I suppose I should write something on the death of Heath Ledger.

A lot of gay people seem to want to put up velvet portraits of Heath Ledger in their homes, like the Hispanics do with Jesus or the urban do with John F. Kennedy, due to his performance in Brokeback Mountain.

The problem is, I liked the idea of Brokeback Mountain, but the reality of the film felt flat to me. Ledger's portrayal of Ennis Del Mar to me felt more bewildered than stoic, and there was no chemistry between Ennis and Jack Twist that I could see.

And does every "mainstream" film about gay people have to be about suffering through doubt and self-hatred in a relationship that inevitably ends in tragedy? Can't just once the gay cowboys live happily ever after? Is that too much to ask?

This may be heresy, but to me, Ledger's upcoming performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight seems much more interesting. But that's just me, and the thing with me you have to remember is that when Mary Kate Olsen's name came up in connection with the death, my first thought was "Well, of COURSE she was involved. She is, after all, a succubus."

Robert Goulet, dead at 73.

The biggest thing I remember about Robert Goulet is that on one of those lame late-70's sitcoms (I think maybe it was Alice), the protagonist of the series dressed up as him and unexpectedly met him. Hillarity supposedly ensued.

Remember, boys and girls, you can't spell "Alice" without "A lice!"

[H/T 2 memeorandum.]

Suppose Brad Pitt's dead. Does it matter?

Desissified reads this article and wonders how dead Brad Pitt is.

I suppose that if true (which I doubt -- no mention in Google News) it would matter only because it would cause casting problems for the Atlas Shrugged movie. And it would free up Angelina for some opportunistic young man. And I suppose there wouldn't be any good gay vampire movie sequels.

I'm gonna leave the article in an open window when I leave the library, though. Just to cause the others to get all tizzified.

UPDATE: Considering that when you roll over the "home" tab on that site, the link displayed is for "fakeawish.com," the story might . . . just MIGHT . . . be a hoax. Ya think?