Within hours of Heath Ledger's death last week at the age of just 28, the press was already referring to him as a "tragic actor".
But what was tragic about Ledger's life, except its untimely end? Applying the word directly to the man himself is surely lazy journalism.
Lorna Luft certainly thinks so. "It's not only lazy," says the American singer and actress. "It's irresponsible. The thing you have to realise is that he has a daughter who will never know him but who will eventually read what you write."
And Luft should know. The second daughter of screen legend Judy Garland, she was just 16 when her mother died from an accidental drug overdose on June 22, 1969.
Losing a parent is never easy but losing one in the public eye must be harder still, and for years, Luft wanted nothing to do her mother's legacy.
But time heals and four decades later, she is now taking her personal tribute to Garland, Songs My Mother Taught Me, out on tour.
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"Everyone has been asking me to do this show for so long," says Luft, 55. "But in my twenties it was too painful and in my thirties, I just didn't want to. I was running away.
"I truely believe that you don't know your mother or your father until you're in your forties," she continues. "Only when you are a parent yourself or old enough to understand what they went through, can you know them. Then you are able to do the most important thing in a relationship - to understand, to forgive and to be grateful."
When Luft felt ready to face her mother's memory, she called her good friend Barry Manilow who cried, "It's about time!" and immediately put her in touch with writers, Ken and Mitzie Welch. Together, they have created a hugely personal show, allowing Luft to pay tribute to her mom and her music in equal measure.
The two hour programme features re-interpretations of Garland's most memorable songs including Rock-A-Bye Your Baby, I Can't Give You Anything But Love and You Made Me Love You. There is also a 20 minute mother/daughter medley - or in Luft's words "marathon" - that takes the audience on a musical tour of Garland's life, from her young turn in The Wizard of Oz to her legendary 1961 concert at New York's Carnegie Hall.
No tribute to Garland would be complete without her most famous song, Over The Rainbow, and Luft duets it with her own song about her mother, Shining Star.
"The whole context of the show is music," she says, "but it's also about memories. People will experience an extra sense of nostalgia for the music and they'll be enriched by the love, because there's an amazing amount of love on stage and in the audience."
Above all, it's a celebration of Garland's life. "I respect my mother's fans," she says. "The thing I don't like is the people who carry on the myth that she was a tragic figure. My mother would have hated that. As I say in the show, she did have tragedies in her life but she wasn't tragic herself."
Lorna Luft: Songs my Mother Taught Me, Fairfield Halls, Park Lane, Croydon, Friday, February 1, 8pm, £19.50, call 020 8688 9291.
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