Rob Pattinson and Heath Ledger

I worry about Rob Pattinson, in a motherly way. He's younger than my youngest child. He's handsome, creative, musical, and by his own account, anxious. He describes getting sweaty palms when he thinks about the crowds he's facing in his new found fame and adoration. There is already a cult behind him. He's also a Brit in the American movie machine and in Los Angeles, where the ghosts of Marilyn Monroe, John Belushi, River Phoenix and countless others lurk. There are also many walking wounded, as Robert Downey, Jr., Kiefer Sutherland, Brittney Spears and Amy Winehouse attest to us every day on the covers of magazines. I worry about new-found fame and wealth, and what bad things will happen to Rob, because I remember Heath Ledger well. They seem to have the same intensity and hyperfocus. I saw a column somewhere that asked, "Is Rob Pattinson the new Heath Ledger?" Let's hope not. Heath was chewing on anti=anxiety drugs, oxycontin, oxycodone and other things in an effort to medicate himself against something. What was it? Anxiety that he wouldn't perform to the standard he wanted to? Against expectations of the industry of hangers-on who are dependent on the continuing light of the stars? Against his own personal demons in addition to all this? I hope Rob Pattinson has a good head on his shoulders and careful advisors. It would be heartbreaking to see it all go wrong, as it has so many times before.