While walking through the mall, frantically (finally) picking out baby clothes for the baby who is arriving early, there were GIANT posters for "The Dark Knight", the new Christopher Nolan Batman franchise all over the mall. Ava immediately honed in on the image you see and said, "Mama - is that the Joker? I like him a lot." Of course, I'm trying to clap my hands over her eyes as I feel the images are too scary for my 5 year old. Genius, but scary. Heck, scary for me! "But Mama - he's fabulous. Why does he wear makeup?" Oh lawdy. I tried to explain without going into the whole psychotic anarchist criminal part. And you're never seeing it until you're 18, sweetie.
My point is more than that. I was doing an event literally blocks from Heath Ledger's apartment in SoHo a few days ago and there were gawkers anew as I walked by. In a flash, I recalled the klieg lights, the body being carried out on the stretcher, the curious hordes with camera phones, the intrusive media scaring his tiny daughter as she arrived home with her mother to Brooklyn. Why on Earth does the media feel the need to ambush those in times of grief, whether victims of crime or death of another sort? Eventually, everyone makes a statement. Why must they invade our spaces? The lurid fascination is odd and terribly unsettling for a child.
That said, I'll be at one of the first showings of "Dark Knight". I wonder in the ensuing boffo box office if people are coming to gawk at a tragic figure or pay their respects to a fine actor who gives a tour de force performance. Maybe both.
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