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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: the Joker

the Joker stories: 14 news summaries
OPINION

Flickr Cowardly for Taking Down Obama Joker

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

Aug 22, 09 1:50 PM CDT
(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... More »

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Barack Obama • copyright law • free speech • Flickr • Heath Ledger • copyright infringement • the Joker

 Chicagoan 
 'Fesses Up 
 to 'Joker' 
 Poster 

But Firas Alkhateeb isn't behind 'socialism' campaign

Aug 18, 09 1:52 AM CDT
(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... More »

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Barack Obama • socialism • Photoshop • Heath Ledger • the Joker • Obama administration • President Obama

(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... More »

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Atlanta • Los Angeles • socialism • The Dark Knight • Heath Ledger • health care reform • the Joker • posters • makeup • Obama administration • guerilla art • street art • President Obama

(Newser) - Movie heroes may get the girl, the fans, and the happy ending, but villains have all the fun. With the summer lineup under way, moviegoers will see evil in many forms—from a megalomaniacal robot/tank to a sinister British sorcerer. But what performances by their predecessors will they have to... More »

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film • list • Darth Vader • Gordon Gekko • the Joker • movies • villains

(AP) - If Heath Ledger is named best supporting actor at Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony, his 3-year-old daughter will become the owner of the statuette. But it won't really belong to Matilda Rose Ledger until her 18th birthday, in 2023—and even then, only if she signs a contract. Ledger's nomination, and... More »

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Academy Awards • The Dark Knight • Heath Ledger • Michelle Williams • the Joker • Matilda Rose Ledger • Oscars

 Ledger Fans Demand 
 Joker's 'Retirement' 

Fans want studio to hang up clown suit as tribute to killer performance

Feb 13, 09 5:42 AM CST
(Newser) - A group of Heath Ledger fans are calling for the Batman movies to hang up the Joker's purple suit for good as a tribute to the late actor's last role, CNN reports. Supporters at website "The Ultimate Joker" say no actor could ever nail the killer clown as well... More »

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Batman • The Dark Knight • Heath Ledger • Jack Nicholson • the Joker

(Newser) - Police in Belgium have linked Kim De Gelder, the man charged with killing two children and a woman at a daycare last week, with an earlier murder, Reuters reports. DNA evidence suggests that De Gelder stabbed an elderly woman to death in a nearby town a week before he turned... More »

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Belgium • murder • children • The Dark Knight • Heath Ledger • daycare • the Joker • infanticide • Kim De Gelder

OPINION

 Hopeless Is Hot in Hollywood 

Movies and viewers love to get miserable

Nov 30, 08 7:57 AM CST
(Newser) - Bleak is the new chic in Tinseltown, writes Dan Zak in the Washington Post. Cloverfield's crowd-trampling monster, the psycho serial killer of No Country for Old Men, and the twisted oil entrepreneur of There Will Be Blood (need we mention the Dark Knight?) highlight the "raw misery of the... More »

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Hollywood • The Dark Knight • Heath Ledger • No Country for Old Men • Javier Bardem • There Will Be Blood • Cloverfield • the Joker • movies • films

'Joker Teens' Nabbed in 'Terror Plot'

Pair could be dealt 20-year sentence for playing card prank

Aug 19, 08 5:46 AM CDT
(Newser) - Virginia police didn't see the humor of a Joker-inspired prank that terrified dozens of residents, ABC News reports. Two 18-year-olds have been charged with conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism after leaving playing cards with threatening messages on them scattered around their town. Cops say the felony charge—which... More »

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terrorism • Virginia • prank • Batman • The Dark Knight • the Joker

Opinion

Oscar for Ledger? You Must Be High

'Pretty good actor who did away with himself' doesn't deserve award

Aug 1, 08 1:04 PM CDT
(Newser) - It’s time to put an end to the inane campaign to give Heath Ledger an Oscar for The Dark Knight, writes Eric Lucas in the LA Times. Ledger’s much-fawned-over performance “ultimately devolves into a can-can dance of snuffling pseudo-psychopathia,” Lucas writes. “It... More »

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Academy Awards • Jimi Hendrix • The Dark Knight • Heath Ledger • James Dean • the Joker

 Dark Knight
 Smashes
 $300M Record

Newest Batman hits milestone in 10 days

Jul 27, 08 7:03 PM CDT
(Newser) - Latest Batman flick The Dark Knight grossed $300 million in just 10 days—turning the 16 days Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest took on its head to set a new record. The dark tale, driven by Heath Ledger's strong performance, took in another $75.6 million in its... More »

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box office • Batman • The Dark Knight • Heath Ledger • Christian Bale • the Joker

MOVIE REVIEW

 Dark Knight Dazzles 

Heath Ledger's final performance burns in the dark

Jul 17, 08 11:09 AM CDT
(Newser) - Dark Knight swoops into cinemas tomorrow and critics say the hype is more than justified. "This is not merely a Batman movie," Amy Biancolli writes in the Houston Chronicle. It is one of the year's best films "and far and away the most hypnotic chiller." The... More »

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superhero • movie review • Batman • The Dark Knight • Heath Ledger • Christian Bale • the Joker • action movie

Batman Marketing in Limbo

Ledger's death forces Warner Bros. to reconsider viral campaign

Jan 24, 08 12:09 PM CST
(Newser) - Heath Ledger’s untimely death is a major problem for Batman—or, more accurately, his marketing people. Warner Bros. has built an entire advertising campaign for the upcoming Dark Knight installment around Ledger’s Joker performance, a tactic that’s now fairly awkward, the Wall Street Journal reports. Fans have... More »

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marketing • Batman • The Dark Knight • Heath Ledger • the Joker • movie trailer • advertising campaign • movies

Ledger Autopsy Inconclusive

Coroner needs 10 days, further tests; actor's roles took toll, caused insomnia

Jan 23, 08 9:56 AM CST
(Newser) - An autopsy on actor Heath Ledger was inconclusive, the AP reports, and a medical examiner's office spokeswoman says that further needed tests will take about 10 days. Meanwhile, Ledger's family echoed earlier police statements that the actor had not committed suicide—rather, his death was “tragic, untimely, and accidental,... More »

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autopsy • insomnia • Heath Ledger • medical examiner • sleeping pills • the Joker

14 Stories


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