Sydney, Australia (All Headline News.com) – Australia’s Channel 9 plans to broadcast a video on Thursday night showing actor Heath Ledger admitting he smoked five joints daily for 20 years. [Ledger was 28 when he died.] Entertainment Tonight in the U.S. earlier aired a teaser, but will not push through with plans to air it Thursday following pressure from film insiders.
ET reportedly paid $200,000 for the video, shot on Jan. 29, 2006 after the Screen Actors Guild Awards. The party where Ledger attended was held at the Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles, the same hotel where actor John Belushi died of a drug overdose.
Ledger’s girlfriend then, actress Michelle Williams whom he met on the set of Brokeback Mountain, was upstairs in their room with their three-month old baby Matilda.
In the video, Ledger told the guests, “I shouldn’t be here at all.” It also showed a man snorting what looks like drugs off a table.
The video is expected to lead to more speculation on Ledger’s cause of death after six different types of prescription pills were found in his SoHo apartment. Ledger’s body was discovered by his housekeeper and masseuse. He died Jan. 22 at 28. Coroners are still determining the cause of his sudden demise.
Meanwhile, his father Kim Ledger visited Heath’s $24,000-a month apartment for about 60 minutes. The elder Ledger will bring back the body of his son to Perth, Australia. The family plans to hold a private wake at Guildford, where the actor attended grammar school in the 1980s.
