Rich & Famous Tours Criticized by Blogger Colliding Continents for Capitalizing on Actor Ledger's Death Location

    /24-7PressRelease/ - NEW YORK, NY, February 08, 2008 - Rich & Famous Tours, the "celebrity insider's tour" of the Big Apple has come under fire—this time from the blogging community for its "speedy capitalization" on the death of Hollywood star Heath Ledger by featuring his death site on the Rich & Famous bus tour route. The celebrity "insider tour", after being criticized in the media as a "stalker tour" by cooperating with paparazzi and for capitalizing on the macabre and unusual, has come under fire from the blog "Colliding Continents, For the Adventurer Within", an opinion blog written by Sebastien Tobler, of Washington D.C.

Headlined "Celebrity Tourism in Top Form", Sebastien the blogger proceeds to show incredulity at the fact that Rich & Famous Tours have added the Heath Ledger "death location" in New York's fashionable SoHo neighborhood to their popular sightseeing experience in addition to the Frank Campbell Funeral home on Madison Ave. where Ledger's body was embalmed for shipment to Australia. Rich & Famous Tours co-founder and lead guide Jim Dykes says, "We're simply giving the public what they want...we're showing all the New York celebrity sites possible within the boundaries of our 3 hour sightseeing tour. We show where they live, shop, dine and now, apparently, where they died. It's in the newspaper one day and it's on my tour the next day...we strive to be current. It's public knowledge...I do not feel sorry for people like Heath Ledger. He had everything and then he blew it by getting hooked on drugs and accidentally (apparently) killing himself; now he's just another celebrity location on the Rich & Famous Tour."

In November, the New York Post's notorious Page Six gossip column, in an article headlined "Morbid Sight" accused Rich & Famous Tours of being "ghoulish" and "cashing in" for adding 965 Fifth Avenue to the tour. This was the location of the Halloween murder of real estate broker to the stars Linda Stein, who was bludgeoned to death allegedly by her former assistant, now in custody.

"I'm just glad all of these media attacks are spelling our name correctly and mentioning the website" says Jim Dykes, an actor and former employee of celebrity hotspot Studio 54. Rich and Famous Tours claims to show starstruck visitors and curious locals where New York's celebrities live, shop, dine and party. Tickets may be purchased at www.richandfamoustours.com or by calling Zerve ticketing services at 800-979-3370.

About Rich and Famous Tours
Rich and Famous Tours gives special "niche" tours of New York City spotlighting where celebrities live, shop, dine and party.

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