Batman star Heath Ledger's heartbroken ex-lover has gone into hiding with their toddler daughter, lost in unbearable grief amid the fanfare for his final film... and a bitter squabble over his will.
The face of Ledger - who died of a drug overdose six months ago - has been plastered across billboards amid huge hype for the new Batman film, The Dark Knight, in which he stars as the Joker.
Film critics have hailed it as his finest performance ever - but it has left his devastated ex, actress Michelle Williams, reeling as she attempts to rebuild her life.
After telling friends she had to get away, Michelle, 27, has left her New York home, along with two-year-old Matilda. Meanwhile, an unseemly battle is shaping up over Heath's fortune and what portion of it will be passed to his daughter.
"The last few weeks have been particularly hard on Michelle because Heath's face has been plastered all over TV and on billboards," said one of her friends. "It's been extraordinarily difficult as she tries to somehow come to terms with his death and what that means for little Matilda.
"Then there is the awful, festering issue of what he was worth, where the money has gone and what there is going to be in the estate for Matilda."
The bulk of Ledger's £10million fortune was left in Perth, Australia, his home city. Just a month after his death in January, papers lodged in the US courts revealed his total American assets to be just £75,000.
Matilda may have no entitlement to any of the Australian money because Heath's will, made before he met Michelle, left everything to his father Kim, mother Sally and three sisters. Mounting tension between Heath and Michelle's families erupted when Michelle's father Larry publicly demanded that Kim state the exact amount and whereabouts of Heath's fortune.
Larry said: "It's real simple: Just come clean with everything. It's so easy to resolve this, he just has to say where the income went and where the assets are."
Heath's family have insisted that Matilda will be looked after - but no more details have emerged.
Meanwhile, Michelle and Matilda disappeared before Tuesday's New York premiere of The Dark Knight and have not been seen since.
The film - set to be one of the biggest ever - is released here on Thursday. It broke box office records in America before it even opened, with some cinemas planning to screen it 24 hours a day to cope with demand.
Brooding Heath, whose handsome features are obscured with grotesque makeup on the Batman posters, died of an accidental drug overdose in January aged 28.
Heath and his Brokeback Mountain co-star Michelle had split in September last year after three years together, reportedly over his drug abuse. Deeply depressed over the break-up, Heath threw himself into work filming The Dark Knight in London.
Then, while back in New York between films, Heath swallowed six different varieties of sleeping, anti-anxiety, depression and pain-killing pills.
A masseuse discovered his body in the bedroom of his rented Manhattan loft in the middle of the afternoon. Michelle was heartbroken by the split and right up until he died she hoped Heath would clean up and return to her, despite him being seen partying with a series of beautiful women after they parted.
Now she has been left to struggle with her own grief while trying to shield her daughter from the hype. She has lined up work on back-to-back movies to try to dull the pain and has told friends Heath was the love of her life and she can't contemplate dating yet.
Matilda has been with her on film sets across America and Europe in the past six months. Explaining that she was too young to understand what had happened, Michelle apparently told Matilda: "Daddy went away."
In a beautiful tribute to Heath in February, she wrote: "My heart is broken. I am the mother of the most tender-hearted, high-spirited, beautiful little girl. All that I can cling to is his presence inside her that reveals itself every day.
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"His family and I watch Matilda as she whispers to trees, hugs animals and takes steps two at a time, and we know he is with us still."
Now the launch of the new Batman film and his reincarnation on a million street corners has fuelled the huge sense of loss gnawing away at her.
Michelle has surrounded herself with close friends, including actress neighbour Maggie Gyllenhaal and her brother Jake, who is Matilda's godfather. She has also spent a lot of time with Matilda's godmother, her Dawson's Creek pal Busy Philipps. And a few weeks ago, Heath's oldest friend Trevor DiCarlo flew in from Australia to spend time with her and Matilda. But as the Dark Knight hype began, Michelle told friends she couldn't simply stand the pressure any more.
In America £50million worth of advance tickets sold out immediately. It opened in 4,366 cinemas across the US - more than any other film before.
Co-star Michael Caine says he is convinced Heath would win a posthumous Oscar for his performance as Batman's evil nemesis.
And there seems little doubt that his portrayal of the Joker - with facial tics and creepy smile slashed in red lipstick - will eclipse Jack Nicholson's legendary 1989 version of the role.
Batman buffs are making comparisons between Ledger's unravelling life and his Joker role, debating whether he pushed himself too hard.
On set he regularly worked 15 hours in a row, finishing at 5am, sleeping only fitfully at his rented flat in North London during the day.
He dropped dark hints about his workload - and his use of sleeping pills - in an interview shortly before he died.
Describing the Joker as "a psychotic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy", he admitted he was sleeping just two hours a night. "I couldn't stop thinking," he said. "My body was exhausted and my mind was still going."
Amid such an avalanche of publicity and speculation, poor Michelle has vanished, not seen since last weekend when she took off from the four-storey New York townhouse she'd once shared with Heath.
Michelle had already warned Heath's family that she would not be joining them at The Dark Knight premiere in Manhattan.
Compounding Michelle's worries, Heath's father Kim has been accused by his own brothers in Australia of mishandling their dad's multi-million pound will.
Meanwhile, Michelle's father Larry, a best-selling author and stockbroker, is in Australia where he is fighting extradition to America on tax evasion charges.
"It's an awful time for Michelle, it really is," said her pal. "You wouldn't wish the situation she is in on your worst enemy, let alone someone as kind and decent as her."
Michelle went back to work within weeks of his death, saying Heath would have wanted her to do so.
She made a red carpet appearance at the Cannes Film Festival in May for the premiere of her film Wendy And Lucy and since then she has been working solidly.
Michelle is also planning to make her own film of Heath's short life so that Matilda can remember him as she grows up.
