Does Bill Maher have any connection with the following celebrities?

They are all dead. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Cory Monteith, Heath Ledger, I forgot the rest. There is supposed to be a connection between them and Bill Maher. I don’t know if it is just Bill Maher. I tried to google it and I came up with nothing.
Edited to add: By the way I don’t think it means does he know them personally etc.