Actress Michelle Williams, in a sensitive interview that may have been edited down with the goal of attacting readers, told the Daily Beast’s Kevin Sessums she was upset by the way Cynthia McFadden and the “Nightline” team edited down their recent conversation to “sell the interview.”
The comment came as part of an apology of sorts for not answering Sessums’ zinger about whether she blamed herself for Ledger’s death. After all, they had split up….
Here’s how Sessums, formerly a celebrity profiler for Vanity Fair, couched this somewhat delicate query: “A quote from The Great Gatsby is that ‘it takes two to make an accident.’ You had already broken up when he accidentally died, yet did you still feel as if somehow you were a part of his accidental death? I know this is difficult to discuss.”
You think?
A self-admitted “good girl” who really, really wants to be liked, Williams should probably avoid the press entirely if she can’t help uttering newsworthy remarks. Indeed, she’s so polite, she almost answered Sessums’ stunner, telling him, “I wish I could just have this conversation with Kevin and Michelle because I know from our other conversations and from your memoir how much you know about loss and grief,” and going on to discuss her struggle to be honest without allowing herself to be taken out of context and exploited.
Fortunately, Sessums backed off, intoning piously, “I’ll honor that struggle.”
The Daily Beast sitdown actually makes McFadden’s interrogation seem admirably sensitive. One grants Williams that perhaps “Nightline” edited a three-hour conversation into the most newsworthy and interesting seven minutes and then highlighted the biggest news she gave them. That’s kind of what they do.
What strikes us as a bit more hard to stomach is Sessums treacle-doused Q&A. Here’s a quote from the intro:
As we settled onto the sofa in front of the fireplace on the second floor of the house she had shared with Heath in their happier days, I presented her with her gifts. A gasp escaped her as she saw the Howard Moss book. Her eyes had already begun to mist as she ran her finger down the Table of Contents through the myriad titles and allowed it to come to rest at one of Moss’ most beautiful poems, “The Pruned Tree.” She turned to its page. There was one tear. Then there were two. But that was all. She flicked them away. It was her smile that now registered such wonder.
It’s enough to make you want to go see Blue Valentine if only to give poor Willams a break from doing any more press.
[Via The Daily News]
