Strange experience to find out someone you know died via a magazine article. Lily Wheelwright, a young actress and older sister of a dear friend of mine, passed away last month from a drug overdose. Lily was a fixture on the Bohemian scene, once on the cover of Vice Magazine and a good friend (and subject) of the much buzzed-about photographer Ryan McGinley. I only met Lily a few times when we were in photography class together and even then we mostly discussed her sister, who was a student at Yale and herself an insanely talented actress (has been since I met her when I was twelve and she was eleven.) Lily's death came less than two weeks after the premier of the film she co-starred in, Orphans, at SXSW. Her family is generous and loving and my humble sympathy goes out to them.
There will be a screening of Orphans at the IFC Center on 6th Avenue and West 3rd Street Monday, April 30th at 10 pm.
