Brokeback Mountain courtesy Focus Features
Brokeback Mountain is coming to the stage as an opera.New York City Opera commissioned composer Charles Wuorinen to set the cowboy romance to music. A 2013 premiere is planned.The 2005 film adaptation of Annie Proulx's story that starred Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal won three Academy Awards. — J.R. Whalen
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Heath Ledger as Ennis del Mar in Brokeback Mountain courtesy Focus Features
Last night, I reluctantly rewatched Brokeback Mountain. I say "reluctantly" not because I dislike the film. If I were to compile a top-10 list of my favorite movies of all time, Brokeback would easily make the cut. No, I hesitated because the heartbreaking love story of Ennis and Jack always leaves me an emotional wreck, and the undercurrent of Heath Ledger's untimely death was a tragic added layer I couldn't bear. But after a couple of glasses of chardonnay and a gentle nudge from my partner, Kit — "Think of it as a tribute to Heath" — I decided to do the brave thing and, rather than sidestep my grief, run headfirst into it. So I popped in the DVD. And within seconds, the floodgates opened. I was a mess. A crying, nose-running, whimpering mess. But then, Gustavo Santaolalla's haunting, Oscar-winning score always triggered my inner Tammy Faye. (The Terms of Endearment theme has a similar effect on me.) The fact that those simple guitar tracks could easily double as the sou...
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Heath Ledger by Serge Thomann/WireImage.com.
Actor Heath Ledger Found DeadAcademy Award-nominated actor Heath Ledger was found dead yesterday in a Soho apartment at the age of 28. The tragic news of the Brokeback Mountain star’s death came as a shock, and the cause (though speculated to be an overdose) is still undetermined. An autopsy this morning was deemed inconclusive. Ledger's family has been quoted as saying that the death is "very tragic, untimely and accidental." Here we take a look at some of Ledger's most memorable roles. Watch the video. | More online videos10 Things I Hate About You (1999)After work in a small indie film followed by some television roles, Ledger got his big break in the Hollywood film 10 Things I Hate About You. One of his most memorable moments in this modern remake of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, in which he played bad-boy Patrick Verona, came when he serenaded Julia Stile’s character with the song “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You.” Watch the video now. | Mor...
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Jan 23, 2008 07:10 AM ET
- by Ken Fox
Heath Ledger in Candy courtesy THINKFilm
Not long before 3:35 pm on January 22, 2008, the short life and promising career of actor Heath Ledger came to a sudden, tragic end. It was around this time that Ledger's housekeeper and his masseuse discovered the body of the Australian-born actor in the bedroom of the Broome Street apartment he'd been renting in lower Manhattan. Ledger was not yet 29 years old.News of Ledger's death came as a terrible shock to nearly everyone, even though it now seems the low-key, Oscar-nominated actor had been privately battling his own demons for quite some time. His passing is the terrible surprise ending no one saw coming, an abrupt finale to a life and career that seemed to be all about the unexpected.Born and raised in Perth, Australia, and named after the darkly romantic anti-hero from Wuthering Heights (he has a sister named Katherine), Ledger left school at the age of 17 to pursue a career in acting. He eventually landed a role in Blackrock, a small independent feature about teen rape, fo...
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CBS Mobile is launching this week a cell-phone game based on CSI: Miami. I imagine it's like Donkey Kong, but instead of barrels you jump little flipping sunglasses.... Producer Mark Gordon (Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Army Wives) has inked a new deal to stay put at ABC Studios through 2011.... Brooks & Dunn, Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood are among the performers lined up thus far for the CMA Awards, airing Nov. 7 on ABC.... Brokeback Mountain writer Annie Proulx has greenlit an opera about those two frisky cowpokes.... The ratings people have begun beta-testing "Hey! Nielsen," an online forum in which TV enthusiasts can express their views.
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A 12-year-old girl and her grandparents are suing the Chicago Board of Education, claiming that an Ashburn Community Elementary School substitute teacher's showing of Brokeback Mountain during class traumatized the tween and required psychological counseling. (What's more, many students in the class are now lamenting, "I wish I knew how to quit P.E.!")According to the AP, the fill-in teach prefaced the presentation by shutting the classroom door and saying, "What happens in Ms. Buford's class stays in Ms. Buford's class" — which when you think about it, is far better than if she had said, "What happens in Jack Twist's...."POLL: Was Ms. Buford wrong? Vote here.
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If you took all the terrific shows that air on Thursday night and spread them out during the week … well, we can dream, can’t we? The crowded list of can’t-miss Thursday shows just grew this week with the addition of Scrubs to NBC’s top-notch two-hour comedy block (30 Rock made its Thursday debut earlier this month), joining My Name Is Earl and The Office (which hits another home-run this week with an episode penned by the original British series’ creators, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant). ABC has also potentially strengthened its hand with the addition of the Friday charmer Men in Trees to its lineup, a tasty nightcap to a first-rate lineup including the adorable Ugly Betty and the once-again-riveting Grey’s Anatomy (even those fickle fans who’d been carping recently have to admit the Thanksgiving night episode was a knockout).CBS is still a powerhouse with Survivor (which kicked into high gear Thanksgiving night as well, with its merger episo...
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Question: The Oscar voters seem to go out of their way to nominate the "little guys." Felicity Huffman was nominated for Transamerica even if the movie made less than $3 million at the box office. Why can't it be the same for the Emmys? If the Oscar voters were anything like Emmy voters, then Crash or Brokeback Mountain wouldn't even be on the list of nominations. I am especially nervous about the category for best actress in a comedy: I agree with you that Marcia Cross deserves to win. She makes the transition from a psychotic alcoholic to a caring mother look so freakin' easy! Unfortunately, I have a feeling that Teri Hatcher will also be nominated. She's a great actress, but there are actresses who are more deserving. Huffman is always great, but this season of Desperate Housewives belonged to Cross. Mary-Louise Parker will probably get nominated, too. Other nominees I'd like to see are Lisa Kudrow — sadly, I think the Emmy voters might pass on her, and though she was on HBO, her ...
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Question: Do you know when the new season of Rescue Me will start?
Answer: May 30 at 10 pm. And here's a little prattle: We'll soon discover that one of the firemen is better acquainted with hoses than the others. (Hey, just be grateful I didn't make a Brokeback Mountain joke.)
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Question: In your Dispatch column, you said that you enjoyed Vito's Splendor in the Grass moment on The Sopranos this week. Don't you think it was a little too reminiscent of Brokeback Mountain? From the fight outside the bar, to the Splendor in the Grass moment, the whole thing was either a deliberate, or at least conscious, imitation of Brokeback. Why do something so unoriginal? Even if the story line was conceived before Brokeback came out, it seems that they should have changed the way, or at least the place, in which that last scene played out.
Answer: Let's see. A fat mobster in exile and a volunteer fireman/short-order cook ride their motorbikes into the New Hampshire countryside for a clandestine getaway where they can finally show some affection for each other, and you think that's ripping off the angst-filled, awkward yearning of those Brokeback cowboys? The only thing these stories share in common is how these characters' homosexuality upends the usual stereotypes not just of
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