"We felt it would be better not to hold the event today given the tragedy of yesterday's passing of the beloved actor," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
"Beloved Actor"?!? I never heard of the guy before yesterday.
Posted on 01/23/2008 6:43:31 AM PST by jdm
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush postponed an event on Wednesday to promote an advertising campaign on preventing prescription drug abuse after actor Heath Ledger's death from a possible drug overdose, the White House said.
"We felt it would be better not to hold the event today given the tragedy of yesterday's passing of the beloved actor," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
"We did not want anyone to think we were trying to link into that story in any way," she said.
Bush had been scheduled to talk in the morning about the Office of National Drug Control Policy's television advertising campaign on preventing prescription drug abuse.
Ledger, 28, who was nominated for an Oscar for "Brokeback Mountain," was found dead in his Manhattan apartment on Tuesday and police were investigating the possibility of a drug overdose.
I seriously thought this was Scrappleface at first.
What a bunch of wusses.
Once again, we see that some up top still let the press be in control. Tony, can you shed some light on this spinelessness we see sometimes. I guess a lot of us want a Rummy telling off the press.
Bush would be damned if he went ahead with it, and damned if he didn’t.
No better time than right now.
Exactly.
==================================
"Brokeback Mountain" was heavily hyped as a homosexual film. Which it was. I found the relationship with one of the film's protagonists and his daughter to be more revealing about the character than any same-sex relationship depicted.
Kind of an odd turn of phrase. I've always thought the term "beloved actor" would refer to people with a long and distinguished career. Think Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart. Not a 28 year old.
So now the President’s schedule and policy initiatives are subordinate to the timing of Hollywood drug overdoses? John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart are “beloved actors.” But this guy? His death is sad, but hardly of national import.
"We felt it would be better not to hold the event today given the tragedy of yesterday's passing of the beloved actor," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
"Beloved Actor"?!? I never heard of the guy before yesterday.
Whew. Some FReepers still get it.
gmta!
What a missed opportunity. Ledger could have been their Len Bias. They could get all sorts of stupid crap passed jumping on that hearse.
Can you imagine? We don’t even know if it was prescription drug abuse that killed Mr. Ledger. What the heck happens to your policy initiative when you spend 90% of the time explaining how it doesn’t apply here (yet)?
Wow - there’s a trip in the way back machine! Yeah - wasn’t it great how they passed ant-drug feel good legislation in the wake of Bias’ act of stupidity? Thank goodness we missed the crack, ecstasy and meth epidemics thanks to that finely crafted law!
/sarc
Maybe the President just wanted a breather on his schedule, and this was a pretty good way to work it in.
This was a wise decision. There is NO WAY the press would have given them any good press if Bush didn’t postpone it.
Me neither, Condor51. Asked my husband if he had ever heard of him, and he hadn’t.
We just figured it was a sign of our age, that we were out of the loop, etc...
But, we don’t go see movies like BrokeBack, so perhaps we are old fuddie-duddies.
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