The first five minutes of The Dark Knight has hit the Web, so feel free to spoil yourself before it's removed. No Bale, but we catch a glimpse of Heath Ledger and The Joker at work. Who's going with me to see this movie at midnight the day it's released?

A nosy Village Voice scribe stumbled across a large bundle of Miramax head Harvey Weinstein's garbage whilst in Tribeca the other night, and then he wrote about it for his paper. Besides making it abundantly clear that few scripts pass muster with the notoriously prickly and prickish Weinstein, the refuse also revealed that the mogul is quite a difficult man to get on the phone. After the jump, Harv's "need to call" list.

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We knew it was going to happen, but not so soon: The first reviews of The Dark Knight are out, and Heath Ledger's Oscar is already being polished. Rolling Stone's critic, Peter Travers, has already jumped in the driver's seat of Heath's love bus:

I can only speak superlatives of Ledger, who is mad-crazy-blazing brilliant as the Joker. It's typical of Ledger's total commitment to films as diverse as Brokeback Mountain and I'm Not There that he does nothing out of vanity or the need to be liked.

Ledger's Joker has no gray areas — he's all rampaging id. He creates a Joker for the ages. No plastic mask for Ledger. His face is caked with moldy makeup that highlights the red scar of a grin, the grungy hair and the yellowing teeth of a hound fresh out of hell.

If there's a movement to get him the first posthumous Oscar since Peter Finch won for 1976's Network, sign me up.

And while we don't doubt that Heath's performance is phenomenal, we're unsure whether the Oscar buzz would be surrounding his work if he were still alive to see it. But maybe that's just the Debbie Downer in us.

A new Dark Knight trailer has been released a few days earlier than scheduled, this one focusing more on the rivalry between Batman and The Joker. The movie looks fantastic, but it's Heath Ledger's performance (and a shirtless Bale) that will be the main draw. So you tell us: Were you already excited about the movie before Ledger's unexpected death, or has the hype piqued your interest more than you care to admit?

ARIAS WITH TWANG? "The New York City Opera has commissioned an opera based on 'Brokeback Mountain,' the Annie Proulx short story that became the basis for the 2005 Oscar-winning movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal and the late Heath Ledger. The critically acclaimed film caused controversy with its unabashed portrayal of a homosexual romance between two ranch hands. It won three Academy Awards. City Opera tapped Charles Wuorinen to compose the opera, which is to premiere in spring 2013."

Elle magazine's July issue features cover girl Mary-Kate Olsen and an interview that isn't all that enlightening. The only thing anybody cares about is her relationship with the late Heath Ledger, and she responded by saying she refused to comment: "I won't give you a word about that in the nicest way possible. Let's move on." To what, exactly? Because we don't think anyone's interested in hearing you discuss your keen fashion sense for hours.

Michelle Williams has taken a few months to mourn the passing of former partner Heath Ledger and decided to come out of hiding last night in Cannes. Although she did not star in Adoration, Michelle showed up for the premiere anyway, prompting reporters everywhere to declare the mourning period officially over. Because showing up at an event to be photographed obviously means she has completely moved on.

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What's in a name? Unfortunately, when 45 percent of adults in America say celebrity endorsements have an influence on their feelings, a whole lot of sycophancy. Using the Social Security Administration's baby name database, we've found even more evidence to support a theory we've had for a while now: many people are malleable to a fault and willing to make major life decisions based on what's popular.

For instance, in 1991, just one year after Mariah Carey released her debut, self-titled album, Mariah was the 69th most popular girl's name in the US, an appreciable jump from its position in 1989: 563. In 2005, Angelina was the 43rd most popular girl's name; it had been 304th in 1995. Kiefer debuted at 854 in the 1990 rankings of the top 1,000 boy names; two years prior, actor Kiefer Sutherland had starred as a heroic cowboy in Young Guns. Beyonce made its first and only appearance at the 700 spot in 2001.

Of course, as you well know, pop culture won't always positively shift the public opinion. In 2007, about a year after the release of the now-canonical gay film Brokeback Mountain, the name Heath dropped from 778 to 905. In 1989, Lisa was the 55th most popular girl's name in America. That year The Simpsons debuted, and Lisa has lost popularity ever since. In 2007 it was ranked 573rd.

Not at all in the top 1,000 names in the last 100 years: Barf, Cord and Apple.

That creepy portrait Heath Ledger sat for just one month before passing away has won some art award. Said someone in our office more insensitive than ourselves: "It's just 'cause he died."

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In its annual, consistently wrong Hot 100 list, Maxim magazine names Ashley Olsen the world's 47th "hottest" woman, but fails to include Ashley's twin sister, Mary Kate, anywhere on the roster.

We think Mary Kate's omission is due to the fact that Maxim's Hot 100 list is arbitrary and stupid, but leave it up to the New York Post to subtly suggest that it could have something to do with the young lady's involvement in Heath Ledger's death.

Click through for the Post's copy.

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We don't know which is creepier: the Heath Ledger Joker doll or the fact that the Heath Ledger Joker doll is immensely popular with collectors hoping the untimely death of the actor who inspired it will boost its value.

The hard-to-get Joker dolls, which sell for $9.99, were already up for grabs on eBay - with one being sold as part of a $55 package with a Batman figurine.
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Midtown Comics on Seventh Avenue expects to score big with its shipment later this month. "I heard one guy bought 30 of them, people are buying them up as collector's items," the manager said.

The Dark Knight trailer is out, and it's as creepy and jarring as you might expect. We can't decide if the movie looks good on its own merits or if the main draw is seeing one of Heath Ledger's last performances. (Which, may we add, is phenomenal.)

Michelle Williams claims that she is being haunted by the ghost of Heath Ledger. His first visit woke her up during the night as he moved around some furniture; another time, he spoke to her and apologized for not being able to help her raise 2-year-old Matilda.

No jokes, as this seems like one of the few ways Michelle is learning to cope.

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Executives behind the upcoming Batman franchise flick The Dark Knight will not alter a scene in the film that depicts the late Heath Ledger's character, the Joker, pretending to be dead. The scene in question shows Ledger hiding out in a bodybag, and it left some test audience members "reeling." Rumors abounded that the film would be reworked to mitigate the shock, but a source close to the production says, "The film remains intact - and nothing of Ledger's will be cut from the movie, including the bodybag scene." Related: Many film studios to stop using seven-year-olds as test audience members.

Because Heath Ledger simply cannot rest in peace, a lawsuit was filed today alleging the late actor was set up in 2006 by two photographers who offered him cocaine and secretly videotaped the exchange for profit. (Remember the little video that Entertainment Tonight promoted but never ran after Heath's death?)

The suit was filed by "Jane Doe," who was a freelance reporter for People at the time of the incident. Her then-boyfriend, Splash photographer Darren Banks, met up with Heath after the SAG awards and brought him to Doe's room at the Chateau Marmont.

Problem is, Heath wasn't aware that he was hanging out with Splash photogs, and they quickly offered him cocaine. After the men began snorting, one of the Splash guys left the room to secretly film Ledger from the room's balcony. Once Heath caught on to what was happening, he became angry but was assured the tape would be destroyed — except we obviously know it wasn't, because it was sold to Entertainment Tonight back in January for $200,000.

So why the lawsuit? Jane Doe is seeking unspecified damages on charges of fraud, intrusion, infliction of emotional distress and privacy violations because her voice is on the tape and she is afraid people will think she was doing coke. Because if anyone is the victim in all this, it's Jane Doe.

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DENY, DENY, DENY "With rumors rampant that Heath Ledger may have had a teenaged love child, the woman in question [has] spoken out. … 'I think it's very, very rude that I'm being posed all of this. I really do. I can't talk about anything. You have no proof, there's no background, there's no grounds, there's no nothing.'"

HEATH CONTINUES TO REST IN PEACE "Stirring up even more controversy in the battle over Heath Ledger's estate, Heath's uncle is now claiming that the late actor may have fathered a love child when he was 17. 'There is a very real possibility that Heath was the father,' says Hadyn Ledger, one of Heath's father's brothers, in Australia's Daily Telegraph. Another family member claimed that the woman in question was 25 years old at the time, and learned she was pregnant after they had ended her affair with Ledger."

WHAT REALLY MATTERS "There have been news reports that Heath Ledger left a grand total of $145,000 in his estate, and, as a result, his daughter might not be taken care of properly — BOGUS! True, we know the will lists $145,000 in assets. But here's the deal. The will was drafted in 2003. Since then, sources say, Heath accumulated lots of jack, from movies like … Brokeback Mountain and The Dark Knight."