The entertainment industry was shocked on Tuesday, Jan. 22, when the body of actor Heath Ledger was found dead in a Soho, N.Y. apartment. Heath was 28 years old. Of all the recent Hollywood afflictions, the loss of Ledger is one of the more devastating. During Ledger's short career, he showed something rarely seen in young Hollywood today: talent. With characters that ran the gamut from a gay cowboy to Bob Dylan, Ledger managed to be a favorite of male and female movie-goers alike. Set to hit the silver screen this year as one of the most eccentric villains ever created, the Joker, the Australian native was on pace to have the biggest year of his career. But sadly, that will never be the case.

In the grand scheme of entertainment, the untimely death of Heath Ledger adds another blemish to the scarred face of Hollywood. In the span of one week, the acting world has had to deal with two premature deaths. On Jan. 15, 26-year-old Brad Renfro was found dead in his Los Angeles apartment. While neither cause of death is clear at this point, the preliminary signs point to drugs in both cases. Ledger and Renfro both had long careers ahead of them. It's not even February yet, and it is safe to say that Hollywood is having one of the worst years it has ever had. Hollywood has become a land of teen-stars running rampant with DUI charges and parental issues. And as shocking as Ledger's and Renfro's deaths were to the industry, they are mere divots when compared to the crippling writers' strike that has placed the movie and television industry at a standstill. Starting at the beginning of November, the strike has lasted over twelve weeks and shows few signs of ending soon. At the start of the strike, the Los Angeles Times estimated that the strike would cost the entertainment industry roughly $20 million a day. If their prediction is anywhere close to accurate, the total cost of the writers' strike would be roughly $1.7 billion as of Monday, Jan. 28.

Image is everything in entertainment, but it seems that Tinseltown can't catch a break. While news of a charity event or some good deed rarely sees the light of day, news of a celebrity receiving a DUI or drug charges makes headlines instantly. It's surreal the weight that celebrity gossip carries. CNN showed this ever so vividly back in December when news that Jamie Lynn Spears was pregnant hit the press. If you are unfamiliar with CNN.com, their home page consists of two parts. On the left in big print is the important story of the day along with a related picture and on the right is a list of ten not-as-important stories. What was the important story that fateful day in December? "How Will You Tell Your Kids About Britney's Sister." What was one of the stories that CNN.com slapped on the list? An article about the impending World War III. There's money in celebrity gossip; if it wasn't for the almighty dollar, it would be impossible for Jamie Lynn Spears' uterus to take precedence over something that will most likely destroy the entire world. It would be nice to believe that Hollywood's problems stem from the fact that bad news travels faster than good news, but their woes dig deeper than that.

Ledger's final film, The Dark Knight, is scheduled to be released July 18, 2008. With the strike still in full swing, The Dark Knight is only thing most of us have to look forward to this year. And what I can only assume would have been a dynamite portrayal of the Joker by Heath Ledger will now be bittersweet.