You know, I think it is sad that a talented young man like Heath Ledger is dead. And while I was not a particular fan of his work (I have a hard time naming a single film of his that I have seen, other than The Patriot), I recognize the loss to the entertainment world in terms of the potential that was snuffed out yesterday.

At 3:31 p.m., according to the police, a masseuse arrived at the fourth-floor apartment of the building, at 421 Broome Street, between Crosby and Lafayette Streets in SoHo, for an appointment with Mr. Ledger. The masseuse was let in to the home by a housekeeper, who then knocked on the door of the bedroom Mr. Ledger was in. When no one answered, the housekeeper and the masseuse opened the bedroom and found Mr. Ledger naked and unconscious on a bed, with sleeping pills — both prescription medication and nonprescription — on a night table. They attempted to revive him, but he did not respond. They immediately called the authorities. As the news reports spread quickly, throngs of people gathered in the neighborhood.

The police said they did not suspect a crime. Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the office of the cityÂ’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Charles S. Hirsch, said that employees of the office were at the apartment and that an autopsy would be conducted on Wednesday. Around 6:30 p.m., city workers rolled Mr. LedgerÂ’s body, in a black body bag on a stretcher, out of the building.

Again, heartbreaking -- one more entertainer dead of an overdose at a young age. We've seen this story too many times in the past to even be surprised.

But let's consider the amount and the prominence of the media coverage of Ledger's death. With all that is going on in the world -- war, economic problems, the presidential race -- did this death really merit the sort of coverage that it got from the media? I mean no disrespect to the deceased, but is his death important enough to knock those stories from the front page and the lead position on the news broadcasts? Have we in this country become so celebrity obsessed that this story matters more than those other stories?

Posted by: Greg at 10:51 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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