I caught ET's teaser. . . OK, soooo not the point of this post, which I appreciate, but it's bugging me. . . and I believe Heath says something like, "I used to smoke five joints a day 20 years ago." What?

snorting coke three months after having a baby is self-destructive.

@mathnet:

I murdered a man in preschool just to watch him die.

Wait, famous people do drugs? Celebrities: they're just like us!

@mightymouse: Only if you're breastfeeding.

Thank you, Pareen. I couldn't agree with you more. The best was the connection that he did a line of coke at party and, obviously, two years later he's dead.

I would like to see Pat O'Brien report on this tape. He loves blow! And hookers! And he's still kicking!

Well, you know what they say - smoking multiple joints a day is the gateway to mediocre west coast ska-rap.

When I die, a newly "tragic" video will come out of me.
Look at her, she's just sitting on the couch. She should have been exercising but, oh wait, she's going to do something. Ah just looking for the remote. Ooh out of reach. What will she do!

In an editorial meeting, the producers weighed the prospect of a certain ratings bonanza against public backlash for tramping of the legacy of a popular actor, already dead. The decision? "Let's save the footage for the five-year anniversary show."

@nutmeg:
then it would be mutually destructive. or something like that. symbiotically destructive?

@Chaim Gnadelstein:

I skinned a cat to help keep myself warm during those lonely Minnesota nights.

@mathnet:

He was 28, so, it's mathematically and societally possible.

Oh - Parnee I love you. Smart post.

@HookerfaceAnon: seriously. pat o'brien is a fucking hack.

If you pay attention to the teaser, you can see they've blurred out the face of the person snorting. It's not Ledger. Not to say that he didn't do drugs. I don't know. It's not the point. What really infuriates me is the hypocrisy of ET / Insider Edition. "Out of respect to HL we won't be airing the video"? The nerve. If they had any decency they wouldn't have aired that ridiculous teaser in the first place. Fueling speculation like that is surely way more hurtful than the actual footage. But I guess I'm being disingenuous myself. To expect any sense of civility from those people is just plain softheaded.

@mathnet: Sorry. "I used to smoke five joints a day for 20 years." Same what?

I've come up with a great idea for an invention to serve the tabloid media: The GraveCam™. I'd be a little remote-controlled digging robot with a bright penlight and a miniature wireless camera embedded in it. On command, it would tunnel down into the graves of the recently departed celebrities like Heath Ledger, and broadcast live images of their dead corpses to the world.

Thanks to the GraveCam™, we could all stay on top of the decomposition process of our favorite dead celebs - and also grade the wardrobe they're wearing: Who's the best-dressed corpse? And (much more fun) who's the worst-dressed?

Damn, this is a really good idea - excuse me while a dash down to the patent office.

At least he had the mind to take off his coke pants before he went to bed.

Well, if she gave him serious s--t, he got the last laugh.

@misterhippity

Tragically... so sadly... that is one very lucrative idea. No one would admit watching it. But everybody would and we know it.

@MisterHippity: Too late!
Expect to see this glorious new product on late-night infomercials following Carson Daly.
Ronco and I will make a killing.

Entertainment Tonight should shove Cojo front and center, 'cause she/he knows all about *the drugs.*

*eye rolls*

@In Other News...: Really?
Five joints a day at age eight??!
Kids these days...

@IBentMyWookie: First 50 callers get a free rotisserie oven?

@DorothyMantooth: Now, let's be fair here. He wasn't smoking five whole joints; he was passing the doobies around to some of the younger kids.

"A Doobie Ate His Baybeeee!"

Wow. This is the first I've heard of actors doing drugs. All this time I thought that only bums and fictional characters from Bret Easton Ellis books did that kind of thing. But seriously, I think Pat O'Brien just stopped snorting cocaine off of a hooker's three-month old to look into the Grave Cam (or Crypt Cam, as I would suggest- great idea).

You know, one day somebody's going to trace all these Australian male celebrity suicides to Helena Christensen. Every single one of them dated her shortly before their deaths. Ten to one she's the one who gets them all started on blow.

Somebody Google this then look into it. It's true.

I love how ET/Insider qualified this a "Drug Party."
Does Drug Party have its own Evite category now (Girls Night, House Party ... DRUG PARTY).
And should we sub-categorize - Herion Happy Hour, Coke Cocktail Party ...

The tape doesn't show Heath doing coke, it shows "some guy." Neither ET nor Insider said that it was Heath. Also, the tape is not being shown in Australia.

Celebrity media appeals to that sartorial lowest-common-denominator flyover-territory sentiment regarding the inevitable flaws of stars. Particularly if it involves drugs, marriage, or gay rumors. Therefore, anything that you would see on your average day downtown in New York is viewed as some sort of crazed, bacchanal bicoastal indulgence by dipshits in Kansas.

So Kansas, the next time you ask why those darn city folk talk down about your quaint little towns - this is why.

@La Cieca: Ahh! I guess Australian elementary school teachers also go by the ol' "bring enough for everybody" adage, eh?

@TheDismalScience: Just to be clear, by "sartorial lowest-common-denominator," you mean underwear. Right?

There's another thread to discuss The Satorialist. It's the one about fashion editors.

@jupiterspaw: My dad was a cop in the 1970's and he had these training manuals. One described a "fruit salad party". This was slang for a "drug party".

Years later, after my own experimentation, I read "Fear and Loathing..." The police convention is my favorite part. It reminded me of how cheesy those training manuals were and how naive some people are about the drug culture.

Regarding Heath, I don't think drugs killed him. I know it's what everyone automatically assumes when a young person dies. Too often it is the correct assumption. In Heath's case, even if the coronor's report comes back "natural causes" the majority of people will still think he OD'd and that will be his legacy.

Poor Matilda.

I used to smoke years, 20 years a day for 20 years. Fuckin' smoked those years (inhalejanuaryfebruarymarchapril) exhale....shhhhh...that's some good years.

@TheDismalScience: I live in one of those "quaint little towns" (albeit in Texas) and let me tell you guys these hicks are no strangers to drugs. Coke, crack, meth, pot, heroin, whatever...True, the coke is stepped on like hell but it will still do the job (and you don't have to worry about constipation!)

@jupiterspaw: I was at a party recently where sort-of-suddenly it turned into a coke party. I walked into a bedroom to talk to some friends and then some dude just did a line. I was a little stunned.
This is just stupid of ET and the Insider. Don't show a teaser of someone who might be Ledger doing what appears to be coke at a party and then act all noble by pulling it. All of the magazines and "analysis" of his life and passing have already spoken about his drug use, so it's nothing new.

@downlow: Meth was basically born in those quaint little towns. And central Pennsylvania has the distinguished honor of being home to both Amish people AND one of the worst heroin problems in the country.

The best part of the teaser is when they wheel out Dr. Drew to let us know that "if this video saves even one life, it's worth showing."

Grainy videos of recreational drug use: saving the lives of ET-watchers everywhere.

@downlow: It's official: Everyone loves cocaine. Except for ET/Inside Edition editors and New Victorians.

@DorothyMantooth:

In the case of Kansas? DENIM underwear.

@downlow: When I think about all of this Heath coverage, I think about how almost any seemingly normal life could basically be ripped to shreads (mine included) if you added into the equation salicious quotes from "friends" eager to note your appearance/proximity/behavor at any questionable event/party/whatever, no matter the context or how long ago.
@PimpMyCouch: Agreed. And the cynic in me doesn't even think ET/Insider was being noble, I think they backed down after stars/agents/whoever told them they wouldn't be getting any more interviews or exclusives if they aired this crap.

@jupiterspaw: ITA. Virtually anybody who hasn't been living in a vacuum-sealed vault could be made to look dirty if enough mud gets flung around.

Of course, I don't guess you'd live long in a vacuum-sealed vault. No air.

@downlow:

Texas DOES NOT count.

You guys traffic like I-95.

Plus, like...Bush. Big hats. Spurs and chaps. I'd be all methy too.

@mathnet: The Today Show ran a chunk of the tape this morning in between Britney Spears updates. Looked like a pretty good party to me

I think we're all beyond believing that HL's death is anything but drug related. Where we hoped it was just prescription drugs (Hello! These are just as lethal, lest we forget...just our society's way of legalizing the ones the government feels are acceptable, yeah...whatevs). It doesn't change the fact that he was an amazing talent, seemably a nice person, loved his daughter, loved his girlfriend, presumably, and loved his job, but who got caught up in that Hollywood shit, or more to the point...that human shit.

@TheDismalScience: How delightful!

To me his biggest transgression was hanging out with Mary Kate.

Plus, I love how he supposedly explained to people at the party that his girlfriend just had a baby. As if everybody didn't already know that. It's kind of charming.