Heath Ledger makes cover

People is the only celebrity magazine to have the young actor on its upcoming cover, the result of a production schedule that allows the book to remain open until Tuesday night (the other checkout rags go to bed on Mondays). That should provide huge newsstand sales (Us Weekly will take it on the chin with a cover headlined "Secrets of the New Power Girl," even with "Hannah Montana" star Miley Cyrus). From Ad Age:

Celebrity weeklies have provided the magazine industry's fastest growth this decade, even if their growth has slowed in the last couple of years. Time Inc.'s People remains the reigning champion with paid and verified circulation averaging 3.7 million over the first half of 2007, down 2.2% from 3.8 million in first-half 2006, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Wenner Media's Us Weekly reported an average of nearly 1.9 million, up 4.8%. American Media's Star counted nearly 1.5 million, down 3.7%; Bauer's In Touch turned in 1.3 million, for a 10.2% gain; OK reported 809,411, up 54.3%; and Bauer's Life & Style reported 753,092, up 6.8%.

No word on what People has in the new issue (it hits newsstands on Friday), although the web site has a piece that focuses on Ledger's problems with insomnia. He told the NYT last fall that he often took Ambien. Here's a spooky snippet from the Times:

“Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night,” he said. “I couldn’t stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going.” One night he took an Ambien, which failed to work. He took a second one and fell into a stupor, only to wake up an hour later, his mind still racing. Even as he spoke, Mr. Ledger was hard-pressed to keep still. He got up and poured more coffee. He stepped outside into the courtyard and smoked a cigarette. He shook his hair out from under its hood, put a rubber band around it, took out the rubber band, put on a hat, took off the hat, put the hood back up. He went outside and had another cigarette. Polite and charming, he nonetheless gave off the sense that the last thing he wanted to do was delve deep into himself for public consumption.