Esquire is known for their journalistic stunts: a profile of a fictitious actress named Allegra Cole, played by the then unknown actress, Hero’s Ali Larter, is the most well known. This month Esquire has published a short story based on the final days of Heath Ledger’s life. I’m not sure how I feel about it. I’ve known people who are disgusted, but I think it’s the writer’s way of trying to wrap her head around a tragedy. That’s what the best fiction does – puts you, the reader, in the shoes of another person, so it feels realistic.
Though it is fictional, Ledger never met with Jack Nicholson. The writer, Lisa Taddeo, did her research for the story:
To write a conceivable chronicle of Heath Ledger’s final days, writer Lisa Taddeo visited the actor’s neighborhood, talked to the store owners and bartenders who may have seen him during his last week, and read as many accounts and rumors about the events surrounding his death as possible. She filled in the rest with her imagination. The result is what we call reported fiction. Some of the elements are true. (Ledger was in London. He was a regular at the Beatrice Inn and the Mirö Cafe. And he was infatuated with Nick Drake.) Others are not.
