Heath Ledger's 2-year-old daughter Matilda will inherit the late actor's entire multi-million estate, his father tells Australia's Herald Sun.Ledger, who died of an accidental overdose Jan. 22, originally listed his parents and sisters as beneficiaries in his will, which was made April 12, 2003, two years before he and Michelle Williams welcomed Matilda. But his father, Kim, says the family has agreed to leave the $16.3 million fortune to Matilda."There is no claim," Kim Ledger said. "Our family has gifted everything to Matilda."Mark Dyson, an executor of the Ledger estate, says he cannot divulge the exact amount Matilda, who turns 3 on Oct. 28, will inherit. — Joyce Eng
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Heath Ledger's bar, Five Leaves, is scheduled to open to the public on Wednesday, according to Australia's The Age.The Brooklyn-based bar was one of the actor's major investments prior to his untimely death in January. It is now funded by his estate and run by his business partner Jud Mongell."We're 50-50 partners still," Mongell said. "Heath is still my partner. He was fingerprinted for a liquor licence … he was going to DJ, bartend; he was not like some removed investor. At one point he put a bid in on the whole building. He was going to live upstairs."Five Leaves, named by the Ledger clan after the Nick Drake album, is a cozy, rustic space featuring a nautical theme and sentimental Ledger touches that include engraved granite bar tables, one of which features a chessboard for playing the game, a favorite pastime of his.The actor and ex-fiancée Michelle Williams were residents of the Boerum Hill area of Brooklyn before he moved to SoHo following their 2007 split. William...
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Michelle Williams and others are beginning to open up about how they remember Heath Ledger — as a friend, partner and colleague. In the April issue of Interview, Williams divulges how she views Ledger, and acknowledges that it's just now that some are seeing him the same way. "The interesting thing about Heath, which maybe people have only really fully discovered in his death, is how vulnerable he was," she says. "You can pick up on it in his performances, but it's easy to overlook because he was so physical and beautiful and strong and masculine. But there was always that underlying sensitivity. That's who he was." Among the others offering their thoughts on the late actor's life is Naomi Watts, who recalls Ledger as "a huge, obsessive, chess freak — and very, very good at it." Philip Seymour Hoffman reinforced that point, saying, "Whenever Heath talked about something he liked... he wasn't somebody trying to cover up his excitement." Finally, it seems, stars are speaking...
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The late Heath Ledger's will, as reported by the New York Daily News, leaves everything he owned to his parents and three sisters. Ledger, who died Jan. 22 from an accidental overdose, filed the three-page will in April 2003, two years before he met Brokeback Mountain costar Michelle Williams, with whom he would fall in love and have a daughter, Matilda. Other Ledger documents filed in Manhattan Surrogate's Court reveal that he had less than $145,000 in New York assets at the time of his death, including a $25,000 Toyota Prius and $20,000 in furniture and fixtures. That, however, does not take into account the Brooklyn townhouse he and Williams shared, any property he had in Australia or cash deposited in trust funds. As one estate specialist tells the News, "If [Ledger and Williams] had jointly held assets, those are not subject to probate. It's just not required."Though it at first was unclear if any provisions would be made for the actor's 2-year-old daughter, Ledger's father, Ki...
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In her first public statement since his death, Heath Ledger's former partner, Michelle Williams, said her "heart is broken."In a statement released to the AP, Williams also asked for privacy during this time, saying, "Please respect our need to grieve privately. My heart is broken." She continued, "I am the mother of the most tenderhearted, high-spirited, beautiful little girl who is the spitting image of her father. All that I can cling to is his presence inside her that reveals itself every day."His family and I watch Matilda as she whispers to trees, hugs animals, and takes steps two at a time, and we know that he is with us still," Williams added. "She will be brought up in the best memories of him."Williams and Ledger, who met on the set of Brokeback Mountain in 2005, later lived together in a Brooklyn brownstone with their daughter until splitting up in 2007. — Anna DimondRelated:• News: ET Nixes Drug Video, as Williams Fights Tabloid "Lies"• News: Ledger's Fin...
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