it's rude, callous, and disrespectful to laugh about someone's death at any time, let alone when he has only been dead a day. at best it's bad taste and at worst the implication is that homosexuals (or people who support or portray them) should be be dead.

whatever your views about homosexuality there is no denying that Heath was a fine actor and brought so much talent and depth to that film. it's such a sad waste that he's gone.

seeking to capitalise on his death is just the sick act of a vulture. there are plenty of good reasons to pass on the opportunity to make a "joke" (if that's what he wants to call it), two of which are respect for the dead and respect for his grieving family and friends.

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Heath Ledger: In Memory
by Jim Emerson

Rare is the performance that can honestly be called a "revelation," but that's what it felt like to watch Heath Ledger in "Brokeback Mountain." Not only did he bring iconic life and nuance to the existential loneliness of Ennis Del Mar, a taciturn but complex (and conflicted) character, but for such mature work to spring from the teen-idol star of "10 Things I Hate About You" and "A Knight's Tale" was... well, revelatory itself -- the astonishing revelation of a suddenly, fully developed actor whose juvenile efforts scarcely hinted he'd be capable of such moving depth and clarity. Ledger emerged as if from a cocoon, gleaming with promise and flexing his wings.

Only two years after he received his first Oscar nomination for this iconic, star-making performance, it seems unthinkable that we should be mourning his death, at the age of 28....

Ledger's work as Robbie Clark, one of six "Bob Dylan" figures in Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There" -- and the tantalizingly creepy advance stills of his makeup-smeared face as The Joker in Christopher Nolan's upcoming "Batman Begins" sequel, "The Dark Knight" -- proved he was somebody it would be a joy to watch morph and change over time. It never occurred to me that he wouldn't create an impressive body of work across a wide range of roles, and probably win more Oscar nominations for them, in the course of the rich and varied career ahead of him.

In "I'm Not There," he plays an actor who once played fictionalized Dylanesque folksinger Jack Rollins (played by his "Dark Knight" co-star Christian Bale, three years his senior and another of the most exciting actors of his generation) in a Hollywood bio-pic. It takes a fine actor to play a decent actor giving a not-so-good performance (yet still good enough that he might become a star because of the role). And in the scenes with his wife Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), a romance that spans the Vietnam era from Godardian cafe conversations to domestic breakup melodrama, Ledger shines with youthful exuberance and intelligence.

"I would like to know what is at the center of your world," Claire says early in their acquaintance.

"Well, I'm 22, I guess I would say me," Robbie replies.

It's a favorite moment, both a confession and a sly evasion, from one of my favorite films of last year -- refreshingly candid, funny, bright, unpretentious. And now heartbreaking as well.

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If a leftists blog did the same thing, Fox would call them godless, disrespectful, etc.

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It's a good thing John Gibson is such a dork; otherwise I'd take offense.

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It's a good thing John Gibson is such a dork; otherwise I'd take offense.

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Closet fucking pederast? You betcha. Look at the wicked pedosmile that freak is sporting.

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Saw some post from others sites.
This may be a murder.
The surprise is the rest of you do not suspect
foul play here.Its like no one remember the
vitriol from our wingnut friends after the
movie runs across the country.
Also it may be nothing too,but do think we
close,and close from name calling to
face # 2....

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...that ugly bucktoothed vulture? I never heard of John Gibson, what hole did he crawl out of and who stuck a MIC in his hand?--Oh RIGHT! I don't watch Faux News...

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WEEKS BEFORE THE ACADEMY AWARDS, THE ENTIRE CAST OF BROKEBACK WERE GETTING JUST THE TREATMENT GAYS GET CONSTANTLY. IT WAS SICKENING THEN, THAT NIGHT AND EVER SINCE. LAST NIGHT I DID NOT SLEEP, DREAMING WHAT I WOULD DO TO THAT SCUM. THE OTHERS ARE RIGHT TOO: JUST LOOK at J. EDGAR AND SEN. MCCARTHY W I T H HIS SIDEKICK LATER DYING OF AIDS, THOSE MOST THEATENED BY WHAT THEY KNOW AND CANNOT USE, THEY WOULD BE JUST AS WISE TO HANG OUT A SIGN, IT'S PRETTTY OBVIOUS WHEN THE LADY DOTH PROTEST TOO MUCH. TELL ME, I GREW UP WITH ONE FOR A STEP FATHER, AND I WAS TOO IGNORANT TO KNOW WHAT HE WANTED. HE DID NOT GET IT, I WAS TOO DISGUSTED WITH HIM, BUT MY LIFE WAS A KIND OF QUAKING IN THE FLESH. I GET THAT WAY THINKING ABOUT HIM STILL, 55 YEARS LATER. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING GAY, MORE POWER TO YOU, BUT IF YOU CAN'T COME TO GRIPS , YOU NEED HELP.

AND THIS IS NOT ESSENTIALLY ABOUT THAT CREEP RADIO MORON , IT'S MORE ABOUT HEATH LEDGER, AND MY WORST CASE OF THE GRIEFS SINCE MY LAST FRIEND DIED OF AIDS. IN SOME PLACES THERE ARE , I HEARD WHEN I BEGAN VOLUNTEERING FOR THE CRUSHINGLY SAD AIDS FIGHT, GAY VIGILANTE GROUPS. FOR TOO LONG THE LOCAL POLICE LET EVERY GAY BASHING, INCLUDING MURDERS, GO SO LONG THAT NO ACTION WAS POSSIBLE BY THE TIME THEY GOT OUT OF THEIR WAGONS. THAT IMPROVOED WITHIN MONTHS, AFTER SOME VERY SERIUS GAY RETALIATIONS. GAY BASHERS BEING NOTORIOUS FOR TOURING CERTAIN AREAS IN VANS WITHOUT WINDOWS, PLENTY OF CROW BARS AND TIRE IRONS TO HAND, NONE GOT SAMASHED UP WITHOUT ANYONE'S KNOWING WHO THE SMASHEES WERE. AND THE VIGILANTES? I DON'T KNOW FOR SURE, BUT I KNOW SOME NOTORIOUS GAY HATERS HAVE LEFT US.

I AM SORRY SO HORRIBLY THAT ONLY SOME DAYS AGO IN THE ELECTION FEVER I MENTIONED SEXISM AND RACISM TOGETHER AND HOW THEY FUEL EACH OTHER, AND HOW SOME GAYS ARE EVEN FED UP ENOUGH THAT THE WORD FOR HETERO IS "BREEDERS", AND IT MEANS PEOPLE WHO ARE GOOD FOR THAT AND OTHERWISE USELESS. BY THE WAY, GAYS ARE ABLE TOO, BUT REFRAIN, YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE MANY LESBIANS WHO GOT A GAY FRIEND TO FATHER A CHILD? I BET YOU DO. TRY REREADING "TALES OF THE CITY". NOW I AM SORRY I TOLD, OR MENTIONED IT, HEATH AND THE CAST WERE GIVEN THE FULL GAY BASHING TREATMENT BEFORE THE ACADEMY AWARDS, I MEAN DID NOT ALL THE "COGNOSCENTI" KNOW THE WHOLE CREW WAS GAY? HEATH GOT ALL THAT, AND NOW HE WAS ACTUALLY A FATHER, A "BREEDER" IN FACT, BUT GOOD THING FOR HIM I AM SURE. AND NOW IT COMES TO THIS. PERSONALLY I FEEL AS BAD AS I DID ABOUT JACK IN THE MOVIE. BUT THIS IS EVEN MORE REAL, THAN WHAT HAPPENED IN THAT MOVIE. I WAS SO CLOSE, AS I HAD SAID, THEN, "MATTHEW BENNETT, WYOMING, BROKEBACK." IT'S SO CLOSE, BUT I AM SORRY I SAID IT. AND TREASURES OF SYMPATHY AND PRIDE TO HIS PARENTS.

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the only way you can stay marketable is to say the most obnoxious, callous extremist crap that can come out of your empty little soul. The primary difference being coulter is smart enough to know better but does it anyway (I'm never quite sure if it's all about the money, she sure seems to get off on the malice), Gibson just seems like he is desperately trying to hold on to the job at Fixed. Heath Leger was a wonderful actor, more than anything else he was a very young man with a little girl. If he had been John Smith from Topeka his death would still be tragic, my deepest sympathy to his daughter and his parents who I hope find that not all Americans are so utterly grotesque.

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If we're going to crack jokes, why not a few about Gibson's hair? That slick-back mop looked better in black on Bela Lugosi – or in fur on the Wolfman.

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