Crazy Kids and Car Wrecks

Jack Nicholson said he warned him.

Another friend was supposed to call and wake him up the next morning.

Now that it's come, they all saw it coming. Isn't it always that way?

It turns out, almost everyone who knew actor Heath Ledger knew he was a mess — strung out, addicted, depressed, in trouble. He showed up at one of those fancy openings looking like a homeless man. His former fiancee Michelle Williams, the mother of his 2-year-old daughter, reportedly broke off their relationship because she couldn't take it anymore. Her father is quoted in the press, describing Ledger as burning the candle at both ends.

Now, Heath Ledger is dead, another young Hollywood star gone down, the second in a matter of weeks. And everyone shakes their heads at these kids who have everything and yet feel like they have nothing, these kids who are the object of affection and attention and throw it all away in a blaze of self-destruction.

Did someone say Britney Spears?

What's wrong with them?

What's wrong with us?

Heath Ledger dominates this week's news in the same way a bad car wreck takes over the freeway in the other direction, the focus of all of us who know we shouldn't slow down to look but can't resist. There's no reason for traffic to be backed up, but it is. "Looky-loos," they call them in the traffic reports.

At what point does decency demand we look away?

At what point does the picture of someone going downhill, gone bad, gone crazy, become a picture only those who care enough to do something about it deserve to see?

The English tabloid Daily Mail quotes one source as saying: "It's easy to think an actor is just dressing bizarrely and acting weird on the red carpet to try to drum up some interest in themselves.

… Heath has really been very out of it for months. And he's been battling some pretty serious demons. It's just so incredible that it was allowed to gone on unchecked for so long."

Actually, it's not incredible at all. What would be incredible is if someone, anyone, were to do more than stare. What would be surprising is if we at least had the decency to avert our eyes if we weren't willing or able to call for help. What would deserve attention is if we didn't provide it, didn't crane our necks, pay the tab, take a seat to be part of the audience for increasingly outrageous steps on the path toward self-destruction.

Watch Britney. Watch how really crazy she is. Watch her fall right down the drain. Watch it again at 11, and on the websites, and in the magazines. Exclusive video here. And here.

If no one watched, would she still be this crazy? If no one took pictures, would he still have dressed so bizarrely?

The problem with acting like you're crazy, a friend of mine in the business has told me many times, is that eventually people become as crazy as they act. Let yourself go and you can find yourself gone. Play the part and the part can overtake you.

And us? We who comprise the audience make the part worth playing, the actor act more, the appearance of craziness become the reality.

Would Britney be so crazy if no one were watching? Maybe we should do an experiment and see — before it's too late and we get what we want and wring our hands about her, instead of ourselves; before all that's left is the Heath Ledger-like coverage. There he is. There he goes. There he went.

Who knew? We did.

To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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