Heath Ledger's Final Film Premiere: Where Were His Three Best Friends?

Three of Ledger's best buddies were noticeably absent from the premiere of his last appearance on screen.

It’s been almost 22 months since Heath Ledger's death, however Monday evening marked the last time the young actor would ‘star’ at a Hollywood Premiere. Ledger was amid filming the fantastical tale "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus" when he died, prompting his close friends Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law to step in and finish where Ledger left off.

However the three big wigs were notably absent from the gala festivities, prompting many to question the whereabouts of his three buddies that so graciously took over the role. It turns out Farrell was busy playing dad as his girlfriend just gave birth over the weekend, Depp is apparently busy filming and Jude Law instead spent the night at the “Only Make Believe” 10th Anniversary Gala in NYC. But according to a source close to the film, his pals still find the topic emotional and it is not something they want to openly discuss.

Photog Dies After Taking Lady Gaga Pics

Lady Gaga stepped onto the red carpet on Monday night sporting a widow-esque black veil (above, left), and minutes later, celebrity photographer A.J. Sokalner was dead. Sokalner (above, right) was working the red carpet at the ACE Awards that the 'Poker Face' singer was attending in New York City when he collapsed just minutes after Gaga took to the carpet. He was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital shortly after, and the owner of ACE Pictures, who Sokalner worked for, says emergency workers said he had suffered a heart attack. He was in his late 50s.


Philip Vaughan, the owner of the ACE Pictures agency that Sokalner shot for, told PDN.com that A.J. "was very well liked, he was very well respected ... He was a real photographer and he did it because he loved it."

Fellow photographer Brian Lamb says he was just feet away from Sokalner when he fell ill.

"By the time I saw him, he was already blue and people were starting to give him CPR," according to Lamb. Other photographers on the scene say Sokalner hit his head when he collapsed.

Sokalner's friend Dennis Van Tine says he was also at the event, but by the time he got word of the incident, his friend was already being loaded into an ambulance.

Van Tine calls Sokalner "one of those silent guys who goes out and shoots every day." He adds that his friend "was a cynic in the great New York tradition ... He knew what was right, he knew what was wrong, he knew who the crooks were."

Little-Known Strategies to Maximize Your Social Security Benefits

More than 50 million Americans receive monthly Social Security benefits. For more than 20% of married couples and 40% of singles, Social Security is their sole source of income in retirement.

Maybe that’s why the government’s recent announcement that there will be no cost of living increase (COLA) for Social Security recipients next year -- the first year without a raise since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975 -- hit so many seniors so hard.

Even if Social Security is only one piece of your overall retirement nest egg, it's important that you make the most of it. Personal finance experts Ken and Daria Dolan of Dolans.com are going to show you some little-known strategies that can help you maximize your Social Security benefits (the last one is a real doozy!).

Ignore the No. 1 Social Security Myth

Time and time again we hear people say that their Social Security benefit is based on your last five years of earnings. WRONG! This is one of those nasty rumors that just won't die and it's flat out not true.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) uses your highest 35 years of earnings to calculate your benefits! So, for the sake of example, if you have worked for 39 years, the SSA will throw out your 4 lowest earning years.

Check Your PEBES

Every year, you should receive a copy of your Personal Earnings and Benefit Estimate Statement (PEBES) from the Social Security Administration. This statement lists the number of years that you have been credited for working and the amount of income reported.

These two critical pieces of information are used to calculate your future SS benefits so it's important that you be sure they are reported correctly.

Your PEBEs statement is also helpful in your retirement planning since it gives you a projection of future Social Security benefits.

If you haven’t received one, here's how to order your PEBES statement and check it for errors.

Know Your Real Retirement Age

There's a huge financial plus to delaying your Social Security benefits. But your strategy depends highly on your age since the "normal" retirement age ranges from 65 to 67 depending on when you were born.

Although you may start taking Social Security benefits as early as age 62, you would then only receive 75% of your full benefit. By waiting to age 70, you’ll get 132% more in benefits!

Many people still mistakenly think that 65 is the official retirement age, but that's not true.

Use this handy Social Security retirement age chart to find the full age at which you can start taking full Social Security benefits.

Tap into Your Ex's Benefits

We're about to share several little known strategies to make the most of your Social Security benefits if you are married. But before we get to those, let's talk about a special strategy if you are divorced.

Not many people realize this, but you can collect benefits based on your ex-spouse's earnings. The spousal benefit is the same as if you were married -- 50% of your ex-spouse's benefits at age 65. There are, of course, some rules:

· You must have been married for at least ten years
· You cannot be married to someone else
· The benefit you receive based on your ex-spouse's work record must be larger than the benefit that you would receive based on your own work history; and
· If your ex-spouse has not yet signed up for Social Security, you must have been divorced for at least two years before your make your claim.

If your own earnings were sporadic or low, this strategy could pay you a larger benefit than your own work history. You can start collecting this benefit as early as age 62, even before you ex-spouse retires. Your claim will not affect the size of your ex's Social Security payments -- in fact, your ex doesn’t even have to know you're collecting these benefits!

Maximize Your Spousal Benefit When One Spouse Didn’t Work

Here's a strategy if you or your spouse didn't work, or does not have enough credits to claim Social Security benefits based on your own earnings record.

You can maximize your benefits using what’s called a "claim and suspend" strategy. Here's how it works: once the higher earner reaches full retirement age, he claims and immediately suspends his retirement benefits. By doing this, the spouse receives a spousal benefit based on the working spouse's earning record.

Remember, if the higher earning spouse (often the husband) dies first, the lower earning spouse can then switch to the survivor's benefit which is 100% of the benefit received by their spouse.

Maximize Your Benefits When Both Spouses Are Eligible for S.S.

If you and your spouse are each eligible for benefits based on your individual earnings, you can actually claim Social Security twice. Really. Here are the caveats: You must both have significant earnings, and at least one of you must delay claiming your Social Security benefits until age 66. When you wait until your full retirement age to start your benefits, you can choose whether to receive benefits based on your earnings record or that of your spouse. You can even receive both at different times.

For example, if a husband claims his benefits at age 70, his 66-year old wife (who is at her full retirement age) can file for a spousal benefit based on his working record equal. You get to collect 50% of his benefit.

The wife continues working and contributing to Social Security for four more years until she is 70. Then she stops receiving the spousal benefit and starts receiving Social Security benefits based on her own working record.

She gets to start collecting the spousal benefit PLUS she boosts her Social Security checks because she delayed her claim PLUS she potentially increased her payment because she added higher earning years to overall work record.

Ask for a "Do Over"

Now for a strategy that only a fraction of a fraction of Social Security beneficiaries have ever heard of!

We already told you that it's smart for many people to wait until their full retirement age to start taking Social Security benefits. But what if you didn't? What if you start your benefits and change your mind?

Well, most retirement decisions are hard to reverse, but this is one time you get a "do over."

Here how it works: The Social Security Administration allows seniors who have started taking their monthly benefit to stop their benefits and start again later.

You simply repay the full amount in benefits received to date with NO interest, then you "re-start" your benefit at a later date (and probably a higher amount) as though you had deferred taking their benefits in the first place! For example … if you began receiving benefits at age 62, but then changed your mind and wanted to wait until age 70 to begin collecting benefits.

Using this strategy, you could increase your Social Security payments by more than 70%!

Knowing how to maximize your Social Security benefits can make a big difference in your retirement income.

Instant verdict, please: What did you think of the first episode of 'V'?

Okay, if you’re reading this, chances are you watched the premiere of V.

Here’s my B+ review to read, so you know where I stand. In brief: I liked it, I thought it had a lot of clever things to say about media cynicism and human-race optimism, I thought Elizabeth Mitchell was terse-tough good and Scott Wolf masterful at playing a soulless, ambitious guy with whom we could still identify.

But I’d be very curious to know what you thought, because sci-fi or fantasy shows on major networks are always dicey, sometimes-devisive affairs. For every Lost, there’s a Manimal, know what I mean?

I’m particularly interested in whether you thought the V writers handled the whole here’s-how-America-would-react-to-aliens stuff. Would we really look up in the sky, see a pretty woman with a soothing voice, and burst into applause, or would something NRA-ish in our hearts and minds get stirred up?

Obviously, if you haven’t had a chance to watch V yet: DON’T READ THE COMMENTS BELOW, BECAUSE I’M INVITING YOU TO DISCUSS THE ENTIRE SHOW, SPOILER-DETAILS AND ALL!

Let me know what you think below, please. Thanks.

Watch the Trailer for 24's Upcoming Season

FOX has released the trailer for 24's upcoming season, which returns on January 17, 2010 with a two-hour premiere (and continues on January 18 with another two-hour episode, making the Season 8 debut a four-hour television event).

The clip opens with our old buddy Jack Bauer as a family man, insisting that he's retired from government bad-assery -- but we all know things won't stay that way for long. Are you excited for the new season?

Check out the clip and let us know what you think!

Mariah Carey Trips on 'The Jay Leno Show' (VIDEO)

While wearing what barely qualifies as a dress, Mariah Carey has a shoe malfunction and trips on 'The Jay Leno Show' as she makes her way to the interview chair.

Carey later joked during the interview the stumble was choreographed in order to to make Leno nervous. And perhaps as a further way to distract Leno and the audience from her two left feet, Carey demonstrates the appropriate way to seductively apply perfume. Pay close attention to Leno's flustered response.

Kate Gosselin Not Proud of How She Treated Jon

Kate Gosselin opens in a one-hour interview 'Kate: Her Story' on TLC where "no topics will be off limits" (via Today Show). In the chat with Natalie Morales, Kate apologized for how she treated Jon.

"I was very hard on him and I would never deny that," she says, EOnline.com reports.

"I was wrong to treat him that way. Was it good, healthy and wonderful? No. Am I proud of those moments that were captured? No."




"I still wake up every day, and I think the phone will ring and it'll be the old Jon," she explained.

She also revealed she can't sleep at night because there's no one she can trust. "People leave your house and tell completely different stories." She admits people she trusted have "cashed her in" including estranged husband.

While she admitted she's trying to deal with the divorce, she isn't getting much sleep. With all the tabloid headlines, she doesn't even know what's real anymore. "I am awake in the middle of the night thinking, 'Am I making the best decision?'"

Kate's breaking point in the marriage happened after Jon went public with allegations of an affair with their bodyguard Steve Neild. Kate has denied the affair. She said Neild and his wife are on the short list of people she actually trusts.

"So unthinkable to me that to have to think about it makes me sick," Kate said of the affair rumors.

The Gosselins' divorce will be finalized by the end of the year, and Kate is looking forward to 2010 and hoping for a new start.

The interview also deals with Jon Gosselin's open discussion with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach in which he talks about his relationships with estranged wife Kate and girlfriend Hailey Glassman. "It's hard for a man to stay home for two years, change diapers, make meals and deal with doctor's appointments and all the stuff you expect your wife to do," he said.

But Kate doesn't talk about Jon's personal life with him. "We do [talk] where it relates to the kids...As far as dating goes, I've never, ever broached the subject with him as far as anything I've ever read, seen or heard."

Kate said the kids are her main priority right now because they've been starting to act out and even become more introverted since the divorce went public and 'Jon and Kate Plus 8' went into hiatus from filming.

"We can't turn life off...I can't turn life off. In the last nine, 10 months, it's gotten really crazy and I can't seem to get away from it at this point. My goal in all this is I just want peace for my kids."