I don’t even have the energy to give Us Weekly’s cover story the proper hyper-dramatic eye roll it so desperately needs. Michelle Williams is “finally letting go of the pain and allowing herself to love again” after Heath Ledger. This would have been a decent story in the months before Heath’s death, when both Heath and Michelle were seeing other people. This was definitely a better story when Michelle began dating again about a year after Heath died, when she counted directors Spike Jonze and Cary Fukunaga as steady boyfriends. But because Cary and Spike aren’t regulars on your television set like Jason Segel, I guess we’re all supposed to just wholeheartedly buy into Michelle’s second virginity. It’s not that her grief bugs me – she has every right to grieve. What bugs is that I feel like Michelle uses her grief as a PR angle. I feel like I’m being sold Michelle’s grief, prepackaged in Us Weekly and People Magazine.
Anyway, some highlights from Us Weekly’s cover story:
*On March 25, Michelle and Jason Segel had an early dinner in the Brooklyn restaurant Rucola. “Jason had his arm around her,” said a source. Four friends joined them for the meal, and Jason paid the check.
*A source close to Jason says that “romantically, this kind of happened overnight!”
*After Heath died, Michelle said she “felt like a walking open wound.” A source close to Ledger says, “She was caught up in a big tornado and she had a lot to recover from.”
*Michelle really likes Jason. A source close to Michelle says, “Jason is supersweet. He makes Michelle laugh and feel good about herself.” And Jason is good with Matilda too.
*Michelle is already telling friends that she “loves” Jason.
*Busy Phillips set them up. Busy talked up Jason to Michelle, then she set up a dinner between the three of them, and Busy left “conspicuously early.” After Busy left, Michelle and Jason sat there for hours drinking, talking and laughing.
*When Jason was in New York in March, he stayed with Michelle in her Brooklyn brownstone.
*Source: “Michelle doesn’t do flings. Every person she gets involved with is someone she can entertain the possibility of spending the rest of her life with.”
*Russell Brand once referred to Jason Segel (who apparently was/is a two-pack-a-day chain smoker) as “a falcon among gulls when it comes to womanizing.”
*Michelle finds Jason charming, romantic, funny and kind. Jason reportedly has “curbed” his bad habits – “He has made an effort to clean up his act… he’s been trying to be more of a grownup lately. He is taking care of himself more, exercising, eating right and dressing better. Basically, not acting like a frat boy anymore.”
*Jason thinks Michelle is “classy.” He was worried about introducing her to his friends because he doesn’t want anything to go wrong.
*She dated Spike Jonze from summer 2008 to late 2009. A source says, “When she met Spike, she was alone, sad and crying often.”
*At some point, Michelle seriously considering marrying a platonic friend – “They didn’t really have strong feelings for each other…it was so Matilda could have more stability and a father.”
*After that, Michelle began dating “a–holes who didn’t treat her right,” says an insider. One of those “a–holes,” according to the source, was Cary Fukunaga. They broke up, according to this pro-Michelle source, because Cary “didn’t want to step up and be a stepfather to Matilda. He was just looking for an unserious situation.”
*Michelle also hooked up with a cinematographer in Michigan (while she was working on Oz: The Great and Powerful) last year.
[From Us Weekly, print edition]
At one point when Us Weekly cues the violins for Michelle, they reference that Vanity Fair article about Heath’s death, in which several people close to Heath said negative things about Michelle and how she treated Heath in the final months, and how she denied him access to Matilda (you can read some highlights from the VF piece here). Us Weekly notes that Michelle never deigned to answer those criticisms, but the way the issue is framed in the tabloid, it’s like Michelle is being persecuted. There’s even a reference to “knives” being plunged into Michelle’s back.
Here’s a real question: why is Michelle Williams suddenly getting the Jennifer Aniston-Victimhood Tabloid Treatment? We get it, she’s sympathetic. She would be more sympathetic if she wasn’t trying to force us to see her as sympathetic.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Is she our new American Sweatheart but wIth real talent
ugh. looks like this PR strategy is working very well.
I normally wouldn’t defend any celebrity because lets face it… their all rich arseholes who don’t really need us average folks to defend them one way or the other BUT I highly doubt Michelle Williams’ is at all interested in using her personal life as a PR strategy. Her Nightline interview in 2010 while promoting Blue Valentine caught me off guard especially when she was discussing Heath and the GQ cover/interview she did this year- but here’s the thing: she can’t stop people from asking her these questions. I think the narrative has been set up for a long time by the public… she’s a widow and she’s naturally shy… therefore, she must be this fragile, little angel that would never kiss a man until the 100th date. Yes, she can BAN all public appearances and interviews, but she might as well retire early then because without some sort of visibility, she’s as forgettable as they come (no matter how good of an actress, she still needs the exposure and some sort of narrative). I DO think she’s more willing to speak about her relationship with Heath, etc. now (as she’s obviously more comfortable and more time has passed) and especially when she’s campaigning for an Oscar- so yes, that does play into the whole “strategy’ that Kaiser may be alluding to but I just don’t think it’s that simple. It’s not like Williams’ is making super accessible films and is looking to become the next household name. So positioning herself as the next “America’s Sweetheart” is silly and I doubt one of her goals. “Wendy and Lucy”, “Blue Valentine”, “Meeks Cutoff”, “Take This Waltz”… none of those films scream “JULIA ROBERTS!” “Reese Witherspoon!” “Jennifer ANISTON!”
But I do agree she needs to toughen up and stop acting like anything outside of a friendly hello will cut through her exterior and make her internally bleed… or something.
Two words: Oscar campaign. Previously, whenever Michelle was asked those questions she politely stated that it was personal, and she didn’t want to speak on it. But during campaign season she decided to speak about it, which opened Tabloid-y Pandora’s Box. It is now the way we see her, and she can’t go back to being the private actress she once was.
(Check the press for the months leading up to the Oscars, compare it to the previous years.)
She is a legend in her own mind.
She bothers me, big time, too. Not the least because I always thought that the way she behaved back then had an effect on how HL felt at the time of his death
Why does she always look like she is trying to smile while smelling something bad nearby?
Good description, her expression is often the same and a little creepy.
Somebody probably told her she photographs best that way.
I still don’t know that I believe she’s the one pushing all this, but who knows.
I agree. She achieved A list status in large part for being attached to him in life, now it’s just more of the same, all (or mostly) media driven.
I agree. I don’t believe she has much control over how the media reports on her personal life. I hope she finds happiness. If it’s with Jason, great. If it is with someone else, well, that’s great too.
Do you think MK Olsen or whoever heath was dating before he died sees this stuff and just goes that bitch.
not really, if Heath had lived I highly doubt Olsen would still be around … that affair was fleeting .. I saw it as a drug/ drink/ sex thing and not for a long haul r love induced.
Heath was only with Gemma Ward. Michelle knew that, hence her spite. Hence her PR team trying to blemish his reputation, making up that he was with Lohan, MK Olsen, etc. All lies, and his family and friends know it. Nobody that worked with Heath during his last year have ever had anything to say about Michelle. If she had been so good to him, they would have said how sorry they felt for her after he died, but NOT A WORD. You won’t see Michelle working with the likes of Johnny Depp (a good friend of Heath’s) any time soon.
Eh first off I think Michelle had every right to keep Matilda away from Heath if he was using. Second although she’d definitely manipulated her grief for her Oscar campaign, I think what she did was really common. Many people sweep under the rug anything negative about a person who dies and turn them into a bit of a saint. I’m betting it’ll take her another decade before she starts looking back on him clearly.
I always suspected that she ended it with Heath because of his misuse of pills and to protect her child of that. You can tolerate much more if it’s just you and him, but if a child gets involved, it’s a different situation. He had probably much bigger problems than the public knew. I mean you don’t die just because you have the flu and take 1-2 pills too much.
Of course she played the PR game during Oscar season, and honestly I prefer her talking about the loss of Matilda’s father than to “buying” a girl for the red carpet or telling everybody you wanna get married or getting pregnant.
They always seemed like perfect for each other and maybe she just realized after his death how much she really loved him. Anyway, I always get the feeling she’s pretty honest, so if I’m wrong with my assumptions, she’s a really good actress 😉
I’m going to agree with you on the fact that Heath’s drug problem was worse than anyone lets on. The rumor is that he wasn’t insurable for Tree of Life which is why he had to be replaced. I still think Michelle is being manipulative.
I agree, Liv.
….But,but,but She isn’t the widow ledger. It is so annoying that she’s rewritten history to make out like a)she’s the widow ledger b) she’s a widow virgin.
There were numerous stories about their problems when the child came. Whether or not those problems were drug related, the distinct impression was that he wasn’t as into her or the relationship, BUT he loved his child. After the breakup, he dated. Not just flings. If anyone is the widow ledger it should be that model (can’t remember her name), that he’s spent xmas with both sets of parents in australia with….he had been with her for months.
Michelle only really came back into the picture after his death, especially because she was the mother of his child.
Also, she gave every impression that spike jonz was quite a serious relationship
So this entire media spin is v.v.annoying
Agreed Liv & Mln Lainey had been talking for a good year before in blinds about his massive cocaine use so if she knew this it makes sense she’d be witholding the kid and such, his friends in that article sound to me like garden variety celeb Yess People
@LAK the models’ name was Gemma Arterton.
I don’t disagree with you. I just think Michelles’ behavior goes much deeper than pure PR I think she’s convinced herself that Heath and her were simply ‘working their way back to one another’. So that she can deal with life as a single mother. The fact that it helps with her Oscar campaigns, and PR seems like an extra perk.
mln76 Yeah, she overdid her Oscar campaign a bit and the article above is the result. Like I said, I still prefer her campaigning to Clooney’s or Pitt’s or Portman’s last year. I just wonder why Meryl Streep never has to do this stuff 🙂
LAK But she was at his funeral in Australia, Gemma Ward wasn’t, was she? I don’t doubt he had a relationship with her, but you never know what happens in life and he and Michelle could have end up together again. Maybe I’m wrong, I mean our speculations all base on pics and stuff. But I always had a feeling that Heath and Michelle loved each other very much, so I never understood the backlash she got for saying he’s the love of her life.
@Liv You proved Kaiser’s point. Michelle W really is the new Jennifer Aniston except with some talent. I think you have a rose-colored view of things and I have a bit more cynical one and the rest of the posters take an even harsher view who is to say who’s right?
Oh I apologize the last name was Ward not Atterton… Here’s what she had to say about her relationship with Heath. It sounds like it wasn’t serious and that they were trying to help eachother with their sobriety to me.
“(Heath and I) first met in New York and we were both struggling with things that I won’t get into, and we bonded over that.
“I kind of met him at first and said, ‘Listen my mum’s living with me right now and I’m kind of going through a hard time and I’m not interested in having a serious relationship with somebody right now’ and he was like, ‘You know, um, let’s just be there for each other through these hard times we’re both going through’. And we developed a relationship and we started seeing each other.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/31/gemma-ward-heath-ledger_n_816172.html
A rose-colored view? 😉 I can live with that 🙂
The article is very interesting – I feel sorry for them, I mean it’s almost impossible to get a real relationship out of nothing with somebody who also has addiction problems, isn’t it?
@mln76 Don’t mean to nitpick, but I believe the model’s name was Gemma Ward. Gemma Arterton is an actress. But yes, Heath and Ward were in a serious relationship.
To the poster who said he wasn’t insurable for the Tree of Life. That’s not true, Heath chose not to do the film as he wanted to concentrate on his first fim as a director, which was in pre-production casting stage when he died.
It saddens me that Michelle’s PR team succeded in blackening Heath’s name after the split and even after his death in order for her to put back the ‘poor little widow’ suit back on. Poor journalism didn’t help either, they rehashed what her PR people told them without questioning HER MOTIVES.
Cary Fukunaga should sue the pants of Michelle. How dare her PR people diss him because he DARED not to want to be serious with her. Maybe he didn’t like what he saw and left it at that, but no, they had to diss him for that, just as they did with Heath, but of course with Heath it was in a mega scale.
Aaaaand I love! Marshall – hope they last 🙂
She’s so boring…I just don’t care…
I have to agree. There’s something about her that makes me say, “so what?”
She even managed to make the sex scenes with Ryan Gosling in Blue Valentine look boring- how does THAT happen?!
But didn’t she date other people before Jason? Wasn’t she with Spike Jonze or somebody?
yes, but this is her first guy after “the re-virginazation of Michelle” campaign for the Oscars. they’re a cute couple though..
Kim Kardashian lost 10 lbs!! Wow
LMAO. This comment started my day right.
Ugh! That contrived smile.
Funny, in that photo Jason kinda resembles Heath.
I am over her. He was seeing other women. Take a page from Liam Neeson who lost his wife of many years. He thanked people for their support but only gave one interview, which broke your heart. Other than that he doesn’t take those questions in interviews. I respect his pain is private and wants to talk about the movie he is promoting. Though it was sweet. He did an interview at their country home last year where you talk about what your last meal would be. He described a wonderful roasted chicken meal, but at the end he simply added, cooked by Natasha of course. That statement had such impact.
this so much.
and i enjoyed her acting in the marilyn movie, but still name dropping heath, when they actually broke up long before his passing, is kind of… well i can’t seem to find the exact term for it lol
Cheap and tacky?
Manipulative?
Fame mongering?
@bluhare all of the above? some combination of them
She was absolutely amazing as Marilyn, but personality wise she is so awkward and contrived. That pic of her on US is creepy as hell. Like she is never real or something!
I can’t with her anymore.
Also dude could brush his tongue or use a tongue scraper.
I love Jason Segel. That is all.
Did I miss something? Is Michelle giving interviews? Because all I see is “sources say” and “a close friend reports” kind of thing. She’s not talking about it, she’s just trying to live her life. What Us Weekly does is on them, not her.
Yes she has done interviews and more than likely the ‘close friends’ in this story are Williams’ publicity team.
Guaranteed.
Cannot stand this twat. Yes she is ‘talented’ but lord almighty does she possess one of the smugest punchable faces and that whole campaign for her oscar where she dragged her daughter’s name through hollywood hoping for a pity statue I was so thrilled when Meryl won it. SO THRILLED. As for her whole image of ‘oh im a delicate little flower feel so sorry for me and my fatherless child please cause a movie star really need your pity’ rountine Im over it Im over her Im over her child Im over Busy Phillips and now she has tainted Jason Segel for me TAKE YOUR SMUGNESS MICHELLE WILLIAMS AND CLEAR OFF NOBODY SEES YOU AS AMURIKA SWEETHEART BECAUSE OF YOUR PUNCHABLE SMUG FUGLY FACE
WOW!
This comment just made my life
Professional widow. Spot on with the “re-virginizing” commentary – so true. That being said, she seems reasonably harmless and I do adore Jason Segel for practically single-handedly re-incarnating the Muppets! That plus his Dracula musical from Forgetting Sarah Marshall (that he’d apparently been working on independently of that movie!) – amazing. Good luck to them I guess.
I think she’s cute!
I think shes cute too. She was perfect in Blue Valentine. And I love that she has a female bestie coz women who dont have close women friends always strike me as insecure and jealous creatures.
I thought that VF article was unbelievably unfair at the time. I mean, what mother wants to allow their child around a parent who has drug issues? If you’re a good parent, you just don’t do that and it’s best for everyone involved. And if he was dating unsavory characters like MK Olsen and Lohan, well, she wasn’t wrong, was she?
Absolutely.
And I can’t dislike her just because she campaigned for an Oscar. Almost all of them would sell their souls for an Oscar (why is beyond me, I just don’t get it)
She’s an incredibly talented actress and she seems like a great mum. She doesn’t have her boobs and butt hanging out and isn’t falling out of clubs. She lives in Brooklyn and takes on roles that challenge her. I save my dislike for the Lohans and Hiltons et al
+1
+1
I also think the old VF article was unfair. Heath was known to have substance abuse problems…what mom wants to subject their kid to that? As to her being his “widow”…while it is true that they were not together when he died, he is the father of her kid. I imagine that the grieving process might be a lot more drawn out if you have a daughter that is growing up in front of you…without her dad. Also, I bet Matilda has a lot of his mannerisms and she sure looks like him. If I were Michelle, I imagie that it would be easy for me to remember him as a saint if I kept seeing him in my daughters eyes.
That dude is not a prize. She’s no America’s Sweetheart. All her “smiles” look smug as if she’s showing contempt for having to show up for the masses to promote whatever film she’s currently doing. I feel for the little girl, Matilda, but chica needs to give the “Woe Is Me” thing a rest.
Well it looks like her re-hymenation has been reversed again.
On another note i didn’t know who that cary Fukananga character was i had to google him. and umm i love what i see
I agree. He is fine
Geez, “source” (Busy Phillips), way to throw Cary Fukunaga under the bus there… he’s an asshole because he wanted to date someone without becoming a full-on stepdad? DEVIL!!!
Loved Sin Nombre & Jane Eyre. Go Cary, go.
Any guy dating a single mother should know what they’re signing up for… just goes to show never date a hipster 😉
I think the fact that a “source” leaked that info about Fukunaga shows how much she was hurt by the relationship… or not what do I know.
lmao i know she put him ON BLAST ! she is such a ‘busy body’
She’s a good actress but I just can’t warm to her, and it’s not even because of the “widow Ledger” thing. She just comes across as…off…in interviews. I don’t know, there’s just something really weird about her. And women who deliberately infantilize themselves (the baby voice, the puppy dog eyes, the whole “demure” act) have always bugged me. You’re a grown woman, not some precious delicate flower.
I agree with everything you just wrote. Spot on.
THANK YOU.
That’s exactly what bugs me about her and I never figured it out until I just read your comment. I CANNOT STAND chicks who act like that. Ugh.
“Russell Brand once referred to Jason Segel as “a falcon among gulls when it comes to womanizing”.
Yikes, big red flag there!!!
Yeah..you pretty much know this isn’t going to end well. Then she will throw him under a bus too and call him an a**hole for not performing the stepfather bit to her liking.
Yeah, and Jason is a notorious heavy drinker and rumored for the last few years to be a drug user. And not just weed. There are a few interviews from late last year where he definitely seemed high.
Doesn’t seem like the kind of guy she’d want her kid to be around. Especially since that’s what ended her relationship with Heath.
My dad died in a similar fashion and he and my mom were technically separated when he died, but yeah, kids together takes it all to a new realm that you can’t really understand unless you experience. Me and my brother look and act exactly like our dad and it haunts my mom 25 years later….
That being said, she’s pretty harmless in the scheme of things… I reserve my annoyance for the k-Klan, gaga-kesha types, etc… The ones teens actually look up to yet are bad people… 🙂
The biggest thing I hate about her whole persona is the ‘delicate flower’ thing. Why is it not possible for celebrities to have a human personality? I get having an image, but why are they cartoons? And I have to agree with the posters that say she’s smug. I really don’t want to, but she just is somehow. I think she’s doing just fine emotionally and is playing a part of sorts now. Like she believes her own press and tries to play into it.
I am more interested in all those photos of her with a cigarette in her hand while walking with Jason. She is a real good role model for her child. LOSER.
I adore her and she has always been low profile and down to earth not exposing matilda to the hollywood life and giving her a steady home in brooklyn for years and not moving around lije the jolies pitt.
Since her Dawson’s days she has been shy around paparazzis and hated exposure.She even closed a website of hers.
She can be a widow because 4 months in a breakup is nothing maybe she expected him to clean his act and be a clean father for her daughter. How many get separated knowing that maybe there is another chance to make things right?
She had other bf after his death ,maybe she needed to feel she and matilda were not alone, Elizabeth Taylor married Eddie Fischer while grieving her husbands death!!
The fact is that she left Heath because of his drug habits.Recreational, prescripted whatever they were drugs!
Fact is he died from abuse, so she wasn’t so wrong after all to protect matilda from this scenario and the bunch of who..s that came with it,naming olsen twins, lindsey, Helena Christensen, etc.
I hope she and her daughter are happy and so it seems. 🙂
I think it’s time for her to change that hair style. It makes her face look like a round melon.
Ever since Blue Valentine, she’s seemed strange to me.
I’ve said it before, but I can’t put my finger on it. I think she and Ryan Gosling must have hooked up several times during filming, and the director recorded it, but didn’t put it in the movie. Something weird and kinky. Whenever Ryan sees her, he looks like he wants to devour her, and she always looks scared of him.
I think it may have to do with the next Batman film and that she just did Marilyn. Marilyn, a tragic figure that people I guess are reminded about Michelle’s late ex-husband. And Batman because the plan was for the Joker to be in it (or at least it was expected) before his untimely death and so it is kind of a reminder that he’s gone. I think it is kind of rude for the tabloids to keep picking up the story – I’m sure she doesn’t want to be reminded every single time she tries to promote a movie – or even now when I don’t think she has a movie coming out (don’t actually know if she had anything after Marilyn).
The thing I hate about Michelle’s image is that she and the media paints her as Heath’s widow. I think they were broken up for at least a year before he died. I also hate these “finally found love” stories. I think after dating several guys over years they lose a lot of meaning. I still don’t understand how for 7 years tabloids can call all of Jennifer Aniston’s boyfiends “the one”.
I loved her in my week with marilyn! Def my favorite movie this year.
This is starting to seem like a publicity relationship now. How is this even the cover story this week?! There’s not much of a story, just quotes from “sources”, probably her PR team.
Come on, they both have movies coming out soon. And isn’t it funny that a week before this story broke, the rumors were that her and Busy were secret lovers?!
Either way, this whole thing has ruined Jason for me. I seriously side eye him for this “relationship”.
She has always been a good little actress. She has never been one to hog the spotlight and seems very humble and authentic in real life. She is a mom and an actress and it seems that she deserves anything good that comes into her life. I don’t see any reason not to like her or to make her into something else. Good for her if she finds whatever makes her happy in life.
Is it just me or does Michelle seem to be a little bit arrogant and two-faced? Like, she complains about “the negative aspect of celebrity” but I doubt she would ever take the subway or fly economy class. She probably turns up her nose at everyone she sees who /isn’t/ famous.
Sorry Michelle, nobody other than the paparazzi (who just want to make a buck, they don’t give a sh** who you really are so stop acting like you’re being followed because you’re sooo wonderful), care about you, so please just disappear and stop acting like the queen of the world. Thanks.
Her PR people have pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes. The TRUTH is that HEATH LEFT MICHELLE, hence her bitterness.