Heath Ledger’s family has been stunned by new revelations that he may have fathered a secret love child when he was just seventeen years old:

Ledger was a 17-year-old schoolboy when he had an affair with an older woman who is thought to have only discovered she was pregnant after their relationship ended.

The woman was living with another man at the time of the alleged affair.

Yesterday, Ledger’s uncle, Hadyn Ledger said: “There is a very real possibility that Heath was the father.”

If it is confirmed that Ledger is the girl’s biological father, it could split his multi-million dollar estate between his two-year-old daughter Matilda Rose with Hollywood actress Michelle Williams, and his secret love child. […]

Heath was still at school at Guildford Grammar when he began the affair with the woman, then aged 25.

Yesterday another family source said: “She had the baby. Everyone lived under the assumption that she was the daughter of the mother’s boyfriend and that is how she has been brought up.” The woman is now married with a young family.

Heath’s will was drawn up in 2003 and does not mention either Michele or Matilda, who was not born yet. It lists only his father, mother, sister, and half-sisters as beneficiaries, although his father Kim has said that Michelle and Matilda will be taken care of.

The battle over Heath’s estate has highlighted a long-simmering feud in the Ledger family between father Kim and his brothers, stemming from his handling of their father’s estate:

The family feud began when Kim became executor of their grandfather, Sir Frank Ledger’s estate over 20 years ago. He borrowed heavily against the $2 million estate, leaving it heavily in debt before he was removed as executor by the WA Supreme Court in 1994.

It’s interesting that rumors of this love child pop up now, after his death and while his estate is being settled, and not while he was alive. Could there have been tension between Heath and the mother? Could she totally be bluffing? Only a DNA test will tell for sure. Couldn’t they have quietly done a DNA test before releasing this to the media?  That way, if it were not true, life could go on for this child as normal.  Of course, this child (now around ten years old) will undoubtedly hear all about it, and have to readjust from thinking one man is her father to thinking of another man as her father. That’s a big thing for a kid to have to handle. I see a tell-all exclusive interview with the mom in the future, complete with a nice check.

This could have been handled in private. Why can’t people think before they open their big mouths?

Despite reports to the contrary, Heath’s father Kim says that even though Heath’s will did not specify it, his former lover and daughter will be taken care of financially:

It emerged this weekend that Heath’s will had not been updated since 2003 meaning lover Michelle Williams and their two-year-old daughter Matilda Rose were never included.

And Ledger’s uncles spoke out about their fears that neither Matilda, nor Michelle would get a share of the estate because the Brokeback Mountain star left all his money to his parents and sisters.

The two uncles, Mike and Haydn Ledger, said Matilda was not included in the will because it was written before her birth and not updated.

“I’m concerned for Matilda,” said one of the uncles, Hadyn Ledger. “I have concerns about the distribution of funds.”

But the actor’s father Kim Ledger dismissed those claims insisting Heath’s ex-fiance, actress Michelle and daughter, would be well looked after no matter what legal papers instructed.

“Matilda is our absolute priority and Michelle is an integral part of our family,” Kim Ledger said in a statement.

“They will be taken care of and that’s how Heath would want it to be.”

These two uncles are described as “estranged”, which makes me wonder just what their motivation is for speaking out now.  By all accounts, Michelle and Heath’s family share a close bond, and I can’t see his father not taking care of the two of them.  Even though Heath and Michelle had split up at the time of his death, it seems that they both still cared deeply for each other.

It is a good lesson for us all, however…make sure your affairs are in order, just in case something should happen (God forbid, but you never know).

Two doctors are being investigated in the death of actor Heath Ledger.  Federal drug authorities are looking into the drugs prescribed, because Heath’s death was blamed on an accidental mixture of prescriptions:

The doctors - one in California, one in Texas - are believed to have supplied the “Brokeback Mountain” star with the powerful painkillers Oxycontin and Vicodin, law enforcement sources said. Authorities want to know if the drugs were prescribed illegally. “It’s an ongoing investigation,” a law enforcement source told The News Tuesday. “It’s not clear if there was any wrongdoing.”

The revelation came more than a month after the 28-year-old Australian heartthrob’s naked body was found in his SoHo loft.

The city’s medical examiner ruled Ledger died on Jan. 22 of an accidental overdose of six prescription drugs, including the two painkillers, sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication. The federal Drug Enforcement Administration has subpoenaed the medical examiner’s findings as part of its probe into the doctors, the sources said.

Do they always have to say he was found naked?  Like that in and of itself is some sort of crime or weirdness.  Lots of people sleep naked.

It may or may not be that these doctors are guilty of any wrongdoing.  However, it is only prudent of physicians to check what prescription or OTC medications a patient is already taking, and writing new prescriptions accordingly or advising patients on the safety of taking one medication with another.  Heath may or may not have told his doctors of any other medications he was taking.  It may come out that he purposefully obtained the prescriptions without the doctors knowing of each other.  Or, it might be as simple as he just didn’t realize the dangers of taking one with the other.

Heath had fought a long battle with drug use, but by all accounts he was trying to get clean when he died, and illegal drugs played no part in his death.  He also suffered from severe insomnia, which led him to take a prescription sleep aid that turned out to be not much help to him.  Plus, at the time of his death, he was suffering from pneumonia, which undoubtedly weakened his immune system.

Always check with your doctor before mixing any sorts of medications, and make sure you know what you’re taking and what it does to your body.

UPDATE:  These two doctors have been cleared:

Federal officials have ruled out two L.A. and Houston-based doctors as the providers of the OxyContin and Vicodin that played a part in the accidental overdose of Heath Ledger, reports the New York Post.

After questioning the docs, the Drug Enforcement Agency found they had prescribed the Brokeback Mountain star other medications, just not the heart-stopping drugs that resulted in the 28-year-old death in NYC on January 22.

I really don’t want to dwell on the tragic details of Heath Ledger’s death. More than enough attention had been paid to those details and not nearly enough to his accomplishments or for the respect of his family to grieve in peace.

The toxicology reports have confirmed what most everyone suspected shortly after Heath’s tragic death at age 28, the actor died of an accidental overdose from prescription medications. The toxic mixture of Valium, Oxycontin, sleep aids, painkillers and anti-anxiety meds were at the root cause of Heath’s death.

His family wishes to be left alone, the mother of his only child wishes to be left alone — and honestly — that’s good enough for me.

R.I.P Heath, I look forward to a moving tribute in your honor at the Oscars and I will happily pay homage to watching your last films.

A sad story just gets sadder.  Actress Michelle Williams, mother of Heath’s daughter Matilda, has released a statement:

“Please respect our need to grieve privately. My heart is broken. I am the mother of the most tender-hearted, high-spirited, beautiful little girl who is the spitting image of her father. All that I can cling to is his presence inside her that reveals itself every day. His family and I watch Matilda as she whispers to trees, hugs animals, and takes steps two at a time and we know that he is with us still. She will be brought up with the best memories of him.”

Reportedly, Heath and Michelle broke up because she could not handle his drug-taking, and there were whispers of another woman.  Heath, for his part, was attempting to kick drugs, which leads me to the second part of this story.

Entertainment Tonight and The Insider paid big bucks (I’ve heard upwards of $200,000US) for a grainy video showing Heath allegedly engaged in drug use while at a party.  They’ve already shown a teaser, which didn’t tell the whole story:

A behind-the-scenes campaign happened aggressively on Wednesday to pressure the shows not to broadcast that Heath Ledger video everyone was talking about.

Several top publicity companies threatened to never give the shows access to their star clients again. They caved.

However, we’re told that many are still upset because ET and The Insider made it seem like Heath was doing drugs in the video.

He was not, a person who has seen the full clip tells us.

Additionally, when the shows aired a preview of the video, they showed a clip of Ledger saying, “I used to smoke five joints a day for 20 years.”

However, what they didn’t show you was that afterwards, he said , “and that’s why I got this tattoo [an M, for daughter Matilda] to remind me never to smoke weed again.”

It’s sad that these shows would feel the need to use this man’s death as a reason for ratings, but I guess that’s the nature of the show business beast…I went into my local Blockbuster a couple of nights ago, here in the middle of 40th and Plum, and they had a display at the checkout area.  I took a closer look, and it was a selection of movies Heath had been in.  For rental or purchase, own a piece of a dead man!

I did not partake.

Through the magic of sleight of hand and CGI, Heath Ledger’s final movie, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, is scheduled to continue shooting:

Despite earlier reports that the director might shelve the $30 million production, Gilliam, whom [co-star Christopher] Plummer describes as “terribly saddened” by Ledger’s death is “trying to work out at this moment how to continue on. Fortunately, because the film deals with magic, there is a way, perhaps, of turning Heath into other people and then, using stills and I think they call it CGI…

“Terry was a very good friend [of Heath’s],” adds Plummer. “He very wants to go on with the movie, and I can very much understand why. Because he wants to dedicate it to Heath, of course.”

Plummer goes on to say that Heath possibly contracted walking pneumonia while on set due to the combination of rigorous shooting schedule and nasty weather:

Confirming earlier reports that Ledger hadnt been feeling well on set, Plummer says, “we all caught colds because we were shooting outside on horrible, damp nights. But Heath’s went on and I don’t think he dealt with it immediately with the antibiotics.…I think what he did have was the walking pneumonia.”

On top of that, “He was saying all the time, ‘dammit, I can’t sleep’…and he was taking all these pills [to help him].”

As well as the damp cold and lack of sleep, Plummer describes the shoot as rigorous. “We had to shoot every second we were out there…there was hardly any time to go into the tent or the car to keep warm. We just kept shooting…boom, boom, boom…there was no pause. It was very, very hard work.”

The cynic in me wants to think that perhaps the reason for the continuation of filming is because of two reasons…one, that there would be a ton of money down the toilet if the film were to be shelved now; and two, because it was his last role, that is almost certain to bring in big bucks at the box office and in DVD sales.  But the other part of me wants firmly to believe that it is being done in the spirit of friendship and out of a respect for the actor and his talent.  I suspect, however, that it is some combination of all those things.

And I can’t say as I blame the people behind the movie for wanting to make some money.  After all, movies nowadays, especially one such as this, are multimillion dollar projects.  To shelve a project for sentimentality’s sake doesn’t make fiscal sense.  Plus, I personally think that if one puts so much of oneself into a role, that one would want the show to go on, no matter what happened.

I think it would be a nice tribute if they can believably pull it off.

Oh, and the reports that Johnny Depp was going to step into the role?  Probably not so, because they are saying that he’s been in no official talks and he is currently working on another movie.

Variety is reporting that some aspects of two of Heath Ledger’s final films, The Dark Knight and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, are in doubt due to his sudden death:

Production on Terry Gilliam’s indie “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” has temporarily shut down, while Warner execs are still determining how to adjust their marketing campaign on “The Dark Knight,” which is keyed to Ledger’s Joker character in its early stages.

“Parnassus” has three options: Replace Ledger in the role, shoot around him or shut down the production entirely. The insurance company will likely determine which option the producers take. […]

Production on Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins” sequel is believed to largely completed — principal photography concluded in the fall — but the initial marketing campaign focuses on the ghoulish Joker character.

To complicate matters further, the studio has just restructured its marketing operation. International marketing topper Sue Kroll now oversees all marketing for the studio in the wake of the exit of former domestic marketing president Dawn Taubin, who developed the “Dark Knight” campaign.

Kroll will likely have to move quickly to rejigger the studio’s current phase of the marketing campaign for “Dark Knight,” focusing on Ledger’s Joker character. This phase of the campaign had been set to run until March.

Dawn discussed this some on tonight’s guest spot on BlogTalkRadio Today.  Maybe it’s just me…I understand that perhaps the marketing of the movie might have to be revised, but I hope they don’t change his scenes in the movie (and I don’t know that there are plans to do so, but it could happen).  Heath was an actor, and he understood that when he was on a set he was there to do a job.  That job sometimes consisted of scenes that were perhaps a bit on the edge (such as his Joker character), but he understood.  It was what he was supposed to do.

I’d think after putting so much work and effort into a part, he’d want a movie he was involved in to be released just as it was always supposed to be.  Imaginarium is in the beginning stages of shooting, and can be revised at this point, but The Dark Knight is pretty much completed and to mess with scenes now, even with the best of intentions, would change too much of the movie.  I don’t think Heath, by all accounts the consummate professional, would want that of a project he was involved in.

I say be sensitive to his family when it comes to marketing the movie, but leave the movie itself alone and let it stand as a testament to his acting skills.  The best homage one can pay to an actor’s craft is to let them act.

After jumping to painful conclusions about “Brokeback Mountain” star Heath Ledger’s untimely death, I’d wanted to step back and wait to see what the media had to say in the days following his passing.

Unfortunately, part of the job of writing about celebs is keeping current, and we have further damaging details beginning to emerge.

While the NYC coroner announced his autopsy findings this morning were inconclusive, stating we’d have to wait for toxicology reports for more detailed information about what caused Heath’s death, there are new reports stating “packets of drugs” were found in Heath’s apartment, and police are testing a $20 dollar bill which was rolled “suspiciously” and had powder residue.

More and more, this story is starting to sound like an accidental overdose, perhaps with Heath combining prescription meds, OTC meds and now, possibly illicit drugs in his system to create a deadly and toxic combination. We also learned last night, Heath was battling pneumonia at the time of his death, which may have also compromised his immune system.

Coincidentally, we are coming up on the one-year anniversary of Anna Nicole Smith death. If you recall, Anna also died of a deadly combination of prescription drugs which were mixed with over-the-counter medication she was taking to battle cold and flu symptoms.

The one striking lesson emphasized over and over in the wake of Anna’s death was how dangerous it is to mix medications without the advice of a doctor. Even Casey Calvert, the guitarist from Hawthorne Heights, ended up being ruled an accidental overdose after he too mixed a lethal combination of medicines in his vulnerable system.

Heath may have been suffering from depression, stress and anxiety (anti-anxiety meds were found in his apartment) but based on the scene when Heath was found, it is unlikely he was TRYING to take his own life.

That’s little comfort to those who are mourning him today.

This is just really horrifyingly awful. Popular actor, and Academy Award nominee Heath Ledger has been found dead in his Soho, NY apartment. MSNBC is reporting:

A New York Police Department spokesman says the actor Heath Ledger has been found dead at a downtown Manhattan residence.
According to TMZ.com, Ledger, 28, was found dead in his bed in one of his residences in Soho by his housekeeper at 3:35 p.m. ET Tuesday.

The actor has a two-year-old daughter with former fiancee Michelle Williams. Ledger was set to play the Joker in the upcoming Batman film “The Dark Knight.” He received an Academy Award nomination for his work in “Brokeback Mountain.”

Additional information on Heath’s death is being reported by NY Times:

At 3:31 p.m., a masseuse arrived at Apartment 5A in the building for an appointment with Mr. Ledger, the police said. The masseuse was let in to the home by a housekeeper, who then knocked on the door of Mr. Ledger’s bedroom. When no one answered, the housekeeper and the masseuse opened the bedroom and found Mr. Ledger unconscious. They shook him, but he did not respond. They immediately called the authorities. The police said they did not suspect foul play. Officials said pills fear found near the body.

Heath, who won critical acclaim for his role as a bi-sexual cowboy in the widely praised hit film Brokeback Mountain met his ex-fiance, Michelle Williams, who’s the mother of his two-year old daughter, Matilda Rose, while filming that movie. Heath and Michelle have been separated since last year. Heath’s most recent finished project was playing the Joker in the new Batman film, The Dark Knight. Ledger was currently working on the new Terry Gilliam film in London,”The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” which is set to be released next year.

No confirmed cause has been given for how or why Heath died. But based on reports, and recent stories about Heath in the tabloids he may have been suffering from some sort of depression over his split back in the fall from Michelle Williams.

Very, very sad. RIP Heath.

Update: TMZ has been updating on this story and here’s what we know so far:

*Heath’s body was found face down on a bedroom floor of his apartment and there were no visible signs of trauma.
*Heath had a history of substance abuse problems, but was reportedly clean in the last year.
*Prescription sleeping pills were strewn all over the bed in the room Heath was found.
*Contrary to earlier reports, Heath was NOT at Mary Kate Olsen’s apartment.
*An autopsy is scheduled for tomorrow, and law enforcement are not ready to say whether Heath’s death was an accidental overdose, or a suicide.

We’ll keep you posted as further details emerge.

I will be joining Shaun Daily on BlogTalkRadio’s BTR Today show in 20 minutes or so and will definitely be discussing this terrible news. If you wish to listen or call in with question - click here.

Update 2: Heath Ledger was suffering from pneumonia at the time of his death, further complicating the events which may have lead to his passing. He was NOT found on the floor, but rather in his bed naked. He was placed on the floor by emergency workers and reports are stating he had been gone for a while before his body was found.

His family has also taken greats pains in emphasizing he DID NOTkill himself, as he’s “not that kind of person.” His ex, Michelle Williams is said to be “devastated” by the news of Heath’s death. We will certainly be hearing more from those who knew him over the next few days. I pray for the sake of his family, his death is found to be accidental.

I am just really stricken. His poor little Matilda, no one should loose their daddy at such a young age.