Miscellaneous Celebrity News

[MsFroggy]

Originally Posted by MiaT2

Think Progress » John Gibson Mocks ‘Weirdo’ Heath Ledger’s Death: ‘He Found Out How To Quit You’

It's disgusting really.

What a disgusting freak! This guy seriously gives me the creeps. I'm not surprised though. He works for We-Make-It-Up-As-We-Go-Along FOX NEWS and he's just part of the rotting garbage over there.

[Google]

 

[Veruka]

Originally Posted by myrosiedog

May I just point out that the media wouldn't rush to these stories like vultures if there wasn't a market for them. Everyone on this thread including myself has been watching and reading about this. So the market exists and the vultures fill that market because all of us have been reading "up to the minute" reports and then posting about them here.
We create the need for the media vultures. If we weren't watching and reading about this, and their ratings and readership went down, would they be so willing to air all this "dirty laundry".

Let's face it. The "dirty laundry" sells and these people know that and respond to it.

And yes, at times I feel guilty for being the first person to rush to the tv or computer for the latest on celebrity gossip. I sometimes disgust myself.

I think that you make a great point here, but I will say that I think it is not that black and white. I was one of those people you described when I first heard the news (in this thread) shortly after the story broke. I went straight to the CNN website to see what information they had posted. When I've hear them talking about it on the news, I've listened. I want to know what they've figured out about what happened - the facts, not the speculation and rumors.

But I do draw some lines. I don't want to know what Michele Williams looked like or what she did upon returning to New York. I don't need reports to tell me that she, or Naomi Watts, or anyone else who was close to Heath Ledger was shocked or devestated. I can assume that without hearing reports. I don't care what color the bedspread on the bed where he was found was. I don't care what he had for dinner the night before he died, and what kind of mood the people who saw him two months ago thought he was in. I want to know the facts, but I still switch the channel, or just skim the internet reports, when they get into the rumors, innuendo, and speculation. Do the media outlets who produce it have a way to discern what I do and don't want to know? Not really. Maybe they should just read the posts at FORT and take it from there.

[femme fatale]

I saw in a paper that there's also a website on which you can place bets on when Britney's going to die . It's the same tacky thing.

I know that I'm part of creating a need for media, however I'd rather read an interview with someone than seeing a paparazzi picture of them wherever. But if this thing had happened to an unknown guy I still think it would have gotten some attention, by the serious press, at least here. But when celebrities are involved it also brings out everyone else wanting their piece of the cake.

What I mean is I think that this shpuld be reported as news, since it is, and it's just sad that people run with it, making the close ones uncomfortable, speculating freely and so on.

[Leo]

John Gibson isn't the only one stuffing his foot into his mouth. Guess who.

ABC News: Anti-Gay Church to Protest Ledger Funeral

Anti-Gay Church to Protest Ledger Funeral
Church Known for Protests of Soldiers' Funerals, to Picket Actor's Memorial
By RUSSELL GOLDMAN

Jan. 24, 2008—

A fundamentalist church whose members demonstrate at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq and believe God hates gays will protest the Academy Awards and the funeral of Heath Ledger, because the actor played a gay cowboy in the 2005 film "Brokeback Mountain."

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., are trying to find out where the 28-year-old actor's funeral will be held and have already made signs to hold outside the Oscars that read "God Hates Fags and Fag Enablers," "Heath in Hell" and "Mourn for Your Sins," Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of the church's controversial founder Pastor Fred Phelps, told ABCNEWS.com.

Though Ledger was not gay, the church believes he "misused the giant megaphone given to him by God Almighty to speak the truth about fags," Phelps-Roper said, and instead "used his position of prominence to say God is a liar and that homosexuality is not an abomination."

The time and location of the Ledger's funeral remain unknown, but it is widely believed it will take place in the actor's native Australia.

George Amado, the general manager of New York City's Frank E. Campbell funeral home, told The Associated Press that funeral arrangements for the actor are complete and his relatives are expected to arrive in New York City Friday.

He refused to elaborate further, saying, "The family doesn't want us to give out any information."

"They are going to try and hide the body like a bunch of ghouls so we can't protest. The only thing in this country people worship more than filthy sex acts is the dead," Phelps-Roper said.

She said members of the church had already purchased plane tickets to picket outside the Oscars, scheduled for Feb. 24 in Hollywood.

A press release posted to the church's Web site, godhatesfags.com, reads: "Heath Ledger is now in Hell, and has begun serving his eternal sentence there -- besides which, nothing else about Heath Ledger is relevant or consequential."

According to the Web site, the church, founded in 1955, has held more than 34,000 protests. But Phelps-Roper said there are currently only 50 members.

Hate Group, or Religious Freedom?

The Southern Poverty Law Center considers the church a hate group because of its "platform, writings and statements by its leader, which are egregiously anti-gay," said Mark Potok, director of the center's Intelligence Project.

"The group is made up of people who are almost literally out of their minds," Potok said. "In addition to regularly picketing the deaths of American soldiers killed in Iraq, they have picketed the funeral of little girls killed in a school bus crash because they wanted to link the death of children with 'America's sin.'"

Last year a Baltimore jury determined the Westboro Baptist Church was too vulgar and offensive to be covered by the First Amendment. The church was ordered to pay nearly $11 million to Albert Snyder, who brought a suit after the Phelps clan picketed the funeral of his 20-year-old son Matthew, who died while serving in Iraq.

The group routinely uses young children on its picket lines, sometimes giving them signs featuring explicit images to carry.

According to Potok, the only members of the church are Fred Phelps' family members.

"I doubt there is anyone in America who thinks more about gay sex than Fred Phelps," Potok said.

Ledger, 28, was found dead at the foot of his bed in his rented Soho loft Tuesday with several bottles of prescription drugs nearby. A preliminary autopsy completed Wednesday was unable to determine what killed the actor.

[Veruka]

Originally Posted by Leo

John Gibson isn't the only one stuffing his foot into his mouth. Guess who.

ABC News: Anti-Gay Church to Protest Ledger Funeral

Why does the media even honor those people by calling what they do protesting? They're not protesting, they're famewhoring. Plain and simple.

[myrosiedog]

Originally Posted by Veruka

Why does the media even honor those people by calling what they do protesting? They're not protesting, they're famewhoring. Plain and simple.

They aren't a real church either. They came and protested an event at the local highschool where we lived in Florida. The local bikers group came and revved their engines the entire time this group was "protesting" so they couldn't be heard. I thought it was great.

I agree with you Veruka in a way about the reporting. But geez, common sense (and I'm assuming that they have some which is probably assuming WAY too much) says that while we would like to hear the real news, we also do not need to see the 2 year old daughter and her mother. Or all the speculation or the other crap either.

[dagwood]

Originally Posted by myrosiedog

They aren't a real church either. They came and protested an event at the local highschool where we lived in Florida. The local bikers group came and revved their engines the entire time this group was "protesting" so they couldn't be heard. I thought it was great.

Those bikers follow them around to disrupt the protests. They showed up at my church when they were having a funeral for a soldier killed in Afghanistan. The WBC ended up not showing up but it was cool to drive by and the road on both sides was lined with the bikers.

I believe in the right to free speech, but I really wish people would think about the feelings of others. Think what you want, but you don't need to scream it in the face of someone whose loved one has just died. It's despicable.

[Veruka]

Originally Posted by dagwood

I believe in the right to free speech, but I really wish people would think about the feelings of others. Think what you want, but you don't need to scream it in the face of someone whose loved one has just died. It's despicable.

I believe in the right of free speech when people have something to say. I don't believe they have anything to say other than "look at me! look at me!" I don't call that free speech when Paris Hilton is standing on a red carpet, so I'm not sure why I should call it for them!

[dagwood]

Free speech is free speech whether or not you have something to say, in my opinion.

[lopevian]

I believe the participants in this thread are commiserating fans of Heath Ledger's, not media machine feeders.