WE hate to ruin the suspense over the Academy Awards next Sunday night, but a lot of nominees needn’t bother preparing an acceptance speech. Oddsmaker Danny Sheridan says three of the top six categories are locks. Heath Ledger is 1:25 to win Best Supporting Actor. The other four con tenders, as a field, are 15:1. “Slumdog Millionaire” is 1:12 to win Best Picture, trailed by “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” at 5:1. And “Slumdog” director Danny Boyle is a lock for Best Director at 1:10. Kate Winslet (“The Reader”) is favored for Best Actress 1:2 over Meryl Streep (“Doubt”), who’s 3:1. The closest race is Best Actor, with Mickey Rourke (“The Wres tler”) a 5:7 favorite to beat Sean Penn (“Milk”) at 7:5. Forget Brad Pitt (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”) and Angelina Jolie (“The Changeling”). Says Sheridan: “A lot of voters are not too fond of Pitt and Jolie.”

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The late Heath Ledger continued his awards sweep Sunday at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

He was named best supporting actor for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight.

Costar Gary Oldman accepted the award.

“I am quite emotional,” Oldman said. “It is a great honor to be asked to accept this on behalf of Heath. He was an extraordinary young man with an extraordinary talent, and it is wonderful that you have acknowledged that and honored that talent tonight.

“On behalf of Heath, his family and his family on The Dark Knight, I thank you.”

On Jan. 22 – the first anniversary of his death – Ledger received an Academy Award nomination.

“Although we would love to have him here with us, we are so proud and so excited on his behalf,” his sister Ashleigh Bell said. “In Heath’s words, he had the time of his life portraying the Joker and said that it was the most fun he’d ever had working on a film.”

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The Golden Globes turned emotional Sunday night, with the naming of Heath Ledger as best supporting dramatic actor for his role as the Joker in the summer blockbuster The Dark Knight.

Presenter Demi Moore announced that a brief clip of Ledger’s work in the film had been prepared. Afterwards, Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan accepted Ledger’s posthumous award, and said he did so with “a mixture of sadness and incredible pride.”

Nolan said that rather than dwelling upon the gap left by Ledger’s death he preferred to concentrate on “the incredible place in the history of world cinema he built for himself.”

In another emotional moment, Sally Hawkins, acclaimed for her role as a North London schoolteacher in the comedy Happy-Go-Lucky, was named best actress in a comedy or musical – over as she called them, such “goddesses”] as Meryl Streep, Frances McDormand and Emma Thompson.

As a tearful Hawkins became choked up on the stage, Thompson flashed her hand signals to make sure she was okay.

Just before, British comedian Ricky Gervais cracked up the crowd when he reminded the evening’s supporting actress honoree Kate Winslet, for The Reader, that she’d win if she did a Holocaust movie. (That was the plotline of Winslet’s guest appearance on Gervais’s HBO series Extras).

The Jonas Brothers presented the best animated feature Globe to the makers of Disney-Pixar’s WALL-E.

Jennifer Lopez Starts the Show
Jennifer Lopez kicked off the show by presenting the night’s first award. “Hello! Mama talking! Mama talking!” she said as she tried to quiet the crowd to read the names of the nominees.

Within a minute, “Mama” announced the evening’s first winner, Kate Winslet, as the best supporting actress, for The Reader. In it, Winslet plays a German woman with a hidden past for her activities during World War II.

Clutching her trophy and unwrapping a sheet of paper, Winslet explained the length of her speech by saying, “I have a habit of not winning.”

To her husband – and Revolutionary Road director – Sam Mendes, she said, “I’m sorry I was so mental at the end.” Then, she waved to her two children, Mia and Joe, and said, “Look, I won!”

Bruce Springsteen, winning for his best song from The Wrestler, said laughing, “This is the only time I’ll be in competition with Clint Eastwood. It felt pretty good too.”

In the small screen division, Anna Paquin was honored for her leading role as a vampire lover on the HBO dramatic series True Blood, while Gabriel Byrne – who wasn’t at the ceremony – won as best actor for his starring role on the same network’s In Therapy.

Back to the Glitz
Billed as “the glamorous return of the Golden Globes,” Sunday night’s 66th awards ceremony, airing on NBC, brought an influx of stars to the Beverly Hilton Hotel’s grand ballroom for a champagne banquet – a stark contrast to last year’s scaled-down telecast owing to the Hollywood writers’ strike.

Last year’s situation also prevented Steven Spielberg from being presented the Cecil B. DeMille Award for career achievement, an omission to be rectified this year.

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Now that Heath Ledger has been posthumously nominated for a Golden Globe, there’s maneuvering behind the scenes as to who will accept the award should he win.

“Kim desperately wants to do it,” one cognoscento tells us of Heath’s father. “But the studio and the producers would rather have Michelle receive it on behalf of Matilda” – the couple’s daughter.

Some Hollywood insiders have speculated that the foreign journalists who decide upon the Golden Globes choose some nominees based on their attractiveness and star power, to goose up their televised awards show’s ratings. Michelle Williams, who broke up with Ledger four months before he died in January, is a lot purtier than the senior Ledger, who accepted an “Aussie” award for his son last weekend.

But a friend of the family tells us, “Why would Michelle be involved? She had nothing to do with the movie. They weren’t even together when he passed away. Would you have your ex-wife accept your award? And they weren’t even married. [Director] Chris Nolan or [star] Christian Bale would make more sense. Michelle makes no sense. It’s like those rumors that she would go to the premiere of ‘Dark Knight.’ That was never in the realm of possibility.”

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EVERY penny of Heath Ledger’s estimated $20 million will go to his little girl Matilda Rose, Ledger’s father says.

In his will, which has been probated behind closed doors at the Supreme Court in Perth, Ledger left everything to his parents and three sisters.

Many observers expected his former partner Michelle Williams to lodge a claim on the will, which was signed by the actor on April 12, 2003, two years before Matilda was born.

The will left half of the estate to Ledger’s sisters, Kate and Olivia Ledger and Ashleigh Bell.

The remainder was to go to his parents, Kim Ledger and Sally Bell, after debts had been paid.

But Ledger’s father, Kim, says there will be no challenge and the family has given everything to Matilda.

“There is no claim,” Mr Ledger said. “Our family has gifted everything to Matilda.”

The 28-year-old Ledger doted on Matilda, but was separated from Williams, who joined the Ledger family in Perth for a memorial and wake on Cottesloe Beach in February.

Some estimates have put the value of the Heath Ledger estate at up to $20 million.

But Adelaide accountant Mark Dyson, who is an executor of the estate, said he could not reveal what Matilda would inherit.

The will, filed at the Manhattan equivalent of Australia’s Family Court after Ledger died in New York on January 22 from a cocktail of prescription drugs, puts the bulk of his assets into a trust.

Despite the millions of dollars in property in Ledger’s trusts, his will lists assets and cash of just $145,000, with no mention of mansions or millions.

Williams’ father has previously challenged the grieving Ledger family to publicly state the value of their son’s fortune.

Larry Williams, one of the world’s best-known stock market traders, said he was perplexed that documents filed in a New York court listed Ledger’s assets at just $145,000.

“It’s real simple: just come clean with everything,” he said.

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The company that wrote Heath Ledger’s $10 million life insurance policy is being sued after claiming the actor’s death might have been a suicide, even though officials concluded it was accidental. Lawyers for Ledger’s daughter say it’s a transparent ploy to avoid paying the money.

ReliaStar Life Insurance Company wrote the policy in June 2007 — six months before Ledger died. The beneficiary of the policy is a trustee who would hold the money for 2-year-old Matilda.

Instead of paying the $10 mil, ReliaStar set out to investigate whether Ledger took his own life, despite the fact that the New York City Medical Examiner ruled the death accidental.

TMZ has obtained a lawsuit, filed by Matilda’s trustee, claiming ReliaStar (owned by ING Americas) has acted in bad faith by not promptly paying the $10 million and by wrongfully prying into the life of Heath Ledger after his death.

Sources say lawyers for the insurance company have claimed Ledger’s death was “suspicious” — possibly suicide, which would nullify the policy. The company alleges in its answer to the lawsuit, “ReliaStar is entitled to investigate Plaintiff’s claim to determine if the ‘Suicide’ provision is applicable.” That provision states, “If the Insured commits suicide … we will pay only the amount of premiums paid to us.”

ReliaStar’s lawyers have informed Matilda’s lawyers they intend to take the depositions of Mary-Kate Olsen, as well as the masseuse who was at Ledger’s home when he died, Ledger’s colleagues on his last film, his agents, doctors, psychologists and others. Lawyers for Matilda believe the insurance company is trying to scare and shame them into submission. They believe ReliaStar is trying to drag the process out, for what could be years, to avoid paying the money.

We’re also told ReliaStar believes Ledger may have lied on two questions on his insurance application — specifically, whether he was taking prescription drugs when he filled out the application and whether he ever used illegal drugs.

In its answer to the lawsuit, ReliaStar claims it can contest the policy if Ledger lied on the application and it was a “material misrepresentation.” Sources tell us Ledger had a prescription for Ambien when he filled out the application, but Ambien was not in his system when he died, nor were any illegal drugs.

Lawyers for Matilda’s trust claim ReliaStar is flagrantly violating California law, which prohibits insurance companies from re-examining insurance applications after the policyholder dies. In the lawsuit, Matilda’s lawyers say they received a letter from ReliaStar, asking them to identify “all physicians who attended to [Ledger] and all hospitals or institutions where [he] was treated since 1996.” Matilda’s lawyers say the request blatantly violates the law.

An official for ReliaStar told TMZ, “No decision has been made on the claim.” But lawyers for Matilda’s trust believe ReliaStar should have already paid and, according to the suit, is acting “maliciously, fraudulently and/or oppressively … depriving plaintiff of the insurance policy benefits.”

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Heath Ledger’s bar, Five Leaves, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City is set to open on Wednesday, almost eight months after the actor’s untimely death.

“It’s all meant to be a super casual California- and Australia-tinged cafe, coffeehouse and oyster bar, with greenmarket snacks,” a critic for UrbanDaddy.com wrote.

With steel light fixtures and “wire concoctions that seem right out of a lab,” Five Leaves resembles “a bar that Thomas Edison might have built for his buddies,” according to the review. The door to the bar’s bathroom is a “massive, ’20s-era boiler room door.”

On the bar’s menu? Sliced radishes on toast with Evans Farmhouse butter.

Ledger, who financially backed the bar, died at age 28 of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs in January.

Ledger’s ex Michelle Williams lives with their 2-year-old daughter Matilda in Brooklyn.

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THE three stars who completed Heath Ledger’s final film role have donated their pay to his two-year-old daughter.
Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell were worried for Matilda’s future as Heath left an old will which did not include the girl.

They played versions of his character Tim in fantasy epic The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus.

Director Terry Gilliam, 67, said: “They didn’t take money — it goes to Heath’s daughter.

“That’s extraordinary! And wonderful . . . and when you’re part of that, you think, ‘Ah, this is maybe why I went into the movies in the beginning. I thought it would be full of wonderful people.’

“And we’ve got a movie full of wonderful people who did extraordinary things to help.”

Heath, 28, star of Batman: The Dark Knight, died in his New York flat in January from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.

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Mary-Kate Olsen is off the hook.

The feds have closed their probe into Heath Ledger’s death and won’t force the TV twin to tell them what she knows about his prescription drug stash, a source told the Daily News.

Prosecutors had kept an April 23 subpoena up their sleeves as they tried to convince Olsen to voluntarily speak with federal drug agents still probing Ledger’s January overdose, the source said.

Olsen had refused to talk without immunity to the Drug Enforcement Administration agents and federal prosecutors looking into the actor’s death in his SoHo flat.

By closing the case, Olsen won’t have to.

“A decision was made to close the case,” said a source familiar with the inquiry.

The U.S. Attorney of the Southern District decided not to serve Olsen with a subpoena, the source said.

Investigators had determined that Ledger, who stars as The Joker in “The Dark Knight,” had prescriptions for the Xanax, Valium and Restoril found in his system but none for the OxyContin or Vicodin.

Agents had wanted to ask Olsen if she knew how Ledger got these two potent drugs, sources said.

“We don’t know where he got the other narcotics. No one interviewed suggested (Olsen) gave him the drugs,” another source said. “But (Olsen) may have known where the drugs came from.”

Olsen, through her Manhattan lawyer Michael Miller, stated she “had nothing whatsoever to do with the drugs found in Heath Ledger’s home or his body, and she does not know where he obtained them.”

Miller, as well as spokespersons for the DEA and federal prosecutors, declined to comment on the status of the probe. Ledger’s two doctors – one in Texas and another in Los Angeles – cooperated with the inquiry.

So did ex-girlfriend Michelle Williams, sources said. Ledger’s masseuse had called Olsen when she found Ledger’s lifeless body in his Manhattan flat.

Instead of immediately dialing 911, the masseuse called Olsen, who called her bodyguards in Manhattan and told them to get to Ledger’s Broome St. apartment. The guards arrived as paramedics rolled up.

“There was no impropriety on the part of the doctors, they had actually examined (Ledger) and legitimately written the prescriptions,” another source said.

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As the investigation surrounding Heath Ledger’s accidental overdose continues, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration office in New York has confirmed to Access Hollywood that they have issued a subpoena that would force Mary-Kate Olsen to testify in front of a grand jury.

Five medications were found in Heath’s body at the time of his death, according to the DEA, three of which he’d obtained via doctors in Texas and Los Angeles. At the center of the investigation is how he acquired Oxycontin and Vicodin without a legal prescription.

The actress was the first person called by the masseuse who discovered Heath’s body after the “The Dark Knight” actor’s untimely death.

She broke her silence for the first time on Monday, when a rep for the actress told Access in a statement that she “had nothing whatsoever to do with the drugs found in Heath Ledger’s home or his body, and she does not know where he obtained them.”

However, despite the rep’s statement that they “have provided the Government with relevant information,” the actress is reportedly refusing to speak to government officials without immunity.

According to Benjamin Brafman, a high-profile defense attorney not associated with the case, seeking immunity is not the same as admitting guilt.

“It may not mean anything other than she’s getting good legal advice,” Brafman told Access.

“You don’t know what the DEA may suspect in this case and I think it’s a cautious way to proceed. I think it would be wrong to assume she’s done something criminal simply because she’s invoking her 5th amendment against self-incrimination.”

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