Heath Ledger's family must now endure heartless hatemongers' wrath while they prepare for his funeral.
At first I thought the whole Gibson/FOX Radio thing was taken out of context, but then I listened to the audio clip for myself and was outraged into breaking my silence and grief at hearing of Heath Ledger’s death.…
Article comments
26 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
In the end, the only thing that will stop pigs like Phelps is his prescription for those he hates - a bullet. Believe me, someone, somewhere in America is fashioning that bullet with Phelps' name on it.
27 - troll
...or one could say that the Phelps group like any fanatic religious (bowel) movement worth its salt needs a few martyrs
28 - Jet in Columbus
Unfortunately, they're a breed that's learned that empowerment comes to them by breeding hate...
alas
29 - Jet in Columbus
The body of Heath Ledger was taken from a Manhattan funeral home on Friday, and police officers who had been assigned to the funeral home said the body would be flown to Australia for burial.
The medical examiner’s office is awaiting the results of blood and tissue tests before announcing the cause of death.
About 100 fans, reporters and photographers spent hours on Friday waiting outside the funeral home, Frank E. Campbell, on Madison Avenue near 81st Street.
The police set up barricades there on Thursday and posted signs prohibiting parking on Friday along a two-block stretch of Madison Avenue around the funeral home.
Shortly before 4 p.m., a plain wooden box was loaded into a hearse, and the hearse pulled away. Officers who had been assigned to the funeral home said the box contained Mr. Ledger’s body.
There had been speculation that a service would be held in Los Angeles. But Mara Buxbaum, the publicist who had represented Mr. Ledger, wrote in an e-mail message, “There are no plans for a public service.”
30 - Marianne
It sounds like the Phelps hate-mongers aren't smart enough to figure out where the service was in Los Angeles yesterday, and missed their chance.
31 - Jet in Columbus
Let's hope they don't have the funds to fly to Australia. They still plan to picket outside the Academy Awards though...
32 - STM
Jet:
A) Since some of them have previously been charged with criminal offences, they probably wouldn't be allowed to enter the country (no, you don;t need a crimional record anymore to get into Australia), and b) we have laws in Oz that stop that kind of stuff.
You can protest all you like in Australia, but not at someone's funeral and certainly not in a way likely to cause harm or distress.
You get arrested, thrown in the slammer and charged with causing a public nuisance. If there's a scuffle, the cops usually thrown in resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer. In some cases, the police will even seek costs to cover the operation, especially if there is any damage caused. The West Australian police are pretty tough on that stuff too since Perth can be a really wild place sometimes.
Phelps and his crew would last about 10 minutes before getting bundled into a paddy wagon and carted off to the lock-up. The courts take a dim view of it as well, especially in a situation like that if it's caused distress. What's that saying? My rights end where my neighbours' begin?
One thing we're good at here is deciding whose rights come first in what situation.
Actually, maybe you should send them over here ... problem solved. Phelps would last about 20 seconds in an Aussie jail.
33 - Jet in Columbus
Thanks STM, maybe I'll send them a money order for the plane fare, if you say they'd get stuck in jsil there and not come back...
34 - Dr Dreadful
Stan, if they do get in I'll be on the next plane. Their reception by Australia would be a thing to behold. Come to think of it, you could probably make a fortune charging for ringside seats...
35 - STM
Yeah, imagine someone like Phelps and his mob in Australia.
They wouldn't know what had hit them.
Literally.
36 - Jet in Columbus
I'd sell my piano for a ringside seat!
37 - Jet in Columbus
Headline: Quantas flicht hijacked to Cuba by randical church group, thinking Australia was a city there...
38 - Jet in Columbus
Out of Curiosity, I just did an advanced search on Google asking how many copies of this article have been reproduced on other websites. Then I narrowed it to having to have the exact title and "Jet in Columbus" and was astonished...
Well, the answer was 30, until I noticed the little note saying the results were abreviated to save space, when I clicked on it I got this...
Results 151 - 180 of about 2,260 for FOX News's Gibson Mocks Ledger As Phelps Group Announces Hate Protests "FOX News's Gibson Mocks Ledger As Phelps Group Announces Hate Protests" "Jet in Columbus". (0.45 seconds
Finding that unbelievable, I clicked at the thousand copy mark and found that it'd been translated into Russian!!!
Yikes!
39 - STM
Jet "Quantas ... "
No U in Qantas, Jet ... a mistake commonly made even by American airline pilots!
QANTAS stands for Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service Ltd, founded in the 1920s.
Somehow, it grew to become the national flag carrier, although it's no longer government-owned.
40 - Jet in Columbus
Oh... well... my bad! (this has been a recorded announcement)
41 - Jet in Columbus
The anti spam thing won't let me post a link for some reason so I will present it in longhand for thos who are skeptical...
You'll just have to copy and paste...
Then go to the bottom of the first page and click expand search, it's up to 2,800 in just those few minutes!
Search Results
42 - ed nederlander
No personal attack here - just wondering how these people get the cash to fly to Aussie on such short notice. They swore (under oath) that they were struggling to pay their bills, and had a collective net worth of less than one million US. Did they win the lottery? Anyway, you have to be a person to suffer a personal attack, which kind of let's them out here.......
43 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
just wondering how these people get the cash to fly to Aussie on such short notice.
You never heard of a credit card, Ed? That's what most airlines want anyway, these days..... You come up to a ticket counter with $15,000 or $20,000 in cash and the clerks start looking at you like "whattya got to hide?" It's not that they won't take the money. They most certainly will. But they may not be able to make change.... And what do you secure the seat with?
44 - Jet in Columbus
Thanks Ruvy, I was scratching my head trying to figure out what point he was trying to make...
45 - Jet in Columbus
Good grief!!! I just clicked the link in #41 and found over 8000 copies of this article worldwide!!!
46 - Jet in Columbus
Update:
New York, Jan 27 (ANI): Mel Gibson may have called Heath Ledger’s death a “tragic loss,” but the actor/director is said to have distanced himself from the late actor.
Private investigator Paul Barresi has revealed that Gibson had stated neglecting Ledger after the he ignored his advice about not to play a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain.
According to Barresi, a “major Hollywood producer told him that “Ledger asked Gibson whether he should take the role of Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback.
“Gibson strongly counselled against it. The role apparently ran counter to Gibson’s morality. And he felt that it would ruin Heath’s career.
“When Gibson parted ways with Heath, it broke his heart,” Barresi added.
However, Ledgers role did win critical acclaim and an Oscar nomination, reports the New York Daily News. (ANI)
47 - Jet in Columbus
Update
Reports that a homophobic church plans to picket the funeral of actor Heath Ledger is drawing criticism from a Jewish group.
Westboro Baptist Church, in Topeka, Kansas, insists that Ledger, the 28-year-old movie star who was found dead in his New York apartment on Tuesday, supported homosexuality because of his highly acclaimed performance in the film "Brokeback Mountain."
The Anti-Defamation League issued a statement slamming the church.
"Heath Ledger's funeral should be no place for haters," said the ADL's national director, Abraham Foxman. "It is outrageous that the Westboro Baptist Church would attempt to turn the untimely and sad death of a Hollywood celebrity into a homophobic spectacle."
Members of the churched gained national notoriety when they appeared at the funeral of Matthew Shepard bearing signs reading "No Fags in Heaven" and "God Hates Fags."
48 - Matthew T. Sussman
Can someone explain the concept of a spider website to Jet -- again -- before he seriously thinks 8,000 websites care about his article?
49 - Jet in Columbus
update
Police investigating the death of Heath Ledger believe the young actor may have died of a heart attack, and not a drug overdose, it has been reported. TMZ, the celebrity website that broke the news of the actor's death last Tuesday, quoted sources "intimately connected with the investigation" saying that the 28-year-old may have died from natural causes, as the level of toxicity (from prescription drugs) in Ledger's body was too low to cause his death. Initial tests on the actor's body have proved inconclusive, but Ledger's family has insisted that he would not have taken his own life.
The Brokeback Mountain star's body has been flown from New York to Los Angeles where a private memorial service was held on Saturday for family and close friends. Ledger's ex-fiance, Brokeback co-star Michelle Williams, and former girlfriend, actress Naomi Watts were among the mourners at the ceremony. The actor's body is expected to be flown to Australia today, where a funeral will be held in Perth, his home town, this week.
Meanwhile Hollywood actors paid tribute to Ledger at the the annual Screen Actors Guild awards in Los Angeles [see separate report on awards]. A montage of film clips to honour those stars who died over the past year ended with a scene from Brokeback Mountain. Daniel Day-Lewis, star of There Will Be Blood, dedicated his best actor award to Ledger, saying the young Australian's work had inspired him to keep acting. Day-Lewis said Ledger's challenging performances encouraged other actors to keep "regenerating… There are many actors in this room tonight including my fellow nominees who've given me that sense of regeneration. Heath Ledger gave it to me," he said, to loud applause.
However, outside the Shrine auditorium where the SAG awards ceremony was held, anti-gay protesters, still angry over Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal’s depiction of a homosexual relationship between two cowboys in Brokeback Mountain, waved placards that read "Heath's in Hell".
50 - Jet in Columbus
Thank you Mr. Sussman... I knew you'd crawl out from under your rock eventually to piss on my campfire.
What was the harm of my being proud, that you had to insist on doing that?
51 - Jet in Columbus
Note to the Suss monster: this article has consistantly been in the top five sidebar since it was published.
I guess that's meaningless too.
It took me almost a fucking year to begin writing articles again and to get myself out of the depression I've been in and two heart proceedurs.
Why you consistantly find ways to put me down in my own article's comments section is a mystery.
If it 's a personality conflict get over it.
Otherwise leave me and my articles alone. Just because you're a BC editor DOES NOT give you the right.
Jet
52 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Jet, I don't want to piss on your campfire, but I thought I'd look up the last article I submitted here, and lo and behold, it got over 1,400 mentions of various kinds on Google. Most of them linked back to here. In all truth, I was very pleasantly surprised. My article on Hurricane Katrina was also in the top read list sidebar for a few days, which was the reason I took the trouble to look....
53 - Jet in Columbus
Well Ruvy, I'm proud of my work. Apparently Mr. Sussman thinks that's a crime, or at least thinks I'm too stupid to realize.
I've counted over 100 SEPARATE websites so far in the last five minutes that quote in full this article and another 200 or so that quote the first few paragraphs and refers it back to here.
This generates traffic to BC's website here, I thought an editor would encourage my enthusiasm, but instead...
oh forget it...
54 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Jet,
Don't let Matt get to you. He may be an editor, but too often, as a commenter he is a troll, and a member of the Discouragement Fraternity....
55 - Jet in Columbus
Thanks Ruvy.
56 - Matthew T. Sussman
Sweet Jesus. When was the last time I commented on one of your articles, Jet? It's been a while.
Your campfire is pride is based on 8,000 Google results, including omitted results (which are omitted for good reason). I did the same thing with another BC Culture article, "Diamonds are DeBeers' Best Friend" and got 26K results.
Now Jet, I'm pretty sure we've explained the concept of aggregators and splogs and spiders to you, because you complained of sites like this plagiarizing your work.
So yes, thanks for writing the article because this was a newsy subject and lots of people do searches for FOX News and Heath Ledger and that brings traffic and all that jazz. But when you say ridiculous things like "Apparently Mr. Sussman thinks that's a crime" to be proud of 8,000 Google results (including omitted listings), well that's just blatant exaggeration.
57 - Matthew T. Sussman
"but too often, as a commenter he is a troll"
Show examples before you accuse.
58 - Dr Dreadful
Jet; Matt...
Stand back to back.
Take twelve paces forward.
Handbags at the ready... And - turn!
59 - Jet in Columbus
Damn... And I don't have one that matches my tennis shoes any more!
(:p~~~~~~~~~~~~
60 - Jet in Columbus
Ahhhh....peace