'Heath Ledger Exploiter' Among America's Hottest New Halloween Costumes

While The Dark Knight's box-office trajectory has leveled out a smidge since becoming the fastest film to $500 million, the marketplace for morbidly exploitive Heath Ledger nostalgia has caught a new wave of holiday momentum. So say the proprietors of something called "Mr. Costumes," which proudly notes today that varieties of its Joker outfits account for nearly half of its adult costume sales for this Halloween. "The popularity of the movie and the cultural effect of Ledger's death have propelled seasonal demand for the villain costume," states a press release recently crapped into our inbox, "while effectively boosting the sales revenues and overall popularity of MrCostumes.com, an emerging player in the Halloween Costumes market."

Classy, right? At $160 per (and on backorder through next week), they'd better be. But what if the kids want to be a disfigured, lip-smacking serial killer as well? Lucky them — that's covered, too.

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Brooke Shields Will Not Stand For You Slandering The Memory of Sophia Petrillo!

Though no one cared enough to actually make it to her funeral, Golden Girls actress Estelle Getty was beloved in Hollywood, where actors and agents whiling down coke benders at 4 a.m. grew to love the misadventures of her sassy Sophia Petrillo during countless late-night Lifetime reruns. Still, that didn't stop the sketch comics at Upright Citizens Brigade from trotting out their impressions of the actress — as well as those of the deceased Heath Ledger and Bernie Mac — during a 72-hour marathon at the theater. According to the NY Daily News, celebrity panelist Brooke Shields wasn't laughing:

"She was so freaked out, her eyes welled up, and she actually bit her nails at one point," says the spy. "When someone pretended to dump Estelle Getty's ashes on [30 Rock star] Jack McBrayer's head, Brooke got up and walked offstage."

The Curse Of Billy Bob Thornton Overtakes 'Dark Knight' Curse In Hollywood Death Toll

Bernie Mac's tragic death sparked a surge of postmortems around the Web over the weekend, with many invoking his role as the bad-ass mall gumshoe opposite Billy Bob Thornton in Bad Santa. But one perceptive observer commenting at Hollywood Elsewhere noted that the late comedian's passing is the latest in a string of similarly untimely demises for other Thornton co-stars as well:

Strange how many Billy Bob Thornton co-stars have died prematurely (Ritter, Bernie Mac, J.T. Walsh, Heath Ledger). Thank goodness Morgan Freeman (Levity) and Shia (Eagle Eye) survived their crashes and Patrick Swayze (Waking Up in Reno) is coming back from cancer or we'd be talking about the Billy Bob Curse. Not trying to make light, just think it's eerie.

Early Joker Mock-Up Reminds Us of a Producer We Know

It's well-known that the conceptual period preceding The Dark Knight was an exceptionally fertile time for all involved — smooth Batsailing for a creative team responsible for reimagining the heroes and villains of Gotham City. Chief among those visions was The Joker, preliminary sketches of whom are now appearing in a new coffee-table book for the fanboy who has everything, The Art of The Dark Knight. An attentive reader points out today, however, how one of the early, nastier Joker mock-ups reminds him of an old friend of Defamer — a guy whose uncanny likeness would have no doubt stirred more controversy, trouble and tragedy than all the accursed Dark Knight infamy we've observed over the last year.

We see the similarity as well, and applaud Christopher Nolan and co. for taking the toned-down direction they did. After all, you never know when you're going to need a spiky-haired icon in your corner. Follow the jump for the separated-at-birth shocker.

DEA Wraps Heath Ledger Investigation After Getting Their DVD Of 'A Knight's Tale' Signed

Days after implicating Mary-Kate Olsen but months after it began, the DEA inquiry into the death of Heath Ledger has finally wrapped, filing charges against exactly no one. Does it perhaps seem like the U.S. Attorney's Office spent an awful lot of time and money with nothing to show for it? According to TMZ, that's just the beginning — the gossip website alleges that DEA agents essentially used the Ledger investigation as an excuse to talk to supermodels, fly all over the country, and meet people from Hollywood:

Sources connected with the Heath Ledger investigation say the Drug Enforcement Administration set a new low for starf**king.