The News: Drugs and Spin Mix in Ledger Report

By S.T. VanAirsdale

Some of today's movie news of note from around New York:

--News hit Wednesday that the city medical examiner officially determined "the abuse of prescription medications" as the cause of Heath Ledger's death Jan. 22. Ledger's family delicately spun the details in a statement quoted this morning in The Times ("[N]o medications were taken in excess," said the actor's father Kim. "Heath’s accidental death serves as a caution to the hidden dangers of combining prescription medication, even at low dosage.") while a trio of unrelated experts run down the symptoms of addiction, recklessness and irresponsibility. Autopsy reports on good taste were inconclusive.

--Via The Carpetbagger, we learn that Harvey Weinstein optioned the rights to Evan Kuhlman's novel Wolf Boy and that now, honoring a promise they made last summer, the authors of New York Magazine's Vulture blog can't make fun of the mogul for six months. Does that mean they can't suspect him of shamelessly leaking word of Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz's lesbian makeout scene in Woody Allen's forthcoming Weinstein release Vicky Cristina Barcelona?

--Oh, yeah, by the way: Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz reportedly share a lesbian makeout scene in Woody Allen's forthcoming Weinstein release Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

--Vincent Gallo told the Daily News that he's deserting Dario Argento's new film Giallo. Something about an ex-girlfriend named Asia, retirement, the usual.

--Reviewing In Bruges for The New Yorker, Anthony Lane has early dibs on the line of the year, describing Brendan Gleeson as looking "half like a whiskey priest and half like a pastry chef’s mistake." I'll just let that one ring.

Posted at February 7, 2008 9:22 AM