I don't give a crap about the impact of his death of the film role. I actually think that approach, while ridiculous in its own right, is a wee bit more sensible (if cold-hearted), then the "Omg, H.L. is dead, I'm CRUSHED" reaction I've seen from various people.
And it's not just Heath Ledger, or the retards on this board, that I have a problem with. We've all seen this psuedo-celebrity worship played out all across the country, for as long as I remember. There is a disturbing tendency for people to obsessively latch onto a celebrity, like Princess Di, or Britney Spears, or Madonna, and form some sort of emotional bond, with these people they've never met, whom they don't even know except throughthe prism of the Hollywood hype machine. It's the type of phenomena that allows shows like Entertainment Tonight, E!, and TMZ.com to thrive.
As sad as that is, and as much as I look down upon those types of people, it's the ones who latch onto someone post-mortem that sicken me the most. God, I remember when Dale Earnhardt ate the wall at Daytona, even people who were vocal in their hatred of NASCAR came around the following days, talking about the dudes best races and wearing some hastily-made "We Love You Dale" t-shirts they got at the local flea-market. It struck me as disingenuous and shallow. I think the same thing happened on these forums when the Big Bossman died. 12-year olds who had never seen the man wrestle posted messages explaining how much they were gonna miss this guy.
So yeah, my tangent might be misplaced in this particular case, but I think it's a tangent worth consideration.