Heath Ledger died on January 22 2008. Esquire, like many a magazine, decided to write a piece on his life and his death. Esquire, unlike other magazines, adopted a stylistic manner of writing, a confessional “how I lived out my final days” in the words of Heath Ledger. Except that it was written by aspiring writer Lisa Thaddeo. You can read the article here.
Does this form of fictionalised journalism have any point to it? Beyond trying to be interesting and sensationalist, I hardly think so. It neither shows respect for Ledger’s recent demise, nor report only facts, nor shed any new light about his life. In fact, 80% of the story is focused on Jack Nicholson and his salacious wiles. Why pretend to write about something and then not write about it? To me, that’s just bad journalism.
