'Brokeback Mountain' shirts being sold in eBay charity auction

A Los Angeles children's charity is auctioning on eBay the shirts worn by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in "Brokeback Mountain."

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Bidding was up to $20,600 by midday Tuesday. The auction ends Feb. 20.

"We're overwhelmed by the bidding," Maria Schmidt, executive director of Variety -- The Children's Charity of Southern California, told The Los Angeles Times. "This is already way over what any of us thought the shirts would bring."

Dennis White of Seattle placed a bid of $17,000 for the shirts, which he told the Times are "iconic."

"They are like the ruby slippers," he said.

Schmidt said a charity board member with close connections to the Oscar-nominated film's distributor obtained the shirts for the charity, which is not connected to the Daily Variety entertainment trade newspaper.

The shirts can be bid on by going to ebay.com/varietyskids.