A lawsuit over the Heath Ledger video that was pulled from US entertainment shows after pressure from his PR firm, showing Heath talking about and taking drugs, claims that the video was a set up by the paparazzi. A woman who used to date one of the photographers is suing for unknowingly appearing in the video as well as having her hotel room appropriated for what she claims was a frame up:

The Australian film star accepted drugs from two photographers, who then videoed him talking about using marijuana, footage that created an international outcry when it surfaced after his death in January.

The video was condemned by Mr Ledger’s family and pulled from US television shows at their request, but has still raised more than $1million in international sales, the lawsuit claims. Legal papers filed in Los Angeles claim that Ledger had his own supply of cocaine, but that the notorious video was a set up.

The ex-girlfriend of one of the paparazzi is now suing for damages, claiming that her privacy was infringed because the filming took place in her hotel room and she appeared in the footage without her permission.

The legal papers claim that he was filmed in a room at the Chateau Marmont Hotel in Los Angeles in January 2006, as he celebrated winning a Screen Actors Guild award for his role in the film Brokeback Mountain, which also garnered him an Oscar nomination.

It says that one of the photographers “gave Ledger a package of cocaine. Mr Ledger also had some of his own. The cocaine was put on the table, and the men began snorting cocaine.”

The woman, who has filed the claim anonymously, says she did not take the drug. The papers say the same photographer who brought the drugs then left, and was soon “outside of our hotel room, on the balcony, hidden, shooting video footage of everyone in the room”.

The video, which did not show Mr Ledger actually snorting cocaine, has been broadcast on the internet. It shows the actor rolling a cigarette paper and saying: “I used to smoke five joints a day for 20 years.”

Telegraph

Her lawyer, Douglas Johnson, said, in what may be the understatement of the year, “This is bad stuff. You don’t give drug addicts drugs so you can then tape them.”

This behavior by the paparazzi is pretty disgusting, so I’m really hoping that the people supposedly responsible get an absolute arse kicking if this is true.

Michael Johns, the Australian-born American Idol contestant who was eliminated from the competition last week, has come out with his own comment about Heath Ledger – he knows nothing!

Speaking from the US, a day after being booted off American Idol, Johns said reports that he was friends with Ledger and had dedicated his Idol experience to him were untrue.

“I wasn’t friends with Heath Ledger at all,” Johns said.

“The guy’s a legend, I thought he did great in his career, and will be sorely missed, but I never said that.”

Johns said he was so angry about the story which quoted a “friend” and was widely circulated around the world, that he asked his mum to contact the Ledgers to set the story straight.

“When I saw that come out in Star Magazine I was livid,” he said.

“I actually told my mum when she got back to Perth please reach out to Heath’s family and let them know that that’s absolutely bogus.”

The West Australian

I don’t know how Star Magazine is with its geography, but Perth is a big place. It’s not exactly the kind of place where everyone knows all their neighbors, considering the population is around 1.5 million people.

————————-possible Dark Knight spoilers————————-
In other Heath Ledger news, the body bag scene from the up coming Dark Knight film looks to be kept intact. Which is good news for everyone involved – you don’t want to work so hard on a film to have integral scenes cut from it. Besides, it might be a reminder for people that Heath’s character was not him. It was a fictional character.

Note by Celebitchy: I read most of this lawsuit, and I’m glad Helen reported on it because it made me sad and I didn’t know what to say about it at first. The thing that struck me about this story was the fact that Heath is said to have found out at some point that he was being taped secretly, and the guys kept assuring him that they would destroy the footage and that he had nothing to worry about.

This completely explained to me why Heath hated the paparazzi and often looked annoyed and grumpy when he was photographed out - he was once set up by them, supplied drugs and taped doing them. So he had firsthand experience with how duplicitous the paparazzi could be, and he also had this potential bombshell hanging over his head. He must have worried about what would have happened if this video came out, and that’s something that can bother you in even the happiest moments, creeping into your thoughts and haunting you. He was a troubled guy in a lot of ways, but he had a lot to worry about too. At least his death was an accident, but it happened because he was taking prescription drugs to try and cope with insomnia and racing thoughts. It’s no one’s fault, but you can understand a little more what he was going through.

Thanks to PRPhotos for these pictures of the memorial set up outside the apartment Heath was renting in NY.