Los Angeles - In the year since his death, Heath Ledger has become a sainted figure in Hollywood, reverently recalled for his talent and good humour.

The foreign media genuflected before his memory with a Golden Globe for his performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight, and many expect an Academy Award nomination to follow tomorrow.

But in a drab downtown courtroom, a decidedly less glowing portrait holds sway. A lawsuit pitting a freelance magazine reporter against her ex-lover, his colleague and the paparazzo agency that employed them centres on a video of Ledger on a night he might have counted among the most disturbing of his life.

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