Here in America, Entertainment Tonight had a sudden, unexpected and out-of-character concern for the family of dead actor Heath Ledger (after all, ET cheerfully greased the skids toward Anna Nicole Smith’s demise), and had a grand time in its aftermath) and, after promoting and exploiting the video showing Ledger at a Hollywood party, partying the way many an ET staffer just might (and apparently not "doing drugs" after all)– decided not to run it on ET or its sister The Insider after all.
But Australia’s A Current Affair newsmagazine show ran the video depicting their favorite son and homeboy with no problems at all today, revealing that the tape is not exactly Amy Winehouse crackpipe material and that it was ET’s promotion and breathless exploitation (which is what tabloid shows do when they spend half a million dollars on a two-year-old tape) that made the video seem so horrific. In other words, the damage was done. What’s even more entertaining than the Ledger party segments on the Australian report, though, are the American entertainment reporters like our pal Sam Rubin, saying flat out that ET is full of shit and obviously bowed down to the powerful public relations firms who feed their fluff machine (Is razzing ET on Australian telly the equivalent of the Dixie Chicks criticising President Bush on foreign soil?).
Joe emails: "I am shocked that you have not done a full investigation on Heath Ledger. Who supplied the coke and heroin that killed him. Why do you think the masseuse called Mary Kate right away? Duh?"
Michelle Wright writes on the NY Times: "What a fantastic loss!!! He was one of the best!! Can’t help but think that skank Mary-Kate had something to do with it."
That’s why I go to the NYTimes.com, for a coverage that is fair, balanced and unafraid.
