<img src=”http://icydk.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/heath_ledger_filephoto.jpg” alt=”Heath Ledger” />

A Heath Ledger Scholarship is being launched to help wannabe Australian actors follow in the late star’s footsteps.

Australians in Film has established a fund, which it will present each year to a young up-and-coming performer with aspirations of Hollywood stardom.

Aussie Ledger died in January, aged just 28, after accidentally overdosing on prescription drugs at his New York apartment.

The organization, founded in 2001 to support Australians in the movie and TV industries, has also announced actresses Abbie Cornish and Mia Wasikowska will be honoured at its fourth annual breakthrough awards at a Beverly Hills, California ceremony on June 5th.

Source

A man who pretended to be the father of late Hollywood actor Heath Ledger in phone calls to Tom Cruise and John Travolta has refused to apologize for his actions.

Wayne Scott, 35, has been accused of making fake calls to Cruise and Halle Berry and also asked Travolta to pay for an air fare to New York following Ledger’s death January. But Scott has no remorse, because he has no recollection of the incident.

He says, “I can’t talk about the Heath Ledger thing. I don’t remember doing it. It may not have been me. I’m not apologizing for something I can’t remember doing.”

Scott last week, pleaded guilty to posing as wrestling star The Rock to get free tickets from English soccer clubs Everton and Manchester United.

Source

Movie bosses at Warner Brothers have chosen not to alter the final cut of the new Batman film, despite one disturbing scene that features the late Heath Ledger pretending to be dead.

Early screenings of The Dark Knight left some film fans reeling after they saw footage of Ledger, as The Joker, hiding out in a bodybag. That prompted internet speculation about whether studio heads would cut the scene to avoid upsetting sensitive Ledger fans. But a source close to the production tells website MovieHole.net, “The film remains intact – and nothing of Ledger’s will be cut from the movie, including the bodybag scene.”

The source adds, “I know for a fact that that scene is in the film. I also know that WB has made no such mandate and that (director) Chris Nolan is honest when saying that he will not change what was intended with The Joker.”

Source

With rumors rampant that Heath Ledger may have had a teenaged love child, the woman in question and her husband have spoken out.

“I’m not answering anything,” she told UK newspaper The Daily Mail (names redacted to protect privacy). “I think it’s very, very rude that I’m being posed all of this. I really do. I can’t talk about anything.”

“You have no proof, there’s no background, there’s no grounds, there’s no nothing,” she continued.

Her husband supported her assertions: “The whole thing with [Ledger being the father] is no. No way. No can be.”

Reports Ledger fathered the now 11-year-old girl came from the actor’s estranged uncle, who spoke to Australian media.

Ledger — who died of a prescription drug overdose in January at the age of 28 — had a fling with a 25-year-old woman when he was 17. The woman learned she was pregnant after their relationship ended.

“We knew it would flare up and that is the point of my talking and the simple thing is we will do a DNA test,” her husband told the Daily Mail.

“I’m the step-dad, but there’s nothing to hide… and if I asked [the mother] I’m sure that she wouldn’t mind [to have a DNA test],” he added.

WENN

One of Heath Ledger’s estranged uncles claims that the late actor may have fathered a love child when he was a teenager, according to a report in Australia’s Daily Telegraph.

When he was just 17 years old, Ledger reportedly dated a 25-year-old woman – who discovered she was pregnant after the relationship ended and later gave birth to baby girl. Although the woman was living with another man at the time, Ledger’s uncle Hadyn claimed to the paper, “There is a very real possibility that Heath was the father.”

The actor – who died in January at the age of 28, following an accidental overdose of prescription drugs – has a daughter, Matilda, with actress Michelle Williams.

His will, written before Matilda’s birth, left his entire estate to his parents and three sisters. Although his father, Kim, has promised Williams and the 2-year-old “will be taken care of,” the uncertainty surrounding the will has reignited a family feud between Kim and his three estranged brothers.

The long-simmering tensions date back more than 15 years, when Kim was made executor of his grandfather Sir Frank Ledger’s $2-million estate. “It plunged into enormous debt,” Mike Ledger, one of Kim’s brothers, told People. (According to Australia’s The Sunday Times, a Supreme Court judge eventually removed Kim from overseeing the estate.)

The brothers now claim Kim is not capable of managing the late Oscar nominee’s considerable assets.

WENN

Michelle Williams’ father has cast doubt on the handling of Heath Ledger’s estate by the late star’s dad Kim, and has called for the family to publicly state the true value of the actor’s personal fortune.

The Brokeback Mountain actor left all of his assets to parents Kim and Sally and older sister Kate, having filed his will in Australia in April 2003 – two years prior to birth of his daughter, Matilda, with then-girlfriend, actress Williams. Kim has since assured that both Williams and two-year-old Matilda will be financially “taken care of”, but Larry Williams wants to know exactly how much Heath was worth at the time of his death so that his girls are not cheated out of any money.

A series of documents filed in Manhattan, New York’s Surrogate’s Court earlier this month shows Ledger had less than $145,000 worth of assets in New York at the time, including a $25,000 Toyota Prius and $20,000 in furniture. But Larry is sure Heath had other riches, which the family have yet to declare.

Speaking to Australia’s The Sunday Telegraph, Larry says, “It’s real simple: just come clean with everything. It’s so easy to resolve this. “He just has to say where the income went and where the assets are. I’m certain that there is grieving in the Ledger family but (lawyers for) Kim have already filed papers in New York, so it seems like it’s time to be transparent about it. I have no idea what Heath Ledger was worth (but) they certainly haven’t stated all of the assets to the court.”

The Ledger family has yet to respond to Larry’s calls and actress Williams has also remained tight-lipped about her ex-fiance’s will. Larry’s demand comes just days after Heath’s uncles expressed fears about Kim’s ability to manage Heath’s estate adequately, citing his bad track record of financial management.

Heath Ledger’s uncles are speaking out against his father Kim’s handling of the actor’s assets, saying Kim has a bad track record of estate management.

Ledger’s father so mishandled the management of their grandfather’s estate 15 years ago in Australia that Kim was removed as executor, the uncles claim.

“It plunged into enormous debt,” Mike Ledger, one of Kim’s brothers, tells People.

Heath died in January at age 28 of an accidental mixture of prescription drugs – leaving behind a daughter, Matilda, by his ex, actress Michelle Williams. His will, written before his relationship with Williams, leaves everything to his parents and sisters.

Ledger’s uncle Mike insists the family has nothing to gain by removing Kim: “Our only vested interest is to assure that Matilda is well looked after.”

Mike added that Kim’s recent statement that Matilda “will be taken care of” was not enough assurance. “When you are talking about large sums of money like this,” he says, “it should be an independent executor, but Kim hasn’t chosen that way.”

Williams’s Father Raises Questions
Another of Kim’s brothers, Hayden, tells People that Williams’s father, Larry, asked him if Kim was capable of managing the actor’s estate. “I just said, ‘No, not if he handles it like ours,’ ” he says.

The bitter dispute among the brothers dates back more than 15 years, when Kim became an executor of their grandfather Sir Frank Ledger’s estate, which they estimate was worth about $2 million in the mid 1980s. The family patriarch was a respected engineer in Perth.

According to the newspaper The Australian, Frank’s daughters filed a motion in Supreme Court asking to have Kim removed as the executor. The submission to the court stated that Kim’s handling of his grandfather’s estate “placed the assets at risk.” A report in Australia’s The Sunday Times says that a Supreme Court judge eventually removed Kim from overseeing the estate.

Ledger Family Friend Defends Kim
Robert John Collins – an Australian executor of Heath’s will who has known the Ledger family for 30 years – said last week that Mike and Hayden’s allegations about Kim were “rubbish.”

Kim and his brothers have remained estranged since the dispute. In fact, Mike says that 17 family members weren’t even invited to attend Heath’s memorial and funeral in Perth.

“I’m his godfather,” Mike says. “We didn’t even have the ability or the opportunity to pay our last respects to Heath. And I tell you, that is terrible – that is so sad.”

WENN