A year since Heath

Has it been a year already? It doesn’t seem so long ago that the whole world was shocked by the news that young actor Heath Ledger, whose career was truly on a steady and sure upswing, was found dead in a Manhattan apartment owned by Mary-Kate Olsen, with whom he was rumored to have had a short-lived romance. Then again, the last film he completed, The Dark Knight, was shown only six months ago. That, and the fact that his name still keeps cropping up in acting awarding ceremonies.

Just recently, Ledger was posthumously awarded the 66th Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for his performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight. Director Christopher Nolan accepted the award on his behalf. On his first death anniversary on January 22, his posthumous nomination for the 2008 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor was announced.

Like millions of viewers, I’m sure, I’m tuning in to see if he’ll be the second actor to win posthumously, after Peter Finch, who won Best Actor for Network in 1977—two years before Ledger was even born. It’s a stretch—but so was his mesmerizing, disturbing performance as the Joker. Already, there’s a loud buzz going on about his Oscar nomination in cyberspace, with fans hoping for a win. Well, we don’t have too long to wait; we’ll know on February 22.

And truly, the dead and the brilliant can keep making money in showbiz. There’s still one Ledger film left that we can look forward to: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. This fantasy film, directed by Terry Gilliam, who gave us Twelve Monkeys and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, was the last project Heath had been working on. He supposedly finished fifty percent of it.

One more reason to look forward to this film is the fact that Ledger’s buddies stepped in for his role (and they all donated their fees to Ledger’s daughter with Michelle Williams, Matilda Rose). This means that not only are we going to see Ledger in his final performance, we’re also going to see Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law in the same movie! Hollywood jackpot, indeed!

Of course, I’d still rather Ledger didn’t die in the first place. He was such a loss to an industry already dominated by mediocrity.

The new Twilight girl?

The entire franchise is still alien to me—I haven’t even read the books—but even I got curious when I heard that Dakota Fanning, now almost fifteen years old and a high school cheerleader, is in talks to be part of the Twilight sequel, New Moon. Fans were so thrilled to hear this rumor that an online petition was started to persuade the studio to cast Fanning as Jane. It seems like they didn’t need to. Talk has it that she didn’t even have to audition; the role of Jane was offered to her by director Chris Weitz, who is said to believe she’s perfect for the part.

Fanning was last seen with Queen Latifah and Jennifer Hudson in The Secret Life of Bees, which is currently being shown in local theaters. Before she turns into a vampire on us, however, we’ll see her as a creepy, dreadlocked psychic girl in the thriller Push, which is set to be released next month.

It seems like Fanning has survived the awkward transition period from being a child star to more mature roles. I’m crossing my fingers she doesn’t go the path of once-upon-a-time or current Hollywood bad girls, like Lindsay Lohan.

On related news, High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens is also rumored to be joining the Twilight franchise as a werewolf. No petitions, last I checked.

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