A twisted impostor pretending to be Heath Ledger’s grieving dad cruelly duped superstar Tom Cruise into consoling him over the phone – and nearly got John Travolta to buy him a plane ticket to the United States, sources told The Post.
The sick scammer also suckered the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home in Manhattan, where the tragic actor’s body was held before being flown to Los Angeles, into booking him and his “family” rooms at the ritzy Carlyle hotel nearby on Madison Avenue, sources said. The hoaxer even got them to send free stuff to their rooms “when nobody was there,” a source said.
And the man falsely claiming to be Kim Ledger spoke on the phone with the doctor who performed the autopsy on the “Brokeback Mountain” star, a spokeswoman for the Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed.
Meanwhile, the real Kim Ledger, a race-car driver, arrived in New York on a flight from LA yesterday. He was spotted exiting the airport, but it was unclear where he was heading.
Cops want to arrest the con man on fraud and larceny charges, and sent detectives to Ledger’s wake at the funeral home Friday in hopes of catching him, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
But police do not know the identity of the impostor – who also tried to finagle from one unidentified Hollywood star the numbers of actors Mel Gibson and Christian Bale, who have co-starred in movies with Ledger.
The hoax began soon after Ledger, 28, was found dead one week ago today in his SoHo apartment near two opened packets of prescription pills. By the next day, a man claiming to be Kim Ledger managed to get Cruise on the phone, a source said.
Over the next few days, he “had had a couple of conversations with” Cruise, asking for emotional support, said the source. But Cruise abruptly cut him off when he learned “he was an impostor,” the source said. “Heath’s reps found out there was this hoaxer and they called various celebs.” Sources close to Cruise confirmed the impostor contacted him.
Travolta publicist Samantha Mast said, “John spoke with the guy briefly before he realized he was an impostor. He did not make arrangements to buy him a plane ticket.” But a source said Travolta, who had been “making arrangements to buy [the impostor] a plane ticket from Australia to LA and subsequently to New York.”
Ledger’s funeral is expected to be some time this week in his hometown of Perth, Australia.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for actress Mary-Kate Olsen continued to refuse to answer question about why she sent her bodyguards to Ledger’s apartment after the masseuse who discovered his body called her three times before dialing 911.