{"id":884442,"date":"2026-10-16T14:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T14:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/884442\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T14:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T14:48:10","slug":"julia-stiles-to-honor-heath-ledger-with-really-special-tribute-on-dancing-with-the-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/884442\/","title":{"rendered":"Julia Stiles to honor Heath Ledger with ‘really special’ tribute on ‘Dancing With the Stars’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Julia Stiles will pay tribute to her late 10 Things I Hate About You costar Heath Ledger on the next episode of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stiles and her professional dance partner, Ezra Sosa, will perform a contemporary routine to Frankie Valli’s 1967 hit “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” during Dedication Night on Oct. 20.<\/p>\n

The song holds special significance for fans of 10 Things I Hate About You. In the 1999 romantic comedy, Ledger’s character serenades Stiles’s character<\/a> from the bleachers at their high school stadium.<\/p>\n

Ledger died in January 2008 at age 28 from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.<\/p>\n

Stiles told Hulu’s Get Real<\/a> podcast on Thursday that the tribute will be “really special.”<\/p>\n

Stiles has previously spoken fondly of working with Ledger, describing him as “such a bright light” in a January 2025 interview with E! News<\/a>. She recalled how his kindness helped her feel comfortable during her first leading role in a major movie. “He just walked into the room and lit it up,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"Julia<\/p>\n

The actor will pay tribute to Ledger on Dancing With the Stars.<\/p>\n

(Buena Vista\/Everett Collection)<\/p>\n

The DWTS tribute will come one week after Stiles revisited another movie moment<\/a> on the dance floor.<\/p>\n

During the Oct. 13 episode, she and Sosa performed a jazz routine inspired by her 2001 film Save the Last Dance, set to a remix of Jennifer Lopez’s “Jenny From the Block.” The routine featured a surprise cameo by her former costar Sean Patrick Thomas.<\/p>\n

The pair earned 33 out of 40 points from the judges, their highest score of the season so far.<\/p>\n

Stiles will be among 10 celebrities paying tribute to people and places that hold special meaning for them.<\/p>\n

Other performances will include Tatyana Ali honoring her late Fresh Prince of Bel-Air costar James Avery with a Viennese waltz to Nancy Wilson’s “(You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Glee actor Harry Shum Jr. will dedicate a foxtrot to his wife, Shelby, while Jenna Dewan will honor her mother, Nancy, with a Viennese waltz to “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Traitors star Maura Higgins will pay tribute to her home country of Ireland with a paso doble to Dropkick Murphys’ “I’m Shipping Up to Boston.”<\/p>\n

Former DWTS professional Kym Johnson will return as a guest judge for the episode, which airs Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 8 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Julia Stiles will pay tribute to her late 10 Things I Hate About You costar Heath Ledger on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":884443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":["post-884442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}