Ledger Fans Demand Joker's 'Retirement'

Website caved too easily: image isn't a copyright violation

(NEWSER) - Flickr is catching fire for its decision to take down the now-infamous image of Barack Obama photoshopped to look like the joker. Flickr says it received a takedown notice under the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act for the Time cover mockup, but that excuse doesn’t fly for Michael Arrington of TechCrunch. “Screwing over your users while yelling ‘the lawyers made me do it!’ rarely ends well,” he writes. More»

But Firas Alkhateeb isn't behind 'socialism' campaign

(NEWSER) - A 20-year-old college student from Chicago is the artist behind the now-famous image of Barack Obama as Heath Ledger’s Joker, the Los Angeles Times reports. Firas Alkhateeb made the image using Photoshop and Time magazine’s Obama cover when he was bored one day during winter break. It attracted over 20,000 views on his Flickr page, and was spotted by his still-anonymous collaborator, who added the “socialism” diss before posting it around LA and other cities. More»

(NEWSER) - Posters of President Obama in Heath Ledger-like Joker makeup from The Dark Knight with a caption reading “Socialism” have sprung up in Los Angeles and Atlanta, the Daily Contributor reports. Similar posters online have the caption “why so socialist?” The guerilla art attacks, not yet claimed by any group, seem to be a reaction to Obama’s plan to reform the health-care system. More»

Friends, colleagues remember tragic actor

(NEWSER) - Heath Ledger was a complicated actor who quit using marijuana and alcohol and came close to giving up the sleeping pills that may have killed him, friends and colleagues tell Vanity Fair in a profile. Though he was leery of summer blockbusters—“He was afraid it would define him and limit his choices,” says his agent—he found some compelling reasons to appear in The Dark Knight. More»

Eminen and "Bruno" tangle at pop culture fete

(NEWSER) - Teen fave Twilight swept the MTV Movie Awards last night with five wins—including Best Fight, Best Kiss, and Best Movie—reports Entertainment Weekly. Heath Ledger scored a posthumous Best Villain for Dark Knight, and former Saturday Night Live star Amy Poehler nabbed the inaugural Best WTF Moment for Baby Mama. The show was hosted by current SNLer Andy Samberg. More»