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Like so many things that are truly meaningful in life, my fixation with Michelle began nine years ago with Dawson's Creek, back when Heath's only major credit was as a peripheral character on an Aussie soap. While any Dawson's viewer could be forgiven for wanting to punch Katie Holmes' lip-biting Joey Potter in the face, Michelle, who played a New York transplant with a slutty past, exuded that accessible, porcelain-faced "Okay, I'm kind of the town bike" fragility a girl could relate to. Sadly, she was punished for her teen slutitude with a fatal heart condition in season six.

Naturally, I was rooting for her when, against all odds, she resurfaced in sleeper hits like The Station Agent and The Baxter, sagely eschewing the straight-to-DVD slasher films that are the usual destiny of teen cable stars. When she landed a role in Brokeback Mountain, her cred Instead of partying at some club, Heath took Matilda to the playground. The Boerum Hill mothers couldn't stop talking about itspiked even further. Her fledgling romance with Ledger, a suitable big-screen hunk, sealed her initiation into the artsy A-list.

The couple, apparently "googly-eyed" on the movie's set, had moved into the same trailer while filming heartrending scenes as a husband and wife torn asunder by Heath's inability to quit Jake Gyllenhaal. Barely a year after the movie wrapped, their towheaded daughter was born, and the promotional campaign for the flick got underway. Jake was named godfather. Appearing on Oprah, Ledger stopped short of jumping up and down on the couch over his new romance, but he did tell the chat queen, earnestly, that each day: "I just fall deeper and deeper in love with both my girls." Backed by his 'n' hers Oscar noms, they were formidable. When they both lost, it hardly mattered: They had each other. And, of course, Matilda Rose.

Heathchelle then zeroed in on their enviable home in Brooklyn, igniting buzz at the shelter blogs as they set out to cultivate their outer-borough idyll in earnest, adeptly playing the roles of oh-so-ordinary, ultracool Brooklyn parents.

Reese and Ryan fell out over his trite indiscretions with Abbie Cornish, and Jen and Brad were no match for the unstoppable Angelina, but Heath and Michelle conveyed a seriousness of purpose that even the most jaded tabloid readers could believe in. "I always sort of imagined I would be a young mother," Michelle told Nylon last year. "Kids just bring such a natural order to your life. ... For the next 18 years, I'm devoted to somebody's welfare." Heath went even further, boasting that he wanted not one but six young 'uns. "We've just been living in Brooklyn and really committing our time to Matilda," he affirmed. "We wanted to distance ourselves, and we couldn't think of anything better to do than wake up to play with our child." With that, millions of women felt the palpable tick of their biological clocks, took up knitting baby booties, and then ran out to buy Brooklyn-appropriate librarian glasses. If we procreated in time, our offspring might just land a playdate with one of the Ledger brood. Then a chat by the sandbox ... a birthday party invite ... could a game of Scrabble over a plate of artisanal cheese and organic wine be far behind?