The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Don’t miss these excellent posts on some very engaging and thoughtful topics - from going green at the office to Julian Beever to dystopian film telling us to take action now. Check out our most popular articles of the week on a variety of subjects, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites.

Katie:

Katoucha’s Body Found: Model Helped African Women Escape Mutiliation

Julian Beever Brings Art to New Orleans Sidewalks

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Nicole:

Heath Ledger Nick Drake Video for “Black Eyed Dog” Hits Web

Top 10 Ways to Go Green in the Office

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Giulia:

Crate & Barrel Goes Green

The Black Comedy Project

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Gina:

Top 10 Dystopian Future Films Telling Us to Take Action Now

Going to “The Edge of Heaven” with Fatih Akin

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Kerry:

Sustainable Songstrees Sue West’s Rural Revival

No Impact Home A Hit At Ecobuild Exhibition

One of Heath Ledger’s last creative endeavors was a short film/video for Nick Drake’s “Black Eyed Dog.” Ledger admitted to being “obsessed” with Drake, a 1970s folk singer, who also died from a prescription drug overdose at a young age. Ledger was the actor, director and cameraman for this previously little known project. Although Ledger’s death has been ruled an accident, the video has prompted further speculation about his state of mind leading up to the incident.

According to Defamer.com, before last week the video was only screed twice: “Labor Day weekend at the Bumbershoot festival in Seattle and a second time in October at ‘A Place to Be,’ an event honoring Drake held in L.A.” It was shown again on Wednesday, February 27th on the Australian “A Current Affair.” The clip is below.

Affair reports that the final scene, which is “too graphic for them to broadcast,” depicts Ledger succumbing to the “dog” (Winston’s Churchill’s well-known description of depression) and drowning himself in a bathtub.   The melody itself, however, is quite beautiful and hauntingly complimented by Ledger’s black and white images.

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It was Heath Ledger’s decision to join The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus that gave director Terry Gilliam both the green light and his budget. So when Ledger passed in the middle of filming Parnassus, the fate of the movie didn’t look so great.

But thankfully, folks have banned together and with Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law signing on to help finish the film, Parnassus will live to see a movie theater.

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Heath Ledger’s untimely death has left Warner Brothers Studios with the challenging tasks of both doing the necessary post-filming voice overs, and marketing the summer Batman blockbuster in the wake of last month’s tragedy. The studio still intends to release “The Dark Knight” in July 2008 as planned, but rumor has it that Ledger didn’t finish all of his lines before he died. The studio will probably have to hire a voice artist to fill in the gaps during necessary voice looping sessions, although they’ve been reluctant to admit it as they don’t want audiences listening for small voice variations in the film. In terms of merchandise sales, studio officials have been in meetings this week deciding what to do with t-shirts and toys depicting images of the late actor. They don’t want to be seen as exploiting Ledger’s image, but also don’t want piracy getting too out of hand. For the full article on Slate.com, click here.

Ledger was involved in a number of charities including LIFEbeat, the music industry’s charitable organization dedicated to reaching America’s youth with the message of HIV/AIDS prevention. An excellent way to honor Ledger’s memory would be to and get involved with LIFEbeat’s Outreach and Hearts & Voices program.