Heath art

Sydney, May 9 (AP): A portrait of Hollywood star Heath Ledger painted weeks before his death has won an Australian art award.

The painting features a bare-chested Ledger staring from the canvas as two images of the actor whisper into his ears.

Yesterday, it was awarded a secondary prize by the Art Gallery of New South Wales in its annual national portrait competition.

Sydney artist Del Kathryn Barton won first prize with her self portrait. Heath was the popular choice among the 32,000 who saw the exhibition. Ledger died of an accidental prescription drug overdose in January. He was 28.

Bong dig

Houston (Reuters): Authorities in Texas have filed corpse-abuse charges against two men who allegedly removed a skull from a grave and used it as a bong. One of the men allegedly told police they dug up a grave in an abandoned cemetery in the woods, removed a head from a body and smoked marijuana using the skull as a bong.

Tony host

New York (AP): It will be Whoopi and Tony. Whoopi Goldberg will serve as host of the 2008 Tony Awards June 15 at Radio City Music Hall, the show’s executive producers announced on Thursday. “I love Broadway and I'm thrilled to be doing anything for the first time.”