Critics Dismiss Oscar Buzz for Heath Ledger

Heath Ledger as the Joker in Warner Bros. Pictures' The Dark Knight - 2008


"All this Oscar talk is a phenomenon of the Internet age that I like to call 'a wish-fulfillment rumor.' If people say it often enough, they think it will happen," said Leonard Maltin, film critic for TV program "Entertainment Tonight."

"That's not to say it might not happen," he said, citing a "great performance" by Ledger. "But I assure you that the people who are spreading all this are neither Oscar voters nor (Hollywood) movers and shakers."

Oscar or not, the film hasn't even be released yet and it's already sold out in theaters nationwide. Hollyscoop caught a pre screening of the flick and it was undoubtedly one of Ledgers best performances. Come February, we'll be keeping our fingers crossed for a nomination. Are you planning on catching the flick in theaters this weekend?

Feds Want to Know How Heath Got His Meds

TMZ.com reports, The feds are trying to figure out how Heath Ledger got all the prescriptions for the dangerous combination of painkillers and sedatives that led to his accidental overdose. TV Guide's Michael Ausiello reports that the Drug Enforcement Administration has launched an investigation into how Ledger got prescriptions, if in fact they were prescriptions. According to officials, the DEA has requested copies of Ledger's autopsy as well as the original police report from the crime scene. The NYC medical examiner said this morning that he found the cause of death to be a lethal array of opiates and benzodiazepines; oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine. The NYPD has not indicated whether the bottles of medication found at Ledger's apartment, which include some of the drugs found in his body, were specifically prescribed to Ledger. TMZ spoke to three clinical psychiatrists today, all of whom said it would be "highly unusual" and "reckless" for one physician to prescribe this combination of meds, and suggested that more than one doctor would have to have been involved, or that Ledger could have obtained them by other means.