New York, November 6, 2006 – ““I’m not usually attracted to conventional love stories. I like them to be snuggled within a more interesting kind of, backdrop, I guess”, Heath Ledger said, without irony, at the premiere of “Candy”, in which he plays a heroin addict who draws his girlfriend into the drug scene. The usually aloof Oscar nominee was in a playful mood, evading photographers, and then dashing back for the photo op - just kidding! What attracted Ledger to the role? "It was mainly because I wanted to go home. There aren’t that many opportunities, film-wise, in Australia", he said.
There was speculation that Aussie costar Abbie Cornish didn’t attend the Cinema Society screening because she’s been implicated as the other woman in the Reese Witherspoon/Ryan Phillippe split. Ledger’s fiancée, Michelle Williams, wasn’t there, but he brought along a couple of good looking, scruffy male buddies that had the ladies primping. Claire Danes, Fisher Stevens, Ron and Cheryl Howard and actor Ben Shenkman were in the audience at the Tribeca Grand screening room, and partied later slightly uptown at the Soho Grand.
