(Note: contains strong language in paragraphs 1 and 2)

Daniel Day-Lewis launched a tirade against the media’s handling of Heath Ledger’s death, calling it a “fucking circus”.  In Berlin for the European premiere of the Oscar-nominated film “There Will Be Blood“, the actor was asked if he wanted to expand on his speech last month at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles in which he dedicated his award to the Australian star who died aged 28 in New York.

“I’m reluctant to talk about him now as much as I was glad to have a chance to say something in that moment,” Day-Lewis told a packed news conference. ”His family, for instance, at this moment are trying to suffer their unimaginable grief in the full scrutiny of a fucking circus and anything that I say is going to probably just contribute even more to that, because it keeps the story running and running and running. There will come a time eventually when people just remember that he was a beautiful man who did some wonderful work and we would have seen great things from him. Right now I can’t say that I am too enthusiastic about just adding more fodder to what’s already just a horrendously, obscenely overblown machine that’s gathered around his death. It’s horrible.”