College Student Criticized for Play About Heath Ledger

An 22-year-old American college student has drawn flak for a play he plans to stage about the late Heath Ledger, The Last Days of Heath Ledger. Harry Watermeier says fans of Ledger obtained an article about the play after it was covered in his college paper, the Indiana Daily Student, on June 10. The article was posted on Ledger fan websites and criticism began pouring in. "I am really surprised people are taking this so seriously. It is really baffling to me," Watermeier said. "This woman wrote that I, Harry Watermeier, made her want to vomit because of what I'm doing ... I don't understand why it is met with that reaction. The people who made the negative comments have not read the play." Another Ledger fan accuses Watermeier of "sucking on the coat tails of a wonderful man's life". Watermeier, a student at Indiana University, wrote the play and based it on a controversial article by Lisa Taddeo published in Esquire in April last year. The article is a literary-styled attempt to recreate Ledger's thoughts after he has died. Ledger died of an overdose of a combination of prescription drugs at his apartment in New York on January 22 last year.