. Yes, I can see why many see him as an attractive choice. He gave incredible dimension to the deliriously enjoyable Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, and he has delivered some memorable performances in brilliantly macabre, Tim Burton-directed movies like Sleepy Hollow and Sweeney Todd. He is truly a force of nature!

But indulge me for a moment: the Riddler is not just any villain. As long as he can describe it in a riddle or puzzle, he views it as a crime worth committing. He doesn't kill his opponents when he has the upper hand. Like say, Jigsaw in the Saw movies, he has to put them in a deathtrap where he creates a life and death intellectual challenge they cannot possibly solve. And though Depp could do it, Stephen Colbert would give the role true justice.

The Riddler is intellectually curious, wickedly funny, and relentlessly creative -- all of the things I would associate with Stephen Colbert. Add in the usual debauchery, mischief and shenanigans and Colbert could really pull it off. I know this is a lot to chew on for some. But he has fooled a lot of conservatives into thinking that he's one of them, and remember his rap battle with RNC CHairman Steele about conservative values? It was a side-splittingly funny bit that's worth 100 Emmy awards.

As a serious comic book enthusiast and collector, I take my Colbert recommendation seriously. I have thoroughly enjoyed, and celebrated the casting of Christian Bale as Batman. He takes the franchise to another level. And, if the reports are true, I would celebrate Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Penguin. But most of all, I would cheer for casting Angelina Jolie as The Catwoman. Nobody plays the seductive Vixen persona better than her. But trust me, Stephen Colbert would be devilishly good fun as The Ridler. Think about it.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Trailer- Heath's Last Film (VIDEO)

2009-08-11T11:36:29Z

Below is the newly released trailer for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Terry Gilliam's troubled film starring Heath Ledger, who died before filming was complete.

Ledger's remaining scenes were filled with Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell playing transformations of Tony as he travels through a dream world.

The filmmakers talked at length about finishing the film and Heath in a Vanity Fair cover story, here if you missed it.

Imaginarium comes out in the UK on October 16 and the US on Christmas Day.

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Heath Ledger's Modest Mouse Video Debuts

2009-08-04T23:23:23Z

(AP Article, Scroll To Watch)

LOS ANGELES — Heath Ledger's latest directorial work has been released.

The music video Ledger directed for "King Rat" by Modest Mouse debuted on MySpace.com Tuesday. The six-minute, animated video is both whimsical and dark, showing whales and dolphins aboard a ship, fishing for humans in the water.

It concludes with a message in white letters on a black screen: "This began with our friend, a great defender of life, and was completed in his spirit."

Ledger was 28 when he died last year. Modest Mouse announced in March that it would release the video in honor of Ledger's last piece of work as a director, according to spokeswoman Lisa Markowitz. The actor previously directed a video for one of Ben Harper's songs.

___

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Heath Ledger's Green Video For Modest Mouse

2009-08-04T18:09:39Z

The much-awaited Modest Mouse video for "King Rat" directed by Heath Ledger has been released today. And the video is an incredible look at what would happen if whales hunted humans.

All the proceeds from the iTunes downloads in the first month of release will go to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which works towards protecting and conserving marine life.

Directed by Ledger, with Daniel Auber and Norris Houk in charge of the animation, the video is a "visual plea against the legal commercial whale hunts taking place off the coast of Australia," according to the press release.

Unfortunately, Ledger died before he could ever see the finished product.

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Doon Baqi: You Believed the Hype!

2009-07-24T13:45:34Z

I know the world loves to follow. I'm sorry if you don't like to admit it, but it's just the way it is. We've gotten too lazy. We hardly do anything for ourselves anymore.

We have people praying for us, shopping for us, reading for us. We have people telling us who we are, what we like.

Defining our tastes. Telling us what moves us, what makes us cry, what is our vision of beauty.

Think about it. I'm not far off the mark. Society's vision of a beautiful woman, for example, has changed to something totally different than say, five hundred years ago. Today's "beautiful woman" is an entirely different creature to that of 1508.

What's more, a "beautiful woman" means one thing in Italy and something entirely different in say, Germany, Morocco, or Russia.

And we call this phenomenon "society's norms."

In other words, the society that we live in, those "others" mostly, shape, define, affect, influence, control our likes and dislikes.

The fun thing is that these Definers have quite a bit of power within society. They are the magazines, TV shows, movie stars.

And there is a conflict of interest in all of this. They promote what will make them the most money.

They own both Britney and Vogue (metaphorically speaking, of course).

So they tell you in Vogue that Britney is great. And you buy it. They tell you that Kate Winslett is phenomenal and you agree wholeheartedly, stand in long lines to see her next release.

The problem is that when compared to the true meaning of "great" or "beauty," these samples of our society just don't measure up.

You say "great" and "beauty" are subjective? Yes, I agree. But there is still a touch of objective Platonic truth in those words. I doubt many people can deny that Daniel Day-Lewis is a great actor. Or that Bridget Bardot was beautiful in her day, despite her recent racist (ethnocentric?) leanings. Or that Beethoven was a genius, forever destined to stand among the greats.

Most of today's stars, however, do not deserve that title. Most of what we think we like is just not really what we like. We have not stopped and looked deep within ourselves to see if we really like what they tell us we like. We have simply gone along with the flow. We have taken "their" word for it all.

What we are saturated with is overrated acts that do not fall into the category of the sublime.

For lack of numbers, that top tier has been left mostly empty, and we have jumped to fill that vacuum with mediocrity. We have pushed the "best of our times" into the category of the "best of all time."

It has left me with a very difficult task: finding greats when all of the current lists of great things are well...more like a list of the average.

I think these things are mostly hype:

Michael Jackson
Kate Winslett
Britney Spears
San Diego
Heath Ledger
50 Romantic Things To Do lists
Sliced bread
Kanye West (save for one or two songs)
Kobe Bryant (adulterer....)
M. Night Shyamalan
Good Credit
The Twilight movie
Red roses
Brad Pitt

I just think that we need to stop listening to "them" and think for ourselves.

I've always held that the fingerprint of our souls is what we find beautiful in this world, the entire list of what moves us. A list totally unique to each of us.

We will one day be defined by our idea of beauty and the list of things that we put in that category, and I would hate for this list to show up in the hands of my decedents.

Actually, let's all hold hands and pray that the internet sticks around forever, so that my great great great grand kids read this article and see that I am not on the bandwagon.

Holly Cara Price: Michael Jackson: The Love We Save

2009-07-10T13:23:06Z

Here's an equation for you. Take one aging celebrity, mix in a hefty scoop of childhood abuse, add a few dozen helpings of bad publicity for pedophilia charges and just plain bizarre behavior, mix in a lethal cocktail of dangerous prescription drugs, plus the loss of billions of dollars due to years of mismanagement and an over the top lifestyle most of us could never even dream of. There's really only one way out of that mess, and it happened two weeks ago to 50 year old Michael Joseph Jackson: Death.

For most of his short, anguished time on earth he was larger than life, but in death MJ has eclipsed all other dead celebs (okay, except for, um, Jesus of Nazareth) for sheer marketability and money-making prowess. And talk about a TV ratings bonanza; holy mamasay-mamasah, the whole world stopped to make room for the breaking news of Jackson's death on June 25th. Iran? Forgotten. Mark Sanford? Luckiest guy in the world, apparently. Recession? Snore. New Iphone? Whatever. And the memorial service? Viewership numbers through the roof, all over the world. We'll get to that.

Perhaps you remember that for a few minutes, right before MJ was rushed to the hospital that Thursday, the world had been stunned and transfixed by the cellphone video of 26 year old Neda Soltani, killed in living color during a protest in Tehran. The video of her death made the situation in Iran immediate and present to us; it made it real. Such is the power of the internet, which transcends all media, making it immediate in every sense.

MJ needed no such boost to make his death relevant to the world. Love him, hate him, you can't help but acknowledge that he changed the world of music forever. But watching the carrion circling him now is plainly horrific. I worry about those three children, who have just inherited the biggest therapy bills known to humankind (although possibly, some day, also the biggest book deals of all time). Their lives up to now must have set new standards for weirdness; what's incredibly sad is that that was nothing compared to the future. Jermaine told NBC News, in tears, that he wishes it had been him who died instead of Michael (hmm...new reality show? I'm A Jackson, Get Me Out of Here!). And Debbie Rowe has done an about face and declared she suddenly wants the two kids she gave birth to, after saying just the opposite right after Jackson's death. Way to go, Deb. Break up a family that's just lost their father. She's obviously ripe for reality TV, maybe she can get signed on to the Octomom's TV deal or something equally tasteless.

It's now abundantly clear that Jackson's money-making abilities are even more pronounced after his death (it's the Kurt Cobain / Anna Nicole Smith / Elvis Presley / Heath Ledger syndrome - times ten). This is clearly a cash cow of such magnitude that it makes my head hurt. Downloads of Jackson's music since his passing set a new standard for internet music sales. His album sales for the last week of June were more than the entire year of sales for the same records. News of his death nearly brought down the largest and most robust internet media sites. Over 31 million U.S. viewers watched the public memorial service on Tuesday on broadcast television. It's estimated that a number close to that watched it live on the web. And ... may I say ... his final sleep chamber, the gold coffin covered in flowers positioned center stage at the Staples Center - was that really necessary at a ceremony planned to celebrate his life?

This is only the first two weeks, people. Now that it's clear that MJ was, if anything, worth more dead than alive, we're so in for it. This news story will go on forever. There will always be someone else crawling out of the woodwork saying they sat next to him in fourth grade or waited on him in a supermarket at 2 a.m. or similar crazy stuff. Any unreleased audio and video material is going to be doled out to the public with big price tags, now that it's clear there is an insatiable thirst for anything related to MJ.

That AEG footage of his tour rehearsals? Certainly a ploy to whet our appetite for the rest of that material, of which there is said to be quite a bit. In fact, Time Magazine said today that plans are underway for a show in London on Aug. 29 - Jackson's 51st birthday - featuring footage from the rehearsals plus performances by Jackson family members. The only thing missing would be MJ himself. This makes me very queasy; I can now picture years of Jackson tours ahead - the brothers Jackson suddenly being marketable again after decades of living in MJ's shadow. Each show will be a tribute to Michael and a massive sales success. You see it too, don't you? It's inevitable. He may have died in debt, but in no time at all that debt will be erased - if it hasn't been already by the album sales. Eleven days later.

Unused tickets to the shows at O2 Arena will no doubt be worth their weight in gold in years to come. Who needs a refund when you have that sitting in your dresser drawer - the value will only go up. AEG has opened a web shop for the concert merch they were planning on selling at the shows. You can buy "Who's Bad" belt buckles, King of Pop wallets, wine glasses, tote bags, socks and other apparel (check out the Michael Jackson Decadent Berry Women's Shirt).

Oh yeah, and in case you haven't noticed, everyone suddenly has had to put in their two cents about Jackson, what he meant to the pop culture zeitgeist, and why he died. My favorite comment yet comes from Rush Limbaugh, who said on his radio show: "Michael Jackson's biggest successes took place in the 80's . . . he flourished under Reagan, he languished under Clinton/Bush, and died under Obama . . . I mean, facts are facts, a timeline's a timeline . . ."

Death. It's a whole new media strategy for success. The only problem is, you're not around to enjoy the spoils.

This column originally ran in a slightly different form on the blog The Critical Condition.

Gary Cohan: Celebrity "Roadkill": A Black Box Warning for Physicians

2009-06-30T10:30:42Z

Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, Anna Nicole, Heath Ledger and now Michael Jackson. All dead at an untimely age. All enormously famous. (Five of the aforementioned also extremely talented.) All tortured souls. All in need of assistance with physical and psychic pain. All victims of enabling, celebrity-obsessed physicians.

After reading Deepak Chopra's and Dr. Drew Pinsky's superb blog about celebrity-treating physicians becoming "high" on the fame of their famous clientele, I noted that a critical point was missing. How can a vulnerable physician resist the temptation to "bend the rules" for these "tabloid elites?"

A "Black Box Warning" is the highest level of FDA-mandated admonitions for doctors that a particular prescription drug may cause serious or even life-threatening adverse effects. It is so named for the bold type and the black border that usually surrounds the text of the warning. The following is my "black box warning" for physicians who endeavor to treat celebrity clients.

My medical practice is situated geographically in the epicenter of Hollywood and of many physician-narcissists -- Beverly Hills, California. As a well-known primary care physician, I have watched in horror as my low-self-esteem M.D. "colleagues" attempt to amass a "celebrity practice" only to realize that these terribly damaged but wealthy, powerful, seductive and famous patients often become their worst nightmare.

These clients often attempt to manipulate with words, performance skills, dollars and the reflected glory of their celebrity and then "entrap" the ofttimes well-intentioned but blindly ambitious physician into becoming a part of their "entourage." They typically demand that the doc manage their psychological pain with physical pain medications like opiates. The outcomes are predictably disastrous and have now become a tragic cliche in the entertainment world.

The fix is simple. Physicians need to check their egos at the exam room door and learn to "Just Say No."

A "self-esteem check" is critical before any medical professional opens their narcotic prescription pads. Just because the patient elicits a strange type of "respect" from your colleagues and your clinical staff (probably just misguided envy) does not mean that you are somehow an "elite" physician who is entitled to bend to the whims of your famous patients or break the rules of good doctoring.

These patients are every bit as mortal as any other vulnerable soul who enters your office doors. You have taken a sworn oath to treat the whole patient -- physical and psychic pain symptoms included -- in a responsible manner that is in accordance with accepted standards of medical practice. And you also have the added responsibility to monitor these extraordinarily "at risk" humans ever more vigilantly for signs of drug dependence and abuse.

Every California physician has access to a widely available but little-publicized tool which can be critical to your patients' well being. The California Department of Justice's CURES (Controlled Substances Utilization Review and Evaluation System) database allows a licensed, treating physician to request a "Patient Activity Report" -- essentially a complete historical listing of all of the controlled substance a particular person has been prescribed -- by ANY physician.

All the doc need do is take a moment to fax a form requesting prescription information to the state's CURES Program and the list is then faxed to your office within 24 hours. The treating physician can then determine quite easily whether a particular patient is "doctor-shopping" with several physicians for multiple controlled substance prescriptions. If so, the patient can be confronted, counseled and referred to a formal pain management program, substance use counseling and/or a psychiatric professional.

To my fellow physicians: Do you really want a medical practice filled with demanding and unreasonable patients who ask you to cross the boundaries of medical ethics and accepted standards of practice just to feel good about yourself? Do you truly want to sacrifice your medical license on the altar of celebrity "culture?"

I am "famous" -- and respected -- for saying the word "no" to my celebrity clients when their requests cross the line. I gently inform them that a good physician is not like the drive-thru lane of a fast food restaurant. You can't just bark your order into the physician's ear and expect to pick up your narcotic prescription at the next window. That's why my name is on your prescription bottle -- because I am taking responsibility for your health as it relates to this particular medication.

Why do I maintain and consistently apply this policy to ALL of my patients? It's because I am sworn to a Hippocratic Oath that mandates primum non nocere -- "first, do no harm."

I realize that I may be the one person in their sphere of friends, lovers, agents, studios and fans that may be in the position to speak truth to celebrity "power." I have the privilege, the responsibility and the opportunity to protect these vulnerable souls from themselves. If I am unable to rise to this challenge, then I have no business treating celebrity patients in the first place.

If the celebrity patient leaves in a huff to "doctor-shop" after I refuse to fill their order for inappropriate prescriptions, then so be it. After a quarter century of medical practice I know that I cannot control the reckless actions of wealthy and entitled people.

If, however, they respect the doctor-patient relationship, heed my advice about how to manage the massive stressors of their own careers, then they should be able to navigate the dangerous high seas of fame, remain healthy, pain-free and productive and, most importantly, avoid becoming Hollywood "roadkill."

Heath Ledger's Final Days, His Last Role, His Devotion To His Daughter, And His Demons

2009-06-29T10:51:04Z

Vanity Fair has a feature on Heath Ledger's last days working on "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus." To read the whole article you'll have to buy the August issue of the magazine, as a short summary is available online.

A press release summarizing its contents is below:

NEW YORK, N.Y.--Vanity Fair contributing editor Peter Biskind writes about the remarkable talent and untimely death of actor Heath Ledger, reporting on the actor's final movie role, his ambivalence about Hollywood, his devotion to his young daughter, and what happened at the end of his life as he was battling chronic insomnia, pneumonia, and exhaustion.

Cinematographer Nicola Pecorini, who worked with Ledger on his last film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and compares Ledger to "a young Richard Burton," tells Biskind that once Ledger's drug use became an issue--"He used to smoke marijuana on a regular basis, like probably 50 percent of Americans," he says--Ledger "went clean as a whistle." And vocal coach Gerry Grennell, who worked and lived with the actor during the filming of The Dark Knight, says, "Heath would happily go to the bar, buy a round of drinks for friends, and come back and have a soda or juice, never once drinking alcohol."

But Grennell does tell Biskind that Ledger's use of sleeping medication to combat chronic insomnia at the end of his life concerned him. "I'd say, 'If you can possibly bear it to stop taking the medications, do, because they don't seem to be doing you any good.' He agreed. It is very difficult for me to imagine how close he came to not taking them."

Ledger would typically spend night after night awake, diverting himself with time killers, Biskind reports, such as re-arranging the furniture in whatever space he happened to be living in at the moment. Grennell coached him in the Alexander Technique, which helped him to sleep for a few hours at a time, but he still struggled.

Everyone has a different view of how he passed away," Grennell tells Biskind. "From my perspective, and knowing him as well as I did, and being around him as much as I was, it was a combination of exhaustion, sleeping medication ... and perhaps the aftereffects of the flu. I guess his body just stopped breathing."

Terry Gilliam--Ledger's friend and mentor, and the director of Doctor Parnassus--and Pecorini agree that the romance between Ledger and his former partner, actress Michelle Williams, began to unravel during the Oscar campaign for Brokeback Mountain. "The whole machinery started growing up around them," Gilliam says. "That was the moment when it changed, when he realized, Uh-oh. We perceive the world differently. He didn't care about things like those awards."

According to Pecorini, "Heath was always blaming himself [about the relationship], asking, What did I do wrong?" Adds Gilliam, "Because he's a much nicer person than I am, he really thought he could do the right thing. He was trying to be decent and graceful, give her whatever she wanted--the house, every fucking thing. But once it started going south, it went very quickly. He was overwhelmed by lawyers, and there were more and more of them, as if they were breeding. I said, 'This is bullshit. Heath, just end it. Get out--it's bad. You've got to just walk away from it.' The stakes kept going up. He wouldn't listen to any of us."

As Ledger's relationship with Williams unraveled, and the pair started dealing with lawyers and custody issues, according to Gilliam, Ledger fell apart. "The thing that really made Heath snap" was legal wrangling over his daughter, Matilda, Gilliam says. "He said, 'Just fuck all of you! I'm not giving Michelle anything.' " Recalls another source, when it came to Matilda's care, "there were definitely heated conversations, and emotions were high." (Ledger's lawyer declined to comment on any aspect of the separation or custody dispute.)

The strife in his personal life coincided with the Parnassus shoot, but rather than distract him from his work Gilliam believes it helped him concentrate on the task at hand, he tells Biskind. Ledger appeared one day on set "clearly bloody sick," Gilliam says. The doctor told him it was the beginning of pneumonia and that he ought to take antibiotics and go home and rest. According to Gilliam, Ledger said, "No way. I'm not going to go home, because I can't sleep, and I'll be just thinking about the situation. I'd rather stay here and work."

Although "he would arrive in the morning completely knackered," Gilliam says, "by the end of the day he was beaming, glowing with energy. It was like everything was put into the work, because that was the joy; that's what he loved to do. The words were just pouring out. It was like he was channeling."

Ledger's friend and agent, Steven Alexander, tells Biskind that Heath "was always hesitant to be in a summer blockbuster, with the dolls and action figures and everything else that comes with one of those movies. He was afraid it would define him and limit his choices." According to friends of Ledger's, one of the reasons he agreed to do The Dark Knight was that it would be such a long shoot it would give him an excuse to turn down other offers. Alexander tells Biskind that Ledger had a pay-or-play deal on The Dark Knight--meaning he'd get compensated no matter what--so he felt he had the freedom to do whatever he wanted as the Joker. According to Pecorini, Ledger hoped his performance would be so far-out he'd be fired, and thus become the beneficiary of a lengthy, paid vacation.

"He was ready to bust out of the gate, but he didn't want to step on the gas and become something that he didn't want to become: a matinee idol," says Alexander. "He was a private person, and he didn't want to share his personal history with the press. It just wasn't up for sale. That's part of the reason he initially tore down his career. He wasn't motivated by money or stardom, but by the respect of his peers, and for people to walk out of a movie theater after they'd seen something that he'd worked on and say, 'Wow, he really disappeared into that character.' He was striving to become an 'illusionist,' as he called it, able to create characters that weren't there."

The August issue of Vanity Fair hits newsstands in New York and Los Angeles July 1 and nationally July 7.

Michael Giltz: Cannes 2009 Day Ten: One Bad Movie After Another

2009-05-22T20:55:50Z

I wanted to see six films today, but the Gasper Noe extravaganza Enter The Void was not the estimated 150 minutes but almost 180 minutes (without credits, no less), so I only saw five. Too bad they were all bad, to one degree or another. On the plus side, one of my picks of the fest -- Xavier Dolan's I Killed My Mother -- won three out of the four available prizes at the Directors Fortnight. I had already requested an interview so hopefully we'll be chatting Saturday or Sunday. And now, sigh, the five movies.

THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS * 1/2 (out of four) -- This modest fantasy feels like a mishmash of the usual Terry Gilliam obsessions, but less so. A traveling troupe led by Christopher Plummer as Dr. Parnassus scurries around central London of today hoping to lure people into their magical mirror. On the other side? A fantastical world of the imagination where you are tempted with a choice between your basest desires (a one night stand with Johnny Depp; a drink at the bar for an alcoholic on the wagon) and a more challenging journey towards true and earned happiness. People usually choose the base desires. Tom Waits is lingering around in bohemian mode as Ole Scratch himself waiting for the lovely daughter of Dr. Parnassus to turn 16 so he can claim her. (They made a deal: immortal life in exchange for his first born child.) The appealing Andrew Garfield is a foundling they took in that is hopelessly in love with her. Heath Ledger is a disgraced public figure/con man hiding out from the Russian mob. When he travels into the imaginary world, he transforms into Depp or Jude Law or Colin Farrell -- a seamless way of making up for Ledger's tragic death that doesn't seem awkward or affect the film in the least creatively. The story is slight and uninspiring; you know you're in trouble right from the start because virtually every actor other than the leads is broadly cartoonish. But for me the biggest letdown of this mild movie is the special effects. Gilliam has been a standard bearer of sorts for old-fashioned special effects. You can feel the handmade complexity and detailed modeling that make Baron Munchausen, Brazil, Time Bandits and others so delightful. But almost all the effects in the Imaginarium are poorly detailed digital affect. You could call them dream-like but they're really just lazy and uninteresting. Ledger is fine in an unmemorable role with little resonance. We'll remember nis final triumph as The Dark Knight and celebrate the comradeship of the industry illustrated by the actors who stepped in to make this film happen.

THE SILENT ARMY * -- The road to cinematic hell is often paved with good intentions. This noble, purposeful film highlights the horrific trend of child soldiers throughout Africa: kids kidnapped by rebels/terrorists and forced to commit atrocities while being shamed/frightened into denying your past life. Numerous other films have been made and more are in the works but none yet have been artistically satisfying in the least. This one is typical: little black boy is best friends with little white boy. Black boy's family is slaughtered and he's taken to be a child soldier. White boy shames dad into idiotic journey into jungle to get the boy back. (I've reduced the characters to their racial identity because the film is so simple-minded. That's how it plays; no one comes alive as an actual living and breathing character.) Virtually all the actors are weak. An NGO worker spends all her time making a bemused/frustrated/admiring expression on her face when it comes to the dad. In perhaps the most bizarre plot twist, the dad reaches the rebels, gets the boy, and is allowed to leave with two armed guards accompanying them. Cut to them walking through the jungle and the dad jumps the guards and tries to knock them out, figuring he won't be let out alive. But then they pull back the camera and instead of waiting till he was a mile or two away from the armed camp filled with trigger happy rebels, the dad has made his big move literally feet away from the cruel and vicious leader and all his minions. Because why wait till you're out of sight of the enemy before jumping your armed guards? Laughable doesn't begin to cover it.

ENTER THE VOID * 1/2 -- Gasper Noe's follow-up to his terrific Irreversible is a nearly three hour glimpse at a young man who is shot by the police, arguably has his life flash before his eyes and then gets reincarnated as his sister's baby. It's technically proficient, but once you've seen a fly-over shot of Tokyo or rather once you've seen it eight or ten times the point of seeing it yet again begins to pale. Two orphaned siblings are at the heart of the story: a sister who strips at a Tokyo bar and a brother who is dealing drugs. At the very beginning of the film, overly aggressive police trying to bust him shoot the brother in the chest. We soon get loads of flashbacks showing how he became a dealer, seeing their parents die in a car crash, watching the brother sleep with a friend's mom to get money, getting drugs from a dealer and on and on, all while our hero refers endlessly to The Tibetan Book Of The Dead in order to prepare us for the reincarnation. The show-stopper here is certainly the shot of a penis entering a vagina...from the perspective of inside the vagina. That brought roars of laughter from the assembled press, which at the end broke into divisive camps of loud hooting and strong applause. To me, the movie is so simple-minded that no camerawork can save it. Certainly the acting is affectless and flat, except for the brother and sister played as little children -- those young actors are very nuanced and good. It literally begins with death and ends with birth and I wanted to break out into "The Circle Of Life." A blank screen is thrown in towards the end for no apparent purpose other than to trick people into thinking the world is over. It began with a giant ENTER filling the sreen and ended with a giant THE and then VOID. Surprising, it ain't. It's conceivable that the film could be more effective at half the length and it would certainly be easy to do since there is endless repetition here that doesn't give it any cumulative power. On the other hand, I stayed awake throughout the entire three hours and never felt antsy except on an intellectual level. It's certainly well-crafted; it's just not well-thought out.

MAPS OF THE SOUNDS OF TOKYO No stars -- Enter The Void immediately looked better when I had to tackle this inert drama. The entire story is set up in the first 20 minutes and after that virtually nothing happens. A Spanish man in Tokyo has been dating the daughter of a business executive; she commits suicide and writes in blood on her bathroom mirror the plea "Why couldn't you love me the way I love you?" Her father has a breakdown and tells an associate he can't bear the thought of a world in which his daughter is dead and the Spanish man is alive. The businessman also blames his young associate, insisting that man should also have told the daughter he loved her. Meanwhile, the Spanish man is having great sex with a female fish monger/highly trained assassin (you read that right) but insists on telling her repeatedly that when he sleeps with her he is thinking of the dead girl. Which kind of spoils the mood. Extremely reserved, the fish monger/trained assassin is friends with an old man who specializes in making sound recordings of daily life for the use of TV, radio and other media. That's it. The Spanish man ultimately leaves his wine shop in Tokyo to open a saki store in Spain. The old man gives us ponderous narration undercut somewhat by the sight of a Night Ranger LP in his apartment looming over the old man's head. Not good.

TO DIE LIKE A MAN * -- The latest in a long line of tragic transvestites movies, this somber flick has a plot worthy of Almodovar. In the first 20 minutes, we have a drag queen feeling the heat from newer and sexier talent. Her drug addict boyfriend cleans her out whenever he needs a fix and is in the gutter somewhere. Meanwhile, her alienated son pops in. He's in the military and we see him on a nighttime training mission where the son has sex with another male soldier and then immediately kills the guy out of self-loathing. He's gone AWOL and demands to be hidden while the drug addict boyfriend trying to get past withdrawal is in the next room hanging himself. Did I mention her breasts are leaking blood and she's probably dying? None of this is played at the level of farce. It's just somber, slow and uninvolving, with a side trip to another home where transvestites hold sway in the countryside. One strange touch had several scenes tinted blue or red a la a silent film, with the actors coming to a standstill while a song is performed off camera. Strange. But, again, not good.

Heath Ledger's Final Performance Screens At Cannes

2009-05-22T08:29:03Z

CANNES, France — Heath Ledger's zeal roused his co-stars to up their game in his final film, and his death inspired them _ and three A-list friends who completed his role _ to carry on with a story the late actor had wanted to see, director Terry Gilliam said Friday.

As Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, the filmmaker said Ledger almost co-directed the film.

Dr. Nicholas Perricone: Sun and Tanning

2009-03-17T10:39:25Z

1: With all your experience, what do you suggest to women that want a safety-tan?

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a 'safe' tan. To provide color to winter white skin, try tinted moisturizers or self tanners. This is because in addition to the risk of skin cancer, UV radiation (whether from the sun or from a tanning bed) can also cause the following:

· Loss of skin elasticity
· Thinner, more translucent-looking skin
· Wrinkles
· Dry, rough, leathery skin
· Broken capillaries on the face
· Freckles
· Liver spots on the face, back of hands, arms, chest and upper back
· Spots or blemishes on the lower legs and arms

Ultraviolet (UV) rays are a part of sunlight that is an invisible form of radiation. UV rays can penetrate and change the structure of skin cells. Protection from excessive sun exposure is important all year round, not just during the summer or at the beach; UV rays can cause skin damage during any season or temperature. Any time the sun's ultraviolet (UV) rays are able to reach the earth, you need to protect yourself from excessive sun exposure. For many health reasons we do need some sun exposure -- just use moderation and avoid the sun during peak hours between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. during daylight savings time and 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. during standard time, the most hazardous for UV exposure in the continental United States. UV radiation is the greatest during the late spring and early summer in North America -- and probably very similar in Italy.

2: Which monthly (or weekly, daily) treatment (diet, or topic, or star food, esthetician ) do you suggest before leaving for sea holidays?

This advice is important all the time -- esp. before and after your holidays to counteract any sun exposure. The good news is that new scientific developments show that you can rebuild your body on a cellular level to repair harm caused by sun exposure. To restore your healthy skin...

· Enjoy anti-inflammatory foods. A diet rich in protein, fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and healthy fats like cold-water fish, extra virgin olive oil and nuts will repair your skin from the inside out -- helping to heal signs of aging like puffiness, roughness, and wrinkles.
· Take the healing supplements -- natural anti-inflammatories that'll give you smoother, younger skin. Try any -- or all -- of these: 200 mgs of alpha lipoic acid (100 mgs. at breakfast and again at dinner); 500 mgs of vitamin C ester, 50-100 mgs of DMAE, 100-250 mgs of GLA, and 1000 mgs of omega-3 three times per day.
· Apply the right creams. Any skin cream with high levels of DMAE, Vitamin C Ester and Alpha Lipoic Acid will help heal sun damage. You can try my Advanced Face Firming Activator day treatment and complement it with Concentrated Restorative Cream as your night treatment. You may ask your dermatologist for prescription Retin-A, which revives depleted collagen and elastin caused by sun damage and restores youthful skin.

3: What is advised to do during sun exposure? Is it suggested to drink a lot of water or to eat some special foods?

See the answer to question #2 and also stay well hydrated, wear sun screen, a hat and cover up during.

4: After the sun exposure (in the evening or at the end of the holidays), which is the best program to follow (restoring masks, antioxidants diet or any special food)?

Follow the advice under # 2. Also, take a Pycnogenol® supplement. Studies found that Pycnogenol acts as a collagen stabilizer by binding to collagen in the skin and maintaining elasticity, saving it from destruction. This action helps keep the skin firm and prevents wrinkles. The antioxidant also improves microcirculation of tiny skin capillaries which help support better oxygen, nutrient and hydration supplies to the skin.

Oral supplementation of healthy volunteers with Pycnogenol was shown to help prevent UV damage and the resulting photo-aging. Pycnogenol inhibits the inflammation caused by UV-exposure and consequently protects the skin from sunburn.

In pre-clinical trials it was also demonstrated to be protective against chronic UV-exposure induced skin malignancies. These findings point to a significant photo-protective and anti-photo-aging effect of Pycnogenol.

Vitamin C Ester, is a non-irritating form of Vitamin C, which is a well-known and highly regarded antioxidant with superior anti-inflammatory properties. Like ALA and DMAE, my studies examining the effects of ascorbyl palmitate on aging skin have been dramatic. When increased levels of this fat-soluble form of vitamin C are in the dermis, levels of both collagen and elastin increase. This facilitates a more youthful appearance by helping to reverse the thinning of skin seen in both the natural aging process and as a result of sun damage. Vitamin C ester is highly stable (unlike ascorbic acid, the unstable, irritating and water soluble form of vitamin C) and will maintain its efficacy over long periods of time. Its fat-solubility allow it to rapidly and easily penetrate the skin to deliver the therapeutic levels of vitamin C needed to enable the fibroblasts, which are the cells that make connective tissue, to produce collagen and elastin. These collagen and elastin-stimulating effects are even more magnified when vitamin C ester is added to formulations containing DMAE.

· And don't forget the super form of Vitamin E known as the tocotrienols. These provide our first line of defense against free radicals generated in the skin by UV/ozone rays providing the prevention of skin aging and damage by oxidative rays. Being a more potent antioxidant, the tocotrienols neutralizes free radicals at a faster rate and hence protect tocopherols.
· Protection against UV-induced skin damage and skin aging.
· Tocotrienols topically applied onto the skin was found to penetrate rapidly through the skin and the highest concentrations are found in the uppermost 5 microns.
· Tocotrienol-treated skin contained Vitamin E at concentration 7-30 fold higher than control values.
· Tocotrienol augments the efficacy of sunscreens containing compounds that reduce penetration of or absorb ultraviolet radiation.
These substances that offer protection to the skin when taken internally are especially important in light of the current discussions on the efficacy and safety of many topical sunscreens.

5: In your books you suggest 10 antiaging super foods: which are the best during summer to restrict the skin damage during UV exposure?

Eat plenty of wild salmon. One of the reasons I have always been such an advocate of eating salmon is due to the presence of the carotenoid astaxanthin (it also contains wrinkle fighters COQ10 and Omega-3 essential fatty acids). This member of the carotene family is responsible for the deep red or pink color of the salmon and has many wrinkle fighting benefits as does the entire carotenoid family. When taken as a dietary supplement, studies have shown that astaxanthin provides powerful protection against photo-aging, protecting the skin from the aging and damaging effects of the sun. Studies have also shown that supplemental astaxanthin supports even skin tone, significantly reduces wrinkles and improves skin's elasticity.

Eat your vegetables and fresh fruit including all orange, red and green leafy vegetables rich in carotenes including spinach, dark leafy greens, tomatoes, etc. Numerous scientific studies show that oral supplementation with carotenes, especially lycopene and beta carotene improve skin structure, have powerful wound healing properties and offer great protection from damage caused by sunlight. In addition to their skin rejuvenating and protective properties, the carotenes lutein and zeaxanthin also protect against eye degeneration caused by sunlight and other factors such as aging. Even extra dark chocolate such as 85% cocoa solids protect against UV radiation thanks to high flavonoid content.

Drink Green Tea--the polyphenols protect the skin against UV rays

Wendy Diamond: Alpha Financial Dogs Nouriel Roubini and Nassim Taleb, Socks Clinton and First Annual Lucky Award given to Mickey Rourke!

2009-02-23T16:10:08Z

Sunday night was Hollywood's biggest night of the year and while Lucky and I were not able to make it to the Oscars, seeing as we're working like dogs to get our new 21st Century dog guide (published by Random House) done. This year I brought Lucky over to a little Oscar party hosted by economic guru Nouriel Roubini who promised to not talk finance, but to talk films. There for the fun was black swan theory creator Nassim Nicholas Taleb, recently described by The Times as "the hottest thinker in the world." There was no other place I wanted Lucky to be this weekend because I wanted my little dog to get some hope from these two lucky guys and we were hoping Taleb could successfully predict Lucky's future, seeing as he has had a knack for major predictions in the past... No matter how good he may be at predictions, however, neither Taleb nor I could predict that we would run into each other the next day at Bloomberg News where I was speaking on pet rescue.

Now, in honor of the 81st Academy Awards, I decided I wanted to start the first annual Lucky Awards. Yes, I know there is Lucky magazine, but Lucky has great credibility, if only for the fact that Lucky Diamond came before Lucky Magazine and she's been a lap dog far longer than Paris Hilton's Tinkerbell. The Lucky Award is nothing about glamour, it's about the person or film and their contributions to a greater good. And of course Lucky will add extra points for animal-friendly contributions although ironically her favorite animated film this year was Wall-E, not the one about the panda or the dog! I guess Lucky's unpredictable (to everyone but Taleb perhaps).

Our Lucky Awards winners are a lot similar to this year's winners, but for different reasons than you may think. Slumdog Millionaire earns the Lucky paw for best picture because, yes, "dog" is in the title, but the film itself captures the tone of an area plagued by such plight but at the same time it brings hope to these areas where such honest, hard-working people live. Lucky's dear friend Dev Patel starred in the film, portraying the role of young man who overcomes adversity to win both the money and the girl. If you'll notice it's one of the few happy endings we saw in movies this year. We need that!

Our best actor Lucky paw goes to Mickey Rourke who this week lost his 126 year-old blind Chihuahua (18 in human years), Loki. Mickey earned Lucky's award because this year he's opened his heart so wide to the media, revealing the importance his dogs have made in his life. It really hit Lucky's soft spot. Rourke has sad numerous times that his dogs have saved his life, and most recently told us that, "Puppy love is the only thing that's truthful, honest." Lucky agrees with the pawcademy Kate Winslet win, whose humbling stage presence forever changed female performances as we know it. Lucky was touched to see Winslet thank nearly everyone who worked on The Reader, admitting there were no underdogs on set no matter the job. She also praised the late Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack, her family, children and while she thanked no pets this time, maybe her next win she will. Lucky's best supporting paws go to Heath Ledger for leaving behind a legacy that will never be forgotten, and Penelope Cruz who stole little Lucky's heart in both Vicki Christina Barcelona and Elegy, the latter being one of Lucky's favorite flicks of the year. Cruz is also the proud mother of Vino, a rescued dog who she found bleeding on the street.

Lucky's honorable paw's award goes to Sean Penn for taking on the role of Harvey Milk who was one of the first politicians to make major changes in both human and canine rights. Openly gay Milk was known for being the populist and was very open about his support of the dog poop laws in San Francisco, which has in turn helped dogs all across the county. Penn continues to uphold the values of Milk, addressing the Prop-8 protesters outside the Kodak Theatre by saying "We've got to have equal rights for everyone."

And while new icons are being named and crowned at the Oscars, we say goodbye to a national animal icon loved for nearly two decades, former Clinton presidency, First Cat, Socks. Socks was the iconic black and white cat adopted by the Clinton family who lived in the White House for eight years until former White House secretary Betty Currie took ownership of the feline in 2001 (Socks kept starting cat fights with the Clinton's lab, Buddy). Socks lived to the valiant age of 19 and will most definitely leave a legacy behind. Socks was the subject of the 1993 animated book, Socks Goes to Washington: The Diary of America's First Cat and even appeared with former owner (and President) Bill Clinton in a series of Central African Republic stamps in 1996. We will miss Socks but we must remember everyday that this legendary feline was a rescue who rose to the top of mountain. There are millions of cats (and dogs) available in shelters all across the country, waiting to go to a loving home. Check out PetSmart's rescue resource at Adoptions.Petsmart.com or PetSmart.com for more information.

And remember to check out www.AnimalFair.com for other adoption resources, more information on Lucky's new award and details on our upcoming book!

Lucky Diamond with Slumdog's Dev Patel!!

Lucky Diamond with alpha financial dog's Nouriel Roubini and Nassim Taleb!

Tallulah Morehead: Oscar Wild

2009-02-23T05:24:49Z

Hello darlings.

As my longtime readers and fans know, I have only contempt for the silly trinket known as The Oscar, which is why in a movie career that spanned the silents and the talkies, I have never been nominated for one. The Academy respected my contempt, and never nominated me, which is more than they did for George C. Scott or Marlon Brando. The Academy demonstrated their contempt for Scott & Brando by forcing Oscars on them against their wills, the poor dears. That's probably what killed them.

The Oscars have grown into such a major event, the so-called "Gay Superbowl", that they are impossible to ignore. So what the swill? I might as well weigh in with my two Euros.

There was a half hour delay getting started, because last year's Oscar show wasn't quite over yet. No Country For Old Men had become No Country For Even Older Men. Josh Brolin never had to leave his seat.

And it started right out with a big disappointment: Huge Jackman was wearing clothes. Honestly, with openly-gay Bill Condon producing, and the Sexiest Man Alive hosting, the one thing I thought I could count on was Huge hosting in a tasteful, designer thong. They always promise to speed the show up, and they never actually manage it, but Huge hosting nude would at least have made it seem shorter. No such luck. Of course, Huge is Australian; maybe he was just disoriented from having to host upside down.

Huge opened with a big, Billy Crystal-esque musical number, which benefited from Huge being a real song-and-dance man who began in musicals. The song included jokes about no one seeing The Reader. That was refreshingly honest. Then, perhaps to counter that un-Oscarish honesty, Huge returned to traditional Oscar insincerity by telling Mickey Roarke ,"You look great." No he doesn't. Check a mirror, Huge. That is what "Looking Great" is all about.

Once the tech crew figured out how to open the curtains, Condon and company unveiled their idea of slimming down the presentation: having five presenters for one Oscar! Now if you had five presenters presenting five Oscars all at once, in the words of Chico Marx, then-a you got somethin'!

For another show-slimming tactic, over the evening they explained how to make movies to the members of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. That's a good use of time.

Could we just keep Tina Fey and Steve Martin, and send everyone else home? "Don't fall in love with me," said Martin. Sorry, Steve. You're 35 years too late.

Openly-gay writer Dustin Lance Black won Best Original Screenplay for milking Milk. His real reward was escaping the Mormon Church, which has so kindly spent thousands of dollars this year to deprive him of his equal marital rights. Black's moving speech was almost drowned out by the sounds of televisions being switched off all over Utah and the deep south.

The screenplay excerpt for the inexplicably over-nominated Curious Case of Benjamin Button included the stage direction: "There's an inept quiet" What is an "inept quiet"? How does it differ from a skillful quiet? How does a director show that a quiet is inept? By making it noisy? What we have here is an inept screenwriter. Fortunately, it lost to Simon Beaufoy for Slumdog Password.

Presenting all the animation awards, Jack Black revealed that he saw nothing last year that he wasn't in. How coincidental. I saw nothing he was in.

Daniel Craig came out and talked about something. I have no idea what. I was too busy swooning.

Best Art Direction went to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Why? People who like this stupid film call it a "special movie." Yes, it's "special" in the same sense as the "Special Olympics". I don't think anyone has ever done a better job of Art Directing than Mike Nichols, back in Carnal Knowledge and Catch-22, where he did a swell job of directing Art Garfunkle. You think he's easy to direct? You try it.

I found it ironic that Daniel Craig was awarding Best Costumes, as he is the living embodiment of the irrelevancy of costumes, since he looks his best in no clothes at all. It went to The Duchess. How does a movie win an Oscar when no one saw it, not even the people who made it?

Best Make Up went to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. That makes sense, since they just made up a nonexistent premise for the film. It is a challenge to make Brad Pitt look creepy, but is it enough for an Oscar? Admittedly, Heath Ledger's Joker make up did look rather slapdash.

It's a good thing they announced Twilight's Robert Pattinson's name nice and loudly, as no one there would have had any idea who he was. The Academy is noticeably short on severely-overweight teenage girls.

Ben Stiller and Natalie Portman made an interesting couple. Natalie is about the size of one of Ben Stiller's arms.

Anthony Dod Mantle was lucky to win Best Cinematography for Slumdog Weakest Link, as he will never win Best Hairstyling. Honestly, if that hairstyle doesn't work on Russell Crowe, why would he think it would look good on him? Hell, that hair wouldn't look good on Anne Hathaway. But I liked him, as he was the one winner who was clearly drunk. How else to explain wearing cream shoes with a black tuxedo?

Jessica Beal presented The Technical Oscars, so titled because they're only technically Oscars at all, really known as "The Boring Awards." Actually, you could hardly call it a presentation, as they only mentioned one winner - ONE! Apparently they are the "We don't really mean it" Oscars. So Condon's idea of speeding up The Oscars is to cut out the Oscars that are already cut out. Classy.

To add more time to the show, which they must have feared was running short, they ran a "Comedy" montage made by Judd Apatow. If I wanted to watch Judd Apatow movies, I wouldn't be watching the Oscars. Or be able to write - or read. It was bizarre to watch James Franco watch himself making out with Sean Penn. But then, watching anyone make out with Sean Penn is a little strange. Frankly, Franco could do better.

Huge Jackman stated, "You're probably wondering why I'm wearing this suit?" Damn right. 82 minutes in, and he was still fully dressed. He launched into a time-saving big musical number which was lots of fun, though I kept wondering who the babe in red he was performing with was. Only afterwards did they announce it was Beyonce Knowles. I'm supposed to just recognize her? I'm 111. That's why I didn't review The Grammys. I did recognize Zac Efron, but only because I'd seen Hairspray.

They were now clearly going to use five past winners to present each acting award. Why? For Best Supporting Actor they had five presenters, but no winner. They were so desperate to fill out the five slots, that they settled for Cuba Gooding Jr., although the Academy has been hoping everyone would just forget that they ever gave him one. Last year's winner, the dreamy and divine Javier Bardem, didn't even bother showing up, though whether this was because he wouldn't lower himself to share a stage with Cuba, or just that his mom had a prior engagement wasn't made clear. It was amusing to have Cuba, a real black man but only a fake actor, announcing the nomination of Robert Downey Jr., a real actor, but only a fake black man.

Christopher Walken, I adore you. You can make almost anything better just by showing up, but what was the deal with your hair? Is that your ear hair groomed?

Heath Ledger won Best Supporting actor. I had Little Dougie type that sentence last week, to get an early start on this review. It was not, to put it mildly, any surprise. Heath's family's acceptance presentation was about as spontaneous as the musical numbers, though I was amused by the shots of the never-had-a-chance other nominees posing with serious and concerned fake expressions on their faces as they watched. You just know that each was thinking, "Heath's dead. This award could have helped my career!"

The next big waste of time was a montage of documentary film makers blathering.

Bill Mahar presented the documentary awards, a deep irony, since Mahar had made the most-non-fictional non-fiction movie of the year, which had not been nominated because it was too true, presenting the one fact people most want to hide from, the fact that there is no God. And Mahar's excellent documentary has already made more money than all the nominated documentaries combined. God forbid it should get nominated, and I mean that in the most literal sense possible. Let's face it, in this backward, superstitious nation, we'll have a black, female, gay president before we ever get an atheist president.

Best Documentary Feature went to a movie about a tightrope-walker. Man on Wire. Yeah, some borderline-nutso circus wire walker is far more important that a film on how religious delusions will kill us all. I mean it didn't even go to the documentary made by Werner Herzog, an authentic cinematic genius.

Then the silly wire-walker, Philippe Petit ("Petit" eh? So that's why he's overcompensating.) says he'll give "The shortest speech in Oscar History," which, at six words, was already longer than Alfred Hitchcock's five word speech, "Thank you very much indeed." so wire boy doesn't even know his Oscar history. And then he kept chattering anyway. And just to class up his exit, he attempted to fellate his Oscar. (Actually, it wasn't even his; it belongs to the film's makers, not its subject.)

Time for yet another time waster, an "Action" montage. Then up pops Will Smith, who made it clear that he prefers brainless movies, ones that don't require him to listen or think.

Will presented Best Visual Effects to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It had already won Best Make Up. The make up was its special effect. Just CGI-ing make ups onto other actors hardly compares to the actual effects work in the other two nominees, The Dark Knight and Ironman, both better movies as well. What Benjamin Button ought to have won was Best Inflation of a Stupid Idea Into a Bloated Movie that the Entire Industry All Seems to Be Afraid of Pointing Out Has No Substance. The Emperor's New Clothes Award.

Four times we had five presenters handing out a single award. Now we had Will Smith, one presenter, handing out four awards. This makes no sense to me.

The Dark Knight won Best Sound Editing. The makers of Dark Knight were relieved finally to have a living winner, although Heath Ledger's family were all set to accept the award.

Indian sound engineer Resul Pookutty, in accepting his Oscar for Best Sound Mixing for Slumdog Match Game '73, said "This is unbelievable," then adding "We can't believe this," in case any of us are unfamiliar with what "This is unbelievable" means. By the way, does anyone know the difference between sound editing and sound mixing? Is there a difference?

Best Film editing was also won by Slumdog Family Feud, by an editor, Chris Dickens, who sadly, is not Charles Dickens.

Before a commercial break they warned us about the upcoming Jerry Lewis tribute, so people with weak stomachs could switch over to The Amazing Race.

The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award was given to Jerry Lewis for doing humanity the service of not directing one of his Godawful, unwatchable movies in over a quarter of a century. If Jean Hersholt had known that one day an award in his name would go to Jerry Lewis, he'd have been meaner.

I know and understand that Jerry has over the years, raised millions and millions of dollars for the treatment of muscular dystrophy. This is an Absolute Good, regardless of whether he did it for the unselfish reasons he unselfishly reminds us of at any and all opportunities, or whether he does it so that people will think of him as being as saintly as he does, which is what I believe.

They had Eddie Murphy present the award. This was smart. Eddie's Nutty Professor movies make Jerry's The Nutty Professor look almost like a good film, and thus having Eddie on stage made Jerry look better too.

The film montage of Jerry's career referred to when "the world first came to love Jerry Lewis." That fictional event has yet to happen. 60 years ago, there were a lot of Jerry Lewis fans, but France isn't "The World." Little Dougie used to love Jerry intensely himself. But then he turned 6.

Jerry has, without question, made a number of industry-revolutionizing technical innovations. And Jerry is actually a damn good dramatic actor. His work in The King of Comedy and Wiseguy was first-rate. And nobody does smarmy with less irony.

Jerry's speech began with: "Thank you so very much. For most of my life I thought that doing good for someone didn't mean you would receive commendation for that act of kindness." Now that is a professional comedian. He opened with a joke. But his best line came later: "The humility I feel is staggering." Jerry is deeply impressed by his amazing humility. He is so humble, he's humbled by his humility. He's the humblest man since Uriah Heep. But perhaps Best Editing should have gone to Jerry, for he kept his speech blessedly brief. Thank you, Jerry.

Best Original Score should have gone to Kate Winslet for The Reader, but it went instead to A. R. Rahman for Slumdog Deal or No Deal. Rahman ended his speech with "God is great." I expected Bill Mahar to pop his head in and say, "No he's not."

They had a medley of the nominees for Best Song You Didn't Hear As You Left The Theater, which was mostly a fun big Bollywood production number. Notably absent was Peter Gabriel, who had previously withdrawn, stating, "If I can't bore them for the full four minutes, then I won't bore them at all!"

Best (Foreign Language) Song - went to A. R. Rahman's Jai Ho, which I think is Indian for "J-Lo." In his speech this time, Rahman left us with this tidbit: "All my life I've had a choice of hate or love." Well that certainly distinguishes him from the rest of humanity.

Why wasn't Waltz With Bashir nominated for Best Animated feature? It's a feature. It's animated. It got reviews that most films would kill for, and it was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. And if Waltz With Bashir can be considered alongside non-animated films as an equal, why must English language animated films be confined to an animation ghetto?

Best Foreign Language Film went to the Japanese movie Departures. Set in a mortuary, it's about what happens to people after Godzilla steps on them.

Queen Latifah sang the great song I'll Be Seeing You over the dead people montage. While everyone was relieved to see that I wasn't in the montage, the problem is that now, at the end of awards season, we've seen all these same dead people in montage after montage over the last two months, and frankly, it's getting old. No fresh faces. The only point of interest was hearing who the audience broke into applause for, and who it didn't.

Folks getting applause: Cyd Charisse, Bernie Mac, Ollie Johnstone (A lovely man), Michael Crichton, Nina Foch, Pat Hingle, Harold Pinter, Abby Mann, Roy Scheider, Richard Widmark, Isaac Hayes, Ricardo Montalban, Paul Scofield, Stan Winstone, Ned Tannen, James Whitmore (A fresh face), Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack, and Paul Newman. (Who got cheers! I hope that meant they loved him.)

Folks getting silence: Bud Stone, Van Johnson, Charles Joffe, Kon Ichikawa, Charles H. Schneer (Such a darling man, eulogized at length over on my flog, in The Man Who Doomed San Francisco), David Watkin, Robert Mulligan, Evelyn Keyes, Maila Nurmi, Manny Farber (A film critic, you can't expect applause from people he gave bad reviews), Jules Dassin, and Charleton Heston (a deafening silence).

There was no speech from the president of the Academy. Now that is how you slim down a show.

Best Direction went to Danny Boyle for Slumdog Video Village, although I liked the other nominees, West, North, and Up.

Did someone pour water on Shirley McLaine's wig? I wouldn't blame them if they had. I've been tempted to dump drinks on her myself, except I hate wasting good vodka on a bad wig.

It was not fair to Halle Berry and Nicole Kidman to make them stand on a stage with Sophia Loren. Sophia has real, lasting beauty, not unlike me, and looked fabulous. Sure, she's had work done, but with her, the surgeon had something to work with. That said, Sophia looked bored and hostile as she paid verbal tribute to the tragically under-praised Meryl Streep.

One Best Actress nominee was Melisso Leo - Who? - in some movie I have never heard of, called Frozen River - Huh? Was this the obligatory obscurity nomination?

Nicole Kidman darling, eat something. I beg you. And get some sun.

In Changeling, Angelina Jolie played a woman who had misplaced one of her billions of kids. Hard to get really worked up. After all, she may have just miscounted at dinner.

Kate Winslet, who looked smashing, but also looked to be verging on middle-age - where's that young girl of Titanic? - won Best Actress. So now we're giving Oscars for statutory rape by Nazis? Kate said of her Oscar: "It's not a shampoo bottle now -- bit it will be!" She also said: "I'm sorry Meryl, but you have to just suck that up." What a rude thing to say to a woman with her daughter sitting right beside her. Plus she split an infinitive.

The montage of Best Actor nominees included a shot of John Wayne, just to remind everyone that the award is meaningless. The clip of Adrian Brody sticking his tongue down Halle Berry's throat was included by request of Brody. Memories.

Why didn't Frank Langella win Best Actor? Well perhaps there was a clue in what Michael Douglas said of him, namely that he "brought new life to Richard Nixon." NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! That's the last thing anyone wants!

Robert DeNiro had the funniest line of the evening. "How for so many years did Sean Penn get all those jobs playing straight men?" I can't improve on that.

Adrian Brody said that for Richard Jenkins's career, Google him. Adrian, for an actor's film credits, you don't Google them; you IMDb them. Get a clue. And a nose job.

Sir Anthony Hopkins looked like he could just eat Brad Pitt up. So could I, but I would omit the fava beans.

Sir Ben Kingsley carefully avoided saying the things about Mickey Roarke that people who have worked with him would have said: slightly insane, famously difficult, "aromatic."

Sean Penn won Best Actor, although how hard is it for a man who was once married to Madonna to convince us he's gay? I'm expecting Guy Ritchie to come out any day now. "You commie, homo-loving, sons-of-guns." Sean addressed the audience with unusual candor. And, no joke, I found Sean's speech moving.

Notorious homophobe Mel Gibson's appearance in the clips for Milk dishonored that film. What? They couldn't find a clip of Anita Bryant?

Best Picture went to Slumdog Trivial Pursuit, the best movie Regis Philbin has ever starred in. What? I'm sorry, the best movie Meredith Viera has ever starred in. I didn't realize it was the daytime verison. This was an evening with lots of Indians, but no cowboys.

But after three and a half hours, my choice for Best Direction was the EXIT sign. Next time Huge, undress for success.

Cheers darlings.

To read more of Tallulah Morehead, and to see what Huge didn't show us, go to
The Morehead the Merrier.

Oscar Show Pictures: Presenters, Winners, Losers (PHOTOS)

2009-02-22T21:15:10Z

Winners, losers, tears of joy, "Slumdog," Hugh Jackman and more.

The 81st Academy Awards Sunday are seen in photos below, updated throughout the show.

See Oscar red carpet photos.
See backstage photos

READ about the awards
See Vanity Fair party photos

SHOW PHOTOS:

"Dark Knight" Breaks $1 Billion

2009-02-21T09:29:19Z

"The Dark Knight" has become the fourth film to take in more than $1 billion in worldwide box office.

Warner Bros. made the announcement Friday afternoon, saying that the combined domestic and international gross had totaled $1,001,082,160 to date -- about $533 million domestically and $567 million overseas.

Dan Abramson: What if Heath Ledger Lost?

2009-02-20T18:19:12Z

Let's face facts. Heath Ledger's going to the win the oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Not only does he deserve it for his performance, but it will be a tribute to a great actor that we lost far too early.

But the guy's screwing all the other nominees, who have no shot at being recognized for their great performances.

If for some reason any of the other actors win, they'll be viewed as that A-hole who deprived Heath of the posthumous honor. Say Phil Hoffman takes home the Oscar: A-hole. The guy's already got one. Great actor he may be, but no matter what his Heath-praising acceptance speech says, the audience will hear "I'm a dick. I'm a dick. I'm a dick. See you next year when I deprive another dead guy of an award that the world wanted him to win." What an A-hole.

Imagine if Robert Downey Jr. beat out Heath Ledger and then couldn't even be there to accept the award? That would be the ultimate slap in the face, sending a pre-recorded message saying "sorry I couldn't be there, but at least I'm alive to accept my award." Via-satelite A-hole.

What if Josh Brolin won? Oh, I bet he really wants to win. I bet he'd love it. He'd say "I'm honored to even be associated with great actors like Heath" and maybe he'd even shed a tear. Pulling-at-our-heart-strings A-hole.

I don't know who Michael Shannon is. Was he the guy from that depressing movie about people being depressed about how good looking they are? Who-the-eff-are-you A-hole.

Luckily none of this will happen. Heath will win. And he should. Even if he had not died, he deserves the award. His Joker was mind-blowingly good. In an A-hole way.

Heath Ledger's Family Celebrates Oscar Nod In LA

2009-02-20T08:06:02Z

LOS ANGELES — A dozen members of Heath Ledger's family have come to Hollywood, and though it's still not known whether any of them will accept an Oscar on his behalf, they're already celebrating the late actor's legacy.

The twelve _ Ledger's parents, stepparents, siblings and cousins _ were guests of honor at a party thrown by Australians in Film to recognize Aussie Oscar nominees and introduce the inaugural recipient of the Heath Ledger scholarship Thursday night at the Chateau Marmont.

Jon Chattman: This Year's Oscars: Predicting the Predictable

2009-02-18T14:16:08Z

It's been fairly easy to predict the Oscars over the past few years. Who didn't think Philip Seymour Hoffman would win for Capote? Who didn't think Helen Mirren would strike gold for The Queen. Did anyone shriek with amazement at No Country For Old Men's win last year? Not likely.

Sadly, this year's contest seems to be no different. Slumdog Millionaire is going to take home at least five golden bald guys including a trio of top prizes (Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay), and let's face it, it deserves it. The movie lifts our spirits, and while it's not exactly the best film of the year (that distinction, in my book, goes to The Dark Knight or The Wrestler -- two films not even nominated), it's definitely worthy. Ditto for Kate Winslet and Heath Ledger, who will respectively win for The Reader and The Dark Knight.

Still, one hopes that the Oscars will provide some surprising thrills and throw us a Shakespeare in Love over Saving Private Ryan curveball or two. Can you imagine if Ledger didn't win this year? Neither can I, but if he doesn't and say Josh Brolin or Robert Downey, Jr. walk away with it, how stunned would you be? You'd certainly remember it forever. Don't worry. It won't happen, but I can picture Meryl Streep stunning Winslet although that too is not likely (the only surprise in my book is Cruz winning Best Supporting Actress, but that's not an "oh my God" shock either).

Any way you slice it, the telecast needs some more umph. Oscar ratings have been on a decline in recent years and deservedly so. The show goes on too long, the countless montages suck the life out of everyone, the acceptance speeches haven't been amazing, and the nominations and wins aren't half as interesting as the snubs: The Bourne Ultimatum deserved a nod last year, and the aforementioned Knight comes to mind for this year. And not for nothing, can we get some love for comedies? Am I the only one who had hoped Forgetting Sarah Marshall would get at least a Best Song nomination? Probably.

It stinks that mainstream and intelligent popcorn flicks have no place at the Oscars apparently unless there's a hobbit or Brad Pitt involved. OK, enough already. Here are my picks for the winners on Sunday night. Just about the only surprise of the night will come at the expense of fanboys from all over the world who will no doubt weep at the sight of seeing Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) singing and dancing like Fred Astaire on stage. Sorry guys. If you can get over Australia, this too shall pass.

Best Picture
Should and Will Win: Slumdog Millionaire
Dark Horse: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Director
Should and Will Win: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire (A Lock since Christopher Nolan was omitted altogether.)

Best Actor
Will Win: Sean Penn
Should Win: Mickey Rourke
Dark Horse: This is a battle between Penn and Rourke. I think Rourke is too quirky and outspoken to win - I hope I'm wrong. If he does win, it'll make for the night's most memorable speech that's for sure.

Best Actress
Should and Will Win: Kate Winslet
Dark Horse: It's been way too long since Streep won but with her new film about Julia Child coming out soon - it's clear she'll be back here next year.

Best Supporting Actor
Should and Will Win: Heath Ledger
Dark Horse: Brolin could shock here, but again, this has been Ledger's award since July.

Best Supporting Actress
Should and Will Win: Penelope Cruz
Dark Horse: Taraji P. Henson could, like Tilda Swinton, be honored for the film more than her performance.

Adapted screenplay
Should and Will Win: Slumdog
Dark Horse: The Reader. It's not going to win a lot of awards -- this could be a consolation prize.

Original screenplay
Should and Will Win: Milk
Dark Horse: Happy-Go-Lucky could earn Mike Leigh an overdo Oscar but I doubt it. His films are mostly improvised so there's not really a script to consider here.

Animated Feature
Will Win: WALL-E
Should Win: Kung Fu Panda
Dark Horse: No contest - WALL-E wins it.

Achievement in art direction
Will Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Should Win: The Dark Knight
Dark Horse: This could be Revolutionary Road's only Oscar win.

Achievement in cinematography
Will and Should Win: Slumdog
Dark Horse: The Academy may make good on The Dark Knight by awarding it a ton of tech awards to compensate for screwing it out of most major categories.

Achievement in costume design
Should and Will Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Dark Horse: Australia may have been a mess but the costumes were nice.

Achievement in film editing
Will and Should Win: Slumdog
Dark Horse: The Dark Knight

In brief:
Best documentary feature
Will Win: Man on a Wire

Best documentary short subject
Will Win: The Witness

Best foreign language film of the year
Will win: Waltz with Bashir

Achievement in makeup
Should and Will Win: Benjamin Button

Original score
Should and Will Win: Slumdog

Original song
Will Win: "Down to Earth," WALL-E
Should Win: "O Saya..." The Academy will go with the safe bet here canceling out the two Slumdog songs nominated. Still, if they go with Slumdog, "Jai Ho" wins over "O Saya."

Best animated short film
Will Win: Presto

Best live action short film
Will Win: New Boy

Achievement in sound editing
Will and Should Win: The Dark Knight

Achievement in sound mixing
Should and Will Win: The Dark Knight

Achievement in visual effects
Should and Will Win: Benjamin Button

Matilda Ledger Designated The Owner Of Heath's Potential Oscar

2009-02-18T09:31:56Z

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — If Heath Ledger is named best supporting actor at Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony, his daughter, 3-year-old Matilda Rose Ledger, will become the owner of the Oscar statuette.

But it won't really be hers until her 18th birthday on Oct. 28, 2023 _ and even then, only if she signs a contract.