Australia's Channel 9 to air Ledger's drug binge video

Sydney, Jan 31 : A video of late actor Heath Ledger allegedly on a drug binge at a Hollywood hotel is set to be aired by Channel 9, according to reports.

According to US program Entertainment Tonight, the Australian network got hold of copies of the video, reportedly shot at Los Angeles celebrity hangout Chateau Marmont in January last year.

Channel 9 is considering becoming the first television station in Australia to air a full version of the scandalous footage.

Nine's Los Angeles bureau chief Robert Penfold admitted that the network was planning to air the footage on Jan 31.

"This tape has been in circulation and a lot of people have been trying to get hold of it," News.com.au quoted Penfold, as saying.

"It was always going to surface. It would appear that what the magazines have been writing about (Ledger's alleged drug addiction) has been true," he added.

Sources say that Entertainment Tonight reportedly paid almost 225,000 dollars for the tape but Penfold said Nine had not given any cash.

"There was absolutely no money involved at all," he said.

The video, which was reportedly shot at a party following the Screen Actors Guild awards on January 29, 2006, shows Ledger talking after sniffing a "cocaine-like" substance off a table with a rolled up bill in his hand.

An insider told the New York Post that in the video Ledger says: "I'm gonna get so much sh*t from my girlfriend. We have a baby together Matilda, Matilda Rose."

"I used to smoke five joints a day," the late actor allegedly says at another point in the video.

Entertainment Tonight and The Insider by The New York Post have not commented on the matter as yet.

ANI