Should his death matter?

A few days ago someone close to me expressed his annoyance at all the hulabaloo surrounding Heath Ledger's performance in the new Batman Movie being released this week. He accepted that his performance might prove to be exceptional, but didn't like all the fuss that was being made just because the film was being released posthumously, even if he was dead the media should treat his performance as if he was still alive, no more nor less. I didn't agree with him at the time, I thought "that's completely ridiculous, of course it matters if someone is dead you twatt!"but his insistence on this point, and the fact that I highly respect his opinion, got me thinking on his words. Why does death tint someone's life in a different colour? Why is our clarity of vision so susceptible to our feelings? I have been pondering on these questions and I haven't been enlightened as to why we as humans can only see reality subjectively and why very rarely(or never) can objectivity be achieved. All I can say is that I know this is a fact, and that I still disagree with him. Death may change the way we see things but that doesn't mean we are deluding ourselves by viewing a new reality through the looking glass of a changing circumstances. So what if he would have been portrayed differently by the media had he still been alive? The fact is that he is dead(and died tragically for that matter), that IS the new reality. He is not alive, thinking that things ought be as if he was still amongst the living is not reality(delusion?). Death may change the way we view past reality, but that's exactly what makes us human.