Seeing that Hollywood found it necessary to provide a standing ovation (multiple times) for someone either totally selfish (suicide) or bone jarringly stupid (accidental overdose)...I quite willingly question their values...intelligence and concept of what should and should not be rewarded...Last night's cumulative circle jerk of idiocy shows just how out of touch they are...and how obtuse they are to what they are honoring.
I'm not saying that Heath Ledger's final performance as the Joker wasn't well done. It was. However, the attention it garnered (because of this death), and the reactions from the vacuous ones in attendance last night leave a lot to be desired from an purely ethical and moral point of view. I found it uncomfortable and gauche. It is Hollywood...I guess. A room filled with folks who stand on an "X" and regurgitate what other people write (a signficant number of whom never graduated from high school).
How about a nice round of applause for these folks?:
Lenny Bruce (40) - comedian, morphine overdose.
John Belushi (33) - of the Blues Brothers, actor, and comedian, heroin and cocaine overdose (speedball).
Montgomery Clift - actor, heart attack due to severe alcoholism and drug abuse.
Alexander Godunov (45) - actor, died of alcoholism.
Dorothy Dandridge (42) - actress, singer, anti-depressant overdose.
Margaux Hemingway (41) - actress, disputed suicide, overdose of phenobarbital.
Gary Holton (33) - actor, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, alcohol and morphine overdose.
Alan Ladd (50) - actor, acute overdose of alcohol and hypnotic barbiturates, probable suicide.
Bruce Lee (32) - actor, martial artist, died of acute cerebral edema due to a reaction to compounds present in the prescription pain killing drug Equagesic.
Carole Landis - actress, overdose of barbiturates (suicide).
Bela Lugosi (73) - actor, drug-related heart attack.
Jack Nance (53) - actor, alcohol addiction
Chris Penn (40) - actor (Reservoir Dogs), brother of Sean Penn, heart disease and prescription drugs.
Jack Pickford (36) - actor, syphillis & alcohol and drug abuse.
River Phoenix (23) - actor, overdose of heroin and cocaine (speedball).
Dana Plato (34) - actress, of Diff'rent Strokes, suicide - overdose of muscle relaxant Vanadom (carisoprodol)and Vicodin.
Freddie Prinze (22) - comic, actor (Chico and the Man), self-inflicted gunshot wound while under the influence of Quaaludes
Rachel Roberts (53) - actress - barbiturate overdose (suicide).
Alma Rubens - actress, flu caused by heroin addiction.
George Sanders (65) - actor, barbiturates overdose (suicide).
Natalie Wood - actress, drowned when intoxicated.
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