Michelle Williams said that all parts of her life have been altered since the death of her finance, Heath Ledger.

The 31-year-old actress says in the October issue of Vogue magazine that experiencing Ledger’s death has changed her career and how she acts toward others.

Ledger died in January 2008 after an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. He was 28.

Williams plays Marilyn Monroe in the film “My Week with Marilyn,” due out November 4. It focuses on Monroe’s life in 1956 while filming the movie “The Prince and the Showgirl.”

Williams says playing Monroe made her feel “like being reborn.”

I went into "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus" eager to see Heath Ledger’s final curtain call.

That eagerness retreated rather quickly. I think it was right around the time Ledger’s character was introduced, hanging lifelessly from a noose underneath a London bridge. Unfortunately Ledger’s death casts a pall over director Terry Gilliam’s entire film and his patented madcap flights of fancy cannot erase a sense of melancholy that permeates the whole production.

It certainly does not help matters that the film itself is a complete mess.

It’s a shame because the story is certainly promising and right up Gilliam’s alley. Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) has spent his entire immortal life losing bets to the devilish Mr. Nick (Tom Waits). Dr. P’s latest wager is about to cost him his daughter Valentina (Lily Cole), with Mr. Nick poised to collect his prize as soon as she turns 16. Parnassus makes a last desperate wager in the hopes that he can save Valentina and avoid giving the devil his due.

Using his incredible powers, which allow people to literally explore their own imaginations, Parnassus has to "win" five souls before Mr. Nick. The arrival of the mysterious and smooth-talking Tony (Ledger) to his troupe gives Parnassus hope that he can save his daughter and finally beat Mr. Nick at a game that seems perpetually rigged against him.

The film comes alive when Tony is escorting unexpecting patrons through their own imaginations. Due to Ledger’s death, Tony is played by Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell in the scenes set in the Imaginarium, which is a shame as they are by far the film’s best. It is rather sad that every time Tony leaps into the Imaginarium and Ledger is replaced with another actor, the film becomes infinitely more fun. Farrell in particular is captivating, easily capturing Tony’s snake-like and sleazy charm as he struts through his scenes with a movie star’s confidence.

Unfortunately Ledger does not prove as capable. Gilliam allowed him to improvise most of his dialogue and it shows. Ledger’s performance seems to be coming from several different directions at once, as if he wasn’t quite sure of what to make of the character. It is sad to see Ledger get upstaged so completely in his last film, but Depp, Law and particularly Farrell simply have a spark that stands in sharp contrast to Ledger’s muddled and confused performance.

Much of the blame should be placed on Gilliam. He seems disinterested in the scenes in the real world. While I can understand his enthusiasm for the more fantastical moments in the film, he forgets to develop a narrative thread. Fantastical images are great, but fantastical images that exist in an engaging narrative are better. Gilliam sadly seems to have forgotten that, and the film veers wildly from scene to scene with no real connection to each other.

While the film doesn’t work, it’s hard not to admire it. It cannot have been easy finishing the film after losing Ledger so tragically and to see Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell work so hard to honor their friend is quite exceptional. It’s not their fault that they upstage him a bit in the process.

If you really want to see Heath Ledger’s last performance, I recommend you stay home instead and watch "The Dark Knight", "Brokeback Mountain" and simply admire how full of life Ledger and his characters are.

Here, for what it’s worth, are my 2009 Oscar predictions in the six major categories:

Best Picture:

Will Win: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Should Win: “Frost/Nixon”
Common consensus is that Sunday night will belong to the Little Movie That Could from India, but for my nerdy journalistic sensibilities, the best movie of the year was Ron Howard’s engaging adaptation of “Frost/Nixon.”

Best Director:

Will Win: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Should Win: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
The British director’s crafting of this Indian fairytale into the feel-good movie of the year makes him the favorite, and deservedly so.

Best Actor:

Will Win: Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”
Should Win: Frank Langella, “Frost/Nixon”
The Academy loves a comeback, and Mickey Rourke certainly seems to have reinvented himself with his utterly sacrificial turn in “The Wrestler.” Keep an eye on Sean Penn though, who might emerge as a dark horse victor for voters who might use their ballot to make a political statement in light of Proposition 8′s passing in November.

Best Actress:

Will Win: Kate Winslet, “The Reader”
Should Win: Kate Winslet, “The Reader”
Backlash against “The Reader” and, in turn, Winslet’s performance has been building ever since it surged ahead of (presumably) “The Dark Knight” and “Wall-E” to nab a Best Picture nomination. Behind “Frost/Nixon” it was my second favorite movie of the year. Between this and her un-nominated performance in “Revolutionary Road” Winslet cemented herself as the best actress working today.

Best Supporting Actor:

Will Win: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
Should Win: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
Even setting aside the tragedy of his untimely death as a factor in this race, Ledger’s performance is undeniably the standout of the bunch. It’s inconceivable that the Academy would give the award to anyone else. Our condolences, Michael Shannon!

Best Supporting Actress:

Will Win: Viola Davis, “Doubt”
Should Win: ????
Penelope Cruz seems to be the favorite here for her turn in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” which I can’t comment on, not having seen the film. But the Academy always reserves it’s WTF vote for one of the supporting categories (see: Alan Arkin, Tilda Swinton), and since Heath Ledger is the closest thing this year to a lock, you can bet this race will end up being a crap shoot. My reasoning is that if voters thought enough of Davis’s 15 minutes of screentime to reward her with a nomination, there’s no reason she can’t take home the prize.

It was a long month packed with news, drama and Britney going to the hospital.

In an homage to Letterman’s return to the air, here are the top 10 things you should come away with in January:

10. Your dog will soon take over the world.

9. Don’t stay on the top floor of a casino.

8. Sony may or may not release a white PS3 and they may or may not put Skype into PSP right away.

7. People are jaded as fuck. The first thing readers asked me when Heath Ledger died was whether or not he would still be The Joker.

6. Geek chic is still sexy.

5. Special orders do upset cops.

4. The rich go to Cedars Sinai Medical Center to have their babies. The poor take their chances elsewhere.

3. Don’t trust everything you read on MySpace.

2. Britney Spears won’t outlive any of us.

And the number 1 piece of knowledge you should come away with in January is:

Miley Cyrus is underage. And she will be for a while.

Heath Ledger checked himself into an Australian rehab facility in 2006, where he
spoke with drug addicts and learned to shoot heroin into a fake arm in order to research his role as a junkie for the film “Candy.” He said the experience turned him off of narcotics, according to reports.

“I do think that drugs and alcohol have been obviously glorified and mythologised,” the actor told reporters at the time. “I’m sure drugs and alcohol would inspire new thoughts but it’s certainly not something that I use as a tool or a mechanism to create.”

Ledger was found dead Tuesday afternoon in a Manhattan apartment, surrounded by sleeping pills, according to NYPD spokespeople, who only went as far as to speculate that his death may have been drug-related. He was 28.

Ledger told the New York Times in November that he had trouble sleeping while filming scenes for “The Dark Knight” as The Joker and took prescription sleep aids.

“Candy” screenwriter Luke Davies, who based the script partially on his own struggles with drug addiction, told the Sydney Morning Herald Tuesday that he was shocked to hear of Ledger’s death.

“It’s just a huge loss, an awful day,” he said. “He was a very beautiful person. We got to know each other quite well on set. He just had an immediate connection with people. … It’s completely unexpected. I feel so sorry for his family.”

Ledger was best known for his Oscar-nominated role in 2005′s “Brokeback Mountain.” A native of Perth, Australia, Ledger relocated to Los Angeles in the late 1990s to pursue an acting career. Most recently, he was seen in the Bob Dylan biopic “I’m Not There.”

Most known for his Oscar-nominated turn in the 2005 film “Brokeback Mountain,” Ledger was set to play The Joker alongside Christian Bale in the latest Batman installment “The Dark Knight,” scheduled for release later this year. Days before his death, Ledger was spotted on the London set of Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” in which he was also scheduled to star.

Ledger and his “Brokeback Mountain” co-star Michelle Williams dated for three years after meeting on the set of the movie in 2004. Their daughter, Matilda, was born in October 2005.

Ledger also formerly dated actresses Heather Graham and Naomi Watts. When he and Williams called off their engagement last September, Ledger moved out of the Brooklyn brownstone they shared and relocated to Manhattan. He was found dead Tuesday afternoon in an apartment at 421 Broome Street in Soho.

Other movies in which Ledger appeared include “10 Things I Hate About
You,” “The Patriot” and “Monster’s Ball.”

Actor Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday in bed at his Manhattan home in what authorities are calling a possible drug-related death. He was 28.

The New York Police Department told reporters that a housekeeper for the apartment at 421 Broome St. in Soho found the actor’s body when she went to inform him that his masseuse had arrived for an appointment.

BLAST has confirmed through police that Ledger’s body was found with over-the-counter medicines and sleeping pills. Police said the death appears to be accidental.

Early rumors had circulated that Mary-Kate Olsen was with Ledger before or at the time of his death. NYPD’s spokesman called these reports “totally untrue."

The New York Times reported that an NYPD spokesman mistakenly told reporters the apartment Ledger was found in was owned by Olsen.

Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s deputy commissioner for public information, initially said that the apartment was owned by the actress Mary-Kate Olsen, but later reversed himself and said that was not the case.

A representative of Ms. Olsen said that the apartment did not belong to the actress. “It is not her apartment,” the representative, Annette Wolf, a publicist for Ms. Olsen, said in a phone interview. “She does not own the apartment. She has never owned the apartment. She and her sister have an apartment in New York City but they are not in this building.”

“Medical examinations are underway, but we believe there was nobody involved in is death,” police told BLAST during a brief interview Tuesday.

An autopsy was scheduled for Wednesday, and a formal press statement revealing the cause of death is expected in a few weeks. NYPD added that they will not release a statement in regards to the actor’s death. However they have clarified that Olsen was called by the masseuse to ask her what to do since Ledger was not responding when shaken, knowing that the two knew each other and she also served the actress.

Olsen suggested calling a private security service, after getting a second call form the masseuse the young star called the security service herself and two men arrived at Ledger’s apartment to offer help. At the same time, the housekeeper and masseuse called emergency and police arrived shortly after. An officer, the two staff members and the two security men present at the time, were witnesses when authorities pronounced Ledger dead.

Ledger is slated to appear as Batman villain, “The Joker” in the upcoming movie, “The Dark Knight.” Calls to Warner Bros. studios and DC Comics were not returned imediately but as of Wednesday morning a studio representative provided BLAST with a statement released by Alan Horn, President and COO, and Jeff Robinov, President, of Warner Bros. Pictures Group.

“The studio is stunned and devastated by this tragic news. The entertainment community has lost an enormous talent. Heath was a brilliant actor and an exceptional person. Our hearts go out to his family and friends,” said the statement. “Filming has been completed on “The Dark Knight,” and the movie is now in post-production.

Ledger separated from his fianc©e Michelle Williams in September. The couple have a two-year-old daughter, Matilda. Ledger had also been working on “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” a movie directed by Terry Gilliam, which was to be released in 2009. His family released the a statement, Wednesday afternoon.

“We, Heath’s family, confirm, the very tragic, untimely and accidental passing of our dearly loved son, brother and doting father of Matilda. He was found peacefully asleep in his New York apartment by his housekeeper at 3:30 p.m. U.S. time. We would like to thank our friends and everyone around the world for their well wishes and kind thoughts at this time. Heath has touched so many people on so many different levels during his short life but few had the pleasure of truly knowing him. He was a down to earth, generous, kind-hearted, life-loving and selfless individual who was extremely inspirational to many. Please now respect our family’s need to grieve and come to terms with our loss privately,” the statement said.

See also, Blast Magazine’s obituary, “Remembering Heath Ledger.”

John Guilfoil and Mark Scalia, of the Blast Magazine staff, also contributed to this report.