Deathblog: YA Edition

Okay, my new homepage at work is our new Intranet, so I don't have the convenience of having Yahoo! automatically load whenever I accidentally hit the "home" button in my browser.

So just now when I typed in Yahoo!, I was greeted with the shocking headline of actor Heath Ledger's death. I think it was shocking because, well, I wasn't expecting it. By contrast, I didn't learn of young actor Brad Renfro's recent death until I had my Entertainment Weekly in hand. Did I just miss Renfro on Yahoo! due to the Intranet mandate or did he not merit such a large mention? Either way, it was shocking to know that he'd been dead for about a week (or 3 or 4 days) before I even heard of it. It was maybe less shocking in that I knew of his drug problem, but still...

I heard about Suzanne Pleshette's death, also, and while it was sad, it was less shocking for me. I think this is because I'd seen her name on some tabloids at the grocery, tabloids that basically predicted her soon-to-be demise.

But the Heath thing? No warning. No precedent. Nothing.

Dang.

(I should probably move that Brokeback Mountain flick up on my Netflix, eh?)