Today’s blog post started off very differently but due to what has happened here this afternoon, this has totally changed.
I had a lovely day (of which will be posted about soon) and returned to the hotel at about 4pm to start some writing. It was at about 5pm that I received an SMS from a work colleague, Sandra, saying she heard Heath Ledger had died in Manhattan. It was right at that time that I had clicked on the Age website and was waiting for it to load and where I saw the breaking news. What happened between then and about 5.45pm was a crazy flurry of emails, text messages, page refreshes and channel flicking. It was first reported that his apartment was on Broome Street – well Broome Street is a huge street. Then I found out the exact address – 421 Broome and when I mapped it, that location is right near the Spring Street Subway stop. I know that area so well so without hesitation, my coat was on and I was running along 51st to jump on a Downtown 6 train during peak hour (squashy!) to get to the scene.
What I saw was strange. You see cameras, and flashing paparazzi bulbs all the time but to see it before you was bizarre. In terms of logistics, as I was just on my own, and without a camera crew, I actually was able to get a pretty ‘good’ view of the apartment block and, the medical examiners van. To say the apartments are creepy are an understatement. They look like four floors of empty loft apartments and the lights from the TV cameras were lighting up the first floor. Looking back on my pics, maybe it was the red bricked place next door that had the lights on. But they definitely came out of 421 and the look of the apartment matches the real estate listing.
See this photo that I moblogged and I think you get what I mean –
It was eerie.
I managed to get footage of his body being removed. I have to tell you – I am not sure how paparazzi do what they do. I feel grubby sharing this but I was there, I saw it and I did film it and it isn’t really that clear. You can view the video here –
The crowd soon ‘moved on’ after that and what remained were all the news broadcasters and reporters. I moved over to the front area of the apartment and shop front and took photos of what was happened. Live to air broadcasts, journalists taking notes, photographers – it was still quite crazy. It was then that I heard some Australian voices and I asked them who they wrote for. It was a reporter from the Daily Telegraph and she ended up asking me some questions about why I was there etc. and I explained that Heath was one of my favourite actors as well as I wanted to share what was going on with my friends back at home. The amount of text messages I was sending back and forth, whilst moblogging at the same time was a bit obscene!
Anyway all of the pics are here on my Flickr account. Definitely a day I won’t forget. Maybe more people may watch his films such as Two Hands and Candy as a result and see some of his Australian work.
Also, at Gothamist you can see the reporting as the news broke.
Also note – last year I was in Miami when Anna Nicole died. I was here in New York when Paul Hester died. Also here in New York when Pope John Paul died. Sheesh.