"A sunbeam in the abyss"

Matt Zoller Seitz, from The House Next Door, writes a moving piece on his sometime acquaintance Owen Wilson: "I will say that when I read news stories expressing incredulity that a well-liked comedic actor might be depressed enough to try to end it all, I wonder what planet these writers are from, and if they've ever spent time among the humans that populate this one. Tempting as it may be to seize on cheap ironic contrasts between an artist's life and work -- and comb his career and personal life for harbingers of suicidal intent -- the process is usually reductive and sometimes insulting. Of course that hasn't stopped the media from trying."