Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

The Heath Ledger saga continues

Apparently the parental home of recently deceased film star Heath Ledger in the nearby suburb of Applecross is under siege by foreign and eastern states paparazzi. After all, it is the Year of the Rat. They were ensconced there all day yesterday in the pouring rain. Exxxxxcellent! It was our wettest February day for a million years.

I don't know what they are waiting for, and I suppose they don't either. Maybe they are hoping for some sort of Heath Ledger apparition, Elvis style? He died of an overdose too.

If the local newspaper, The West Australian is to believed, Mr Ledger's interment will take place tomorrow at a family plot in Karrakatta cemetery. That will make the paparazzi go into a swoon. Apparently they have their cockatoos posted in the graveyard, just in case the Ledger family decide to pull a fast one and have the funeral earlier. Then there would be a stampede from Applecross to the other side of the river.

I suspect the film star is becoming more famous in death than in life. In the future there will be a steady trickle of international fans, some of them not even born yet, who will make a pilgrimage to his grave and have their photos taken alongside it. This is what happens with the also much troubled and much deaded AC-DC rock singer Bon Scott, who is dug in at the Fremantle Cemetery. I've heard that on July 9, his birthday, the fans leave full bottles of scotch whisky on the grave and he drinks them at night when no one is around. Maybe the same sort of thing will happen with Heath Ledger? His birthday is 4 April.

Our intrepid local newspaper has also reported that it suspects there will be a wake for Mr Ledger tomorrow at the rather swish Cottesloe beachfront establishment known as the Indiana Teahouse. Why it has been so named is one of life's mysteries. Indiana Jones maybe?

Reportedly, everyone ordinary who'd booked a table for tomorrow have been told to get on their bikes and go somewhere else. The extravagant establishment had received an offer it couldn't refuse. Well, we are talking about wake for a Hollywood star. The canapes will sure to be very nice.

Via the miracle of cyberspace you can visit the illustrious establishment yourself. Check out the PDF menus. They don't use capital letters and tomato has an 'e' on the end, just like President Bill Clinton used to put an 'e' on the end of potato. At first glance some of the prices might seem expensive, but they come with a multi-million dollar view of the Indian Ocean.

Presumably the venue was chosen because this and Cottesloe Beach, which is below the tearooms was a favourite place for Mr Ledger. It's one of mine too. In my youthful days I used to regularly surf there. Fremantle can be seen to the south.

This sad celebrity story is not likely to die with Mr Ledger's funeral. At least not as far as the paparazzi are concerned. Already the conspiracy nutters are at work with all the usual stuff - suicide, murder, cover-ups. It will go on for years.

In addition Mr Ledger was probably a very wealthy man because several of his films have been blockbusters. The next really big question is, did he leave a will? He had a wife and child, albeit estranged from him and his deleterious habits. Provided he had not relinquished his Australian citizenship to work in the US, they should be entitled to his entire estate, and of course the future royalty earnings from his film roles. These days all sensible big-name stars have such royalty provisions in their contracts - don't they? Nevertheless, there could be a bun fight coming on, and it won't be at the Indiana Teahouse.

© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.

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Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!