Heath Ledger & Brad Renfro

Heath Ledger & Brad Renfro - Resquiat en Pacem
Current mood: pensive

Right before I left the office this afternoon, I checked the headlines at the MSNBC website

(Which the news network absolutely ruined with its recent redesign of the website. I find it is generally dumb to jack with things that are already trippy and cool, and MSNBC was all of that and more. MSNBC was my homepage for over 12 years. Now it looks like any other lame ass news website).

I noted the passing of Heath Ledger, at 28. Ledger starred in several of my favorite films, including "The Patriot" and "A Knight's Tale." He was nominated for an Academy Award for his starring role in "Brokeback Weiner." Jake Gyllenhaal acted too goofy in that picture and ruined it for me. Ledger was terrific in all three of those films.

I've perused all of the usual gossipy websites for news about Heath Ledger's death. I hope it wasn't an intentional drug overdose or something like that. As usual, the reports indicate he was found nekked, either on the floor, or on the bed in his New York apartment. Some reports claim there were pill bottles all over the place. Other sources state Ledger had been suffering from pneumonia. People are always nekked when these things happen...[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-->
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It could have been the Mafia.

I don't know. But I do know this -- it's none of my business, but since it is gossipy, I'm all over it. Why? Because it is all about drama, and I am into drama, whether it is in my own life, or in the lives of celebrities, especially if he or she has been found nekked and surrounded by pill bottles. I like to have a big mess going, even if it is someone else's mess. As my friend Billy says, "that's how you roll."

I thought Heath Ledger had things together, and maybe he did. I'm hoping he died of natural causes. But he was still too young. He seemed to be a cool kind of celebrity. He was perceived as approachable and tolerant of his silly fans. He didn't do or get caught doing Britney Spears kinds of stuff.

He had a relationship with Michelle Williams, his co-star in "Brokeback Weiner," and they had a little girl, Matilda. Very Australian, although she is from Montana.

We'll see him this summer when the new "Batman" flick, "The Dark Knight" is released. Ledger played the Joker.

"You gotta approach every day as if it's your last!" -- Heath Ledger as "Skip" in "The Lords of Dogtown."

A week ago today, actor Brad Renfro was found dead in Los Angeles. He starred in the cheesy film made of the cheesy John Grisham book, "The Client." Didn't care for "The Client," but Renfro was a good teen actor. His Southern twang didn't sound phony, as is so often the case when actors painfully try to do an accent.

After several viewings of the trailer of "Charlie Wilson's War," I decided to boycott the movie because of Julia Roberts's vomitous pronunciation of "Charlie." Alas, because the character she played was, I believe, from Houston, it was practically imperative for Roberts to pronounce "Charlie" as "Chaahleee." I suppose some place in the deep South there are ladies who would still pronounce it "Chaahleee," but I don't want to meet them.

Brad Renfro didn't say or do fake stuff like that. He was a natural, and it didn't hurt he was brought up in Knoxville. I liked his character in "The Client." He made the most of a silly story. John Grisham made the most of a best seller. I call his work "cheesy" because, like many lawyers, I am jealous of him. He doesn't have to practice law, he gets to do what he wants, and he is rich. I would very much like to borrow about $85,000 from him.

Later, Renfro teamed up with Sir Ian McKellan in the film, "Apt Pupil." This one was surprisingly good, mainly because of the two stars. I actually bought this DVD. It's good enough to own, and I didn't have to be under the influence of something mind altering to buy it, as has so very often been the case in my life.

I call this the "Hart's War Syndrome." You think a movie is going to be so good you buy the DVD, and later discover the movie sucks.

They think Brad Renfro died of a drug overdose. He has had various problems over the years. Like one of my using heroes, Robert Downey, Jr., Brad Renfro always seemed to get caught doing... uhhhh....stuff he shouldn't have been doing. In recent years, Renfro's life has been a tad messed up -- not Corey Haim messed up, but out of whack for sure.

Peculiar thing about abusing drugs and alcohol. Sometimes one wakes up dead.

Can you imagine how amazing it would be to see Jim Morrison or Janis Joplin perform today? Well, say they got it together around 1970 and spent the next 30 years merely mildly stoned up at Big Sur. Then, like my heroine Grace Slick, they could do art shows, or PBS during pledge-a-thon. Thankfully, although Grace Slick took all the drugs in America, she lived to tell the tale. I think she is hot. When I have money again, I'm going to buy one of her signed prints of the "White Rabbit."

Even I'm not old enough to fully appreciate "The Doors" or Janis Joplin, but it's nice when the big stars hold it or get it together before they have to die. As Patsy Stone of "Absolutely Fabulous" fame put it, "in my day the really big stars died in a puddle of their own sick." Sometimes one wakes up dead in a pile of one's own sick.

A bit graphic, I suppose, but remember that when he died and met the Baby Jesus, Elvis the King wasn't exactly sitting in an easy chair, wearing a smoking jacket, smoking a pipe, and reading Dickens.

Drugs and alcohol are bad. Sometimes we wake up dead. Or nekked and surrounded by dog turds and one's own sick. These things happen.

People do try to blow more cigarette smoke around and on me. Spray on more perfume if possible. It doesn't set off my coughing at all. I have coughed so much I can feel shards of flesh have been torn from my ribs. Roy D. Mercer once asked someone if he'd "like a lung knocked loose." That's how I feel. Smokers seldom care how smoke affects other people. I don't know why perfume makes me cough. Maybe because it is probably carcinogenic and smells acrid.

I wish people wouldn't die, but they do. They die young and under tragic, and often stupid circumstances. It makes me sad even when celebrities I've never met die. It wasn't so bad when Francisco Franco died, but Kurt Cobain…if I start to speculate about that, someone will shoot me too. But I miss him and Nirvana. And all the grungy usin' music from the 90's.

I'll add "A Knight's Tale" and "Apt Pupil" to the stack of DVDs I need to watch within four business days. Netflix is already pissed at me for keeping some other movies so long.

RPH, Esq., N.V.

©Randall P. Hodge, Esq. 2008