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Now that Heath Ledger has been posthumously nominated for a Golden Globe, there’s maneuvering behind the scenes as to who will accept the award should he win.

“Kim desperately wants to do it,” one cognoscento tells us of Heath’s father. “But the studio and the producers would rather have Michelle receive it on behalf of Matilda” - the couple’s daughter.

Some Hollywood insiders have speculated that the foreign journalists who decide upon the Golden Globes choose some nominees based on their attractiveness and star power, to goose up their televised awards show’s ratings. Michelle Williams, who broke up with Ledger four months before he died in January, is a lot purtier than the senior Ledger, who accepted an “Aussie” award for his son last weekend.

But a friend of the family tells us, “Why would Michelle be involved? She had nothing to do with the movie. They weren’t even together when he passed away. Would you have your ex-wife accept your award? And they weren’t even married. [Director] Chris Nolan or [star] Christian Bale would make more sense. Michelle makes no sense. It’s like those rumors that she would go to the premiere of ‘Dark Knight.’ That was never in the realm of possibility.”

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Heath Ledger’s no-holds-barred performance as the Joker in last summer’s Batman blockbuster The Dark Knight has earned the late actor a posthumous Golden Globe nomination, announced Thursday morning.

Commenting on the honor of being nominated for best performance by an actor in a supporting role, Heath’s Perth, Australia-based father, Kim Ledger, said in a statement to PEOPLE, “We thank the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for honoring Heath’s performance in The Dark Knight.”

He added, “This nomination is deeply appreciated and is not lost on those of us who continue to love and miss him. We are so proud our boy’s work is being recognized in this way.”

Ledger will compete in the supporting actor category with Tom Cruise and Robert Downey Jr. for their roles in Tropic Thunder, Ralph Fiennes for The Duchess and Philip Seymour Hoffman for his role in Doubt.

Heath Ledger, 28, was found dead in a New York apartment Jan. 22, the same day the 2008 Oscar nominations were announced.

It was later determined the death was caused by an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.

The 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards will be broadcast Jan. 11 from the Beverly Hilton at 8 p.m. on NBC.

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The 2009 People’s Choice Awards are right around the corner, and now that the nominees have officially been announced, we can pick our own favorites!

Winners will be revealed during the live broadcast of The 35th Annual People’s Choice Awards, which will be hosted by Queen Latifah from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009 at 6:00 pm Pacific time.

The first awards show of 2009, The People’s Choice Awards will honor fan favorites in television, movies and music. Voting begins today at pcaVOTE.com.

Here are the nominees: (Which include Heath/The Dark Knight)

Favorite Movie

1. The Dark Knight
2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
3. Iron Man

Favorite Action Movie
1. The Dark Knight
2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
3. Iron Man

Favorite Cast
1. The Dark Knight
2. Mamma Mia!
3. Sex and the City

Favorite On-Screen Match-Up
1. Christian Bale & Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
2. Tina Fey & Amy Poehler (Baby Mama)
3. Harrison Ford & Shia LaBeouf (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull)

Christian Bale was Nominated in the following categories:

Favorite Leading Man
1. Christian Bale
2. Brad Pitt
3. Mark Wahlberg

Favorite Superhero
1. Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman
2. Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
3. Will Smith as John Hancock

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Photos of Heath Ledger in his last and unfinished onscreen appearance as Tony in “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” due out in 2009, have hit the ‘net.

Ledger died Jan. 22, 2008 of an overdose of prescription medicine halfway through filming and Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law all stepped in to play different incarnations of his character.

A third of the movie was filmed in Clerkenwell in London. Ledger died three days after finishing that portion of the filming and the company was about to head to Canada to film.

The film involves a supernatural mirror that takes people into different dimensions and the fantasy device was used by director Terry Gilliam to switch actors.

As chilling as the Joker was, this should be on par in terms of weirdness, to see an actor who burned so bright do so one last time.

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SYDNEY (AFP) — Heath Ledger’s two-year-old daughter Matilda Rose will inherit the late Australian actor’s entire estate, estimated to be worth 20 million dollars (16.6 million US), a report said Sunday.

The 28-year-old actor, who died in New York in January from an accidential overdose of prescription drugs, had named his parents and sisters as the beneficiaries in his will, Perth’s Sunday Times reported.

The will, which has been probated behind closed doors at the Supreme Court in Perth, was made before Matilda was born, and there had been speculation that the child’s mother, actress Michelle Williams, would lodge a claim.

But Ledger’s father Kim has put an end to such speculation, revealing that Matilda will inherit the lot.

“There is no claim. Our family has gifted everything to Matilda,” he told the News Ltd paper.

Ledger’s will listed just 145,000 Australian dollars in assets and cash when it was drawn up in 2003, but the Hollywood star’s estate is now believed to be worth more than 20 million dollars, the Sunday Times said.

The Perth-born actor gained international stardom and was nominated for an Oscar for his role as a gay cowboy in the 2005 film “Brokeback Mountain”.

Critics have hailed his performance as the deranged Joker in the recent Batman film sequel, “The Dark Knight”.

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IT WAS supposed to be the Brooklyn bar where Heath Ledger would be most comfortable — a place that the late actor not only invested money in but helped conceive.

Only those who knew him well would discern the “Heath touches”: the engraved, granite-topped bar tables were his idea, as it was to have his favourite tattooist, Scott Campbell from nearby Williamsburg, do the engravings.

It was Ledger who wanted one table engraved as a chessboard: he played the game his father taught him at a nearby chess club and often beat the hustlers, although he declined to take their money, his business partner, Jud Mongell, said.

On the chessboard table is engraved a scrawled heart, replicating one Ledger left on a note to a friend not long before his death in January this year.

The nautical theme — the space is furnished with deckchairs and fitted with a steel, bow-shaped bar to create the impression of being at sea — was an idea Mongell and Ledger devised together. The name — Five Leaves — is a Ledger family decision, recalling the album by Nick Drake and a reference to the warning near the end of a packet of Rizla cigarette papers.

Next week the bar Ledger planned will open, not as a tribute but as a place where he would belong.

“We’re 50-50 partners still,” Mongell said. “Heath is still my partner. He was fingerprinted for a liquor licence … he was going to DJ, bartend; he was not like some removed investor. At one point he put a bid in on the whole building. He was going to live upstairs.

“Heath was a very good chess player. He wanted a chessboard or two in here, so we could never not do that. So that’s Heath’s chessboard.”
The project was completed because the actor’s father, Kim, agreed to see through a project his son began to support a friend. Continue Reading »

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge on Wednesday dealt a serious, but possibly temporary, blow to a lawsuit filed by a celebrity magazine reporter who has accused a paparazzi agency of secretly filming Heath Ledger doing drugs in her hotel room.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John S. Wiley Jr. tentatively dismissed 11 of 12 claims filed against the agency and two photographers, saying most of the allegations lacked legal standing.

He allowed attorneys to file an amended complaint that could restore some of the claims.

The woman, identified in court documents only as “Jane Doe,” sued Splash News & Picture Agency and two of its photographers in April, alleging fraud, intrusion, unjust enrichment and other claims over the filming of Ledger in 2006.

The woman was on assignment for People magazine at the time.

According to the lawsuit, the tape was made after the Golden Globe awards in January 2006 and wasn’t revealed until after Ledger’s death from an accidental prescription drug overdose earlier this year. “Entertainment Tonight” and its sister show, “The Insider,” had planned to air the footage, but canceled those plans after feeling pressure from publicists and other Ledger supporters.

The video later surfaced online.

The lawsuit states the video was shot from a balcony of the reporter’s hotel room, and that Ledger became upset when he realized he was being taped. The photographers placated Ledger by telling him they would destroy the tape, the suit claims.

Ledger — who has been celebrated this summer for his role as the Joker in “The Dark Knight” — was already an established actor when the tape was made. Indeed, the suit claims the video was shot hours after Ledger appeared at the awards show, where he was nominated as best actor for “Brokeback Mountain.”

The lawsuit claims the video shows Ledger doing cocaine and that some of the drugs were supplied by the photographers. It also shows Ledger saying that he was “going to get serious (word bleeped) from my girlfriend” for being in the hotel room and rolling cigarette paper and saying “I used to smoke five joints a day for 20 years.”

The reporter’s likeness is blurred on the video.

That element, and the woman’s assignment for People, were key reasons for Wiley’s decision to remove most of the claims from the suit.

“Jane Doe is as far as the Heath Ledger public is concerned, a complete unknown,” Wiley said. “She’s not a feature. She’s some blurry bystander.”

Wiley also noted that the reporter had dated one of the photographers, and that the alleged intrusion of her privacy took place in a hotel room she had apparently rented to conduct interviews in. “It’s a professional setting, not a personal setting,” Wiley said.

The judge sided with defense attorneys, who argued that the woman could not make many of her claims on behalf of Ledger. “The tape’s valuable because of Heath Ledger, not because of Jane Doe,” Wiley said.

Neville Johnson, who is representing the reporter, told Wiley his client was also harmed by the video.

“It ruined her,” he shouted at one point during the hearing. “She didn’t get a story out of it.”

The woman’s suit claims her inclusion on the tape has damaged her ability to work.

“Just because she’s a member of the press, she has the same rights as anyone else,” Johnson said.

He said afterward Wednesday’s hearing that he thinks a revision of the lawsuit will restore many of the reporter’s claims.

An attorney for Splash News and its photographers declined to comment after the hearing.

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HOLLYWOOD - The New York residence where late Hollywood actor Heath Ledger was found dead has been put back on the market for rent.

Ledger was found in the downtown Manhattan apartment in January 2008, after an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.

The SoHo loft flat has been listed for $26,000 a month, $4,000 more than the actor paid before his tragic death.

Ledger moved into the loft in September 2007 after finishing work on his role as The Joker in his last completed film, Batman sequel The Dark Knight.

According to the New York Post, the apartment was quietly being shopped around in February 2008.

A New York real-estate broker told the newspaper at the time: “You don’t wait around in a hot rental market like this. As ghoulish as it sounds, people will rent that place in a heartbeat.”

The apartment includes three bedrooms, two-and-a-half bathrooms, an office, laundry room, gourmet kitchen, sprawling balcony and wood-burning fireplace. The apartment’s agent at New York’s Corcoran Group did not return calls on the listing.

As WENN went to press, the building’s owner, Donald Burns, could not be reached.

Source:Hollywood.com

Heath Ledger’s daughter, Matilda, will likely not have to worry about money matters ever again, thanks to the three stars who stepped in to finish her father’s final film.

Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, who play different versions of Heath’s character in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, were worried about Matilda’s future as Heath left only an old will which did not include the little girl. So what did they do? They donated their entire paychecks to her!!!

Says director Terry Gilliam: “They didn’t take money — it goes to Heath’s daughter. That’s extraordinary! And wonderful . . . and when you’re part of that, you think, ‘Ah, this is maybe why I went into the movies in the beginning. I thought it would be full of wonderful people.’ “

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Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker in the latest Batman film was inspired by Sid Vicious, according to his co-star Christian Bale.

Chistian Bale said: He (Ledger) modelled the part on Sid Vicious which made this punk-like character. I think it is a classic portrayal of a great villain Photo: AP/PA

Bale, who plays the protagonist in the hit movie, said Ledger, who died in January of an accidental drugs overdose, had watched video clips of the late Sex Pistols guitar player while researching the role.

The 34-year-old said: “Heath’s created an anarchic Joker unlike any ever seen before.

“He modelled the part on Sid Vicious which made this punk-like character. I think it is a classic portrayal of a great villain.”

The punk rocker, whose real name was John Simon Ritchie, died in New York 1979, also from a drugs overdose.

The troubled musician - renowned for his violent behaviour - was facing trial over the murder of his former girlfriend Nancy Spungen at the time of his death.

Ledger is being tipped to win an Oscar for his role in The Dark Knight.

Bale added: “Heath immersed himself in the role. I would love to see him get an award.”

Before his death, Ledger said he also drew inspiration from A Clockwork Orange for the role.

“It’s the most fun I’ve had with a character and probably will ever have…” he said.

The actor added: “It was an exhausting process. At the end of the day I couldn’t move. I couldn’t talk. I was absolutely wrecked.”

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