Actress Brittany Murphy dies aged 32

[Lady Macbeth]

Actress Brittany Murphy, who starred in films such as Just Married, Clueless and 8 Mile, has died at age 32.



The actress died on Sunday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center near Beverly Hills, a hospital spokeswoman has confirmed.
The LA Times said Murphy went into cardiac arrest, but hospital sources would not release the cause of death.
Murphy was married to British screenwriter Simon Monjack. The couple lived in Los Angeles.

BBC News - Actress Brittany Murphy dies aged 32

[Lady Macbeth]

Brittany Murphy: The top 10 things you might not know....



1. Brittany was born in Atlanta, Georgia and was married to British screenwriter Simon Monjack.

2. At the age of nine Brittany appeared in regional theatre productions.

3. She had a manager by the age of 13 and appeared in her first TV advert for Skittles before landing her first TV role on the show Blossom in 1991.

4. Brittany's major breakthrough came when she was chosen to star alongside Alicia Silverstone in the teen film Clueless in 1995.

5. In the early 1990s Brittany was lead singer of her band "Blessed Soul".

6. Brittany is a former girlfriend of Ashton Kutcher. The couple met while filming romcom Just Married.

7. Brittany was the voice of Luanne Platter in the cartoon King of the Hill and also the voice of Gloria the penguin in Happy Feet.

8. She starred alongside Eminem in the 2002 drama "8 Mile."

9. Her last big movie was the comic-book adaption of "Sin City" in 2005.

10. In 2006 Brittany sang lead vocals on Paul Oakenfold's club hit "Faster Kill Pussycat".

[Lady Macbeth]

TROUBLED Hollywood actress Brittany Murphy has died aged 32 after suffering a suspected heart attack.



The American star collapsed at the home she shares with screenwriter husband Simon Monjack in Los Angeles yesterday (Sunday) morning.

She was rushed to Cedars Sinai hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival, reported the celebrity website TMZ.

It added that her mother Sharon discovered her unconscious in the shower.

Paramedics arrived and quickly determined she was in full cardiac arrest. They immediately administered CPR and continued it en route to Cedars-Sinai - several miles away.

But Murphy was unresponsive and was pronounced dead at the hospital.

A former TV child star, Murphy went on to gain leading roles in blockbuster movies including Clueless, Don’t Say A Word and 8 Mile.

Murphy is the daughter of convicted mobster Angelo Bertolotti and was raised by her single mother Sharon Murphy first in Edison, New Jersey and later in Los Angeles.

She landed her first job in Hollywood at the tender age of 14 when she won a starring role playing Brenda Drexell in Drexell’s Class.

Later, she enjoyed a successful career acting in commercially popular films including Clueless, Girl Interrupted and Don’t Say A Word.

She also won acclaim for her performance as rap star Eminem’s troubled girlfriend in the gritty ghetto flick ‘8 Mile’.

Heartfelt words of condolence were last night pouring in from Murphy’s Hollywood friends.

Friends of Eminem said he was devastated by his 8 Mile co-star's death and would put out a statement in the next 24 hours.

Ashton Kutcher, who used to date the actress, posted on his Twitter site: "2day the world lost a little piece of sunshine. My deepest condolences go out 2 Brittany’s family, her husband, & her amazing mother Sharon.

"See you on the other side kid."

Gavin and Stacey star Matt Horne wrote: "Oh God, Brittany Murphy RIP. Really sad."

Peaches Geldof added: "Rip Brittany Murphy- you were my fave in Clueless, and you were also awesome in 8 Mile."

Earlier in her career, Murphy was accused of having an eating disorder which some said was tied to drugs.

In 2005 she denied the allegations, saying: "Wow. No, just for the record I have never tried it in my entire life, I've never even seen it, and I don't leave the house too much, except to go to work.

"My worst vice is caffeine. [The rumor is] really pretty darn far-fetched - it couldn't be further from the truth.

"I have known people over the course of my life that have bad problems with drugs, and it's something really serious."

Last month British-born Monjack, her husband of two years, was also rushed to hospital after landing in LA following a flight from Puerto Rico.

Murphy later said he had suffered an asthma attack.

The LA County Coroner is understood to be picking up Murphy's body later today and will launch an investigation.

[Neo]

Too young to go, God bless her!

[Lady Macbeth]

There have been rumors flying around that she ODed.....lets see if thats the case.

I feel sorry for child artists like her and Brittany Spears etc....too much pressure on them.

[Lady Macbeth]

Brittany Murphy 'was on prescription drugs'



Brittany Murphy, the Hollywood actress who died on Sunday, had been taking prescription drugs for flu-like symptoms and was extremely ill in the hours before she suffered a heart attack, according to the online celebrity gossip site TMZ.

Murphy, who starred as a geeky girl in Clueless and a sex siren in Sin City, began vomiting early on Sunday morning and told family members she felt very ill, TMZ reported.

The website claims that a number of prescriptions for Murphy, her husband, the British screenwriter Simon Monjack, and her mother were found at the couple's home in West Hollywood, Los Angeles. A source told TMZ: "There were a lot of prescriptions in the house."

Murphy, 32, was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles on Sunday morning and pronounced dead upon arrival after her mother discovered her unconscious in the shower.

Clare Staples, a neighbour, said that she saw firefighters trying to resuscitate the actress while she was on a stretcher. However, "it looked like she was dead on the scene", she told the Associated Press.

According to TMZ, Murphy's mother told paramedics that her daughter suffered from diabetes.

The website reported that Mr Monjack told hospital staff he did not want an autopsy performed on her body. However an autopsy will be performed either today or on Tuesday.

Murphy had been in the news recently with claims that she had been fired from The Caller, a film she had started shooting in Puerto Rico.

A representative denied she had been sacked, saying: "She was not nor has she ever been fired from any job big or small... [Due] to creative differences Ms Murphy and the production mutually parted ways." The news followed her removal three years ago from the film Tinker Bell, which was released in 2008 and based around the fairy in Peter Pan.

Walt Disney had announced that she would be voicing the eponymous character, before she was replaced by Mae Whitman in unclear circumstances.

She had completed filming for Sylvester Stallone’s film The Expendables, to be released in 2010.

Her career got a boost in 2003 when she featured as rapper Eminem’s girlfriend in 8 Mile. Her voice has also given life to a number of animated characters, including Luanne Platter in King of the Hill and Gloria the Penguin in Happy Feet. She has often been the subject of press controversy and in 2005 denied rumours of a cocaine habit.

"Just for the record I have never tried it in my entire life, I’ve never even seen it, and I don’t leave the house too much, except to go to work," she told Knight Ridder Newspapers.

"My worst vice is caffeine. [The rumour is] really pretty darn far-fetched. I have known people over the course of my life that have bad problems with drugs, and it's something really serious." Murphy was the former girlfriend of the rapper Eminem and the actor Ashton Kutcher, now Demi Moore’s husband.

Murphy’s father, Angelo Bertolotti, said he learnt of her death from his son. "She was just an absolute doll since she was born," Bertolotti said. "Her personality was always outward. Everybody loved her — people that made movies with her, people on a cruise — they all loved her. She was just a regular gal." Mr Bertolotti was in the mob and served prison time on federal drug charges. He hadn’t seen Murphy in years.

Born November 10, 1977, in Atlanta, Murphy grew up in New Jersey and moved to Los Angeles with her mother, Sharon, to pursue acting.

She was brought up singlehandedly by her mother, whom she helped battle breast cancer since it was first diagnosed in 1995, at one point temporarily giving up acting to support her through a second round of chemotherapy. Three years ago, Murphy told an American health magazine that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer herself.

"Thank God it was OK ... They removed the lumps," she told Self magazine. "That’s when it became even clearer how personal it all is. It made me understand what it must have been like for my mother."

[Lady Macbeth]

Brittany Murphy's Weight: Eating Disorder Denials Despite Changing Shape (PHOTOS)



Brittany Murphy spent years denying eating disorder allegations but even she worried about her scarily low weight in the weeks leading up to her death.

"I am a bit thinner now than what I would like to be," Murphy, 32, admitted to Fox News' Pop Tarts at an event December 3. Then: "I was a ballerina for a long time. I still take ballet lessons now - what it does to your body is incredible."

Murphy's big break came in 1995 when she starred in 'Clueless' as Tai and looked, refreshingly, like someone who didn't fit the Hollywood mold into which she'd later shove herself. As her career took off her weight plummeted while her chest was bigger than ever, she dyed her hair blonde, capped her teeth and appeared to have had plastic surgery although she repeatedly denied having been under the knife. As she brushed off persistent rumors that her ever-shrinking form was the result of an eating disorder.

"I'm the same size I was in Clueless; it's just that the weight in your face changes as you grow and get older," she said. "This is my body. I'm proud of it ... I'm healthy."

The photos below show that Murphy became thinner, dramatically so, as she tried to find her place in Hollywood. 'Clueless' director Amy Heckerling told blogger Scott Feinberg:

"Maybe she felt like she was not the, like, skinny, pretty girl, you know? And then the next few movies she was, you know, thinner, blonde, you know, at MTV Awards and all sorts of things like that, and going out with Eminem and Ashton Kutcher, and, you know, suddenly got more into that whole glamorous scene... I think she felt the pressure to become a different sort of commodity to survive in show business, and I think it was awful."
Murphy's mother told paramedics that her daughter suffered from diabetes. If true, this could have played into any body image problems as many young female diabetics use the dangerous practice of skipping insulin injections to control their weight.

While Murphy repeatedly denied the drug allegations that plagued her career, those around her paint a different picture. "She had too many drugs and too little food," one of her makeup artists told the Daily Beast.

Murphy was looking more frail than ever at her last public appearance. Nutritional deprivation, especially coupled with vomiting, which Murphy was experiencing at the time of her death, can result in potassium levels low enough to cause cardiac arrest.

An autopsy will soon determine which of these factors contributed to Murphy's fatal heart attack.


In 'Clueless,' 1995

[Lady Macbeth]

Brittany Murphy's Drugs: The Prescriptions Found In Her Bedroom



Brittany Murphy's bedroom had a lot of prescriptions drugs in it at the time of her death over the weekend, and TMZ has the list.

In a lengthy article detailing how Murphy went to the bathroom, was found collapsed by her mother 30 minutes later and was put into the shower by her husband in an effort to revive her before 911 services arrives, is the list, as detailed by investigators at the scene.

According to the notes, the medications included Topamax (anti-seizure meds also to prevent migraines), Methylprednisolone (anti-inflammatory), Fluoxetine (depression med), Klonopin (anxiety med), Carbamazepine (treats Diabetic symptoms and is also a bipolar med), Ativan (anxiety med), Vicoprofen (pain reliever), Propranolol (hypertension, used to prevent heart attacks), Biaxin (antibiotic), Hydrocodone (pain med) and miscellaneous vitamins.

The notes say, "No alcohol containers, paraphernalia or illegal drugs were discovered."

[Lady Macbeth]

Coroner Looking Into Leak Of Brittany Murphy Info



LOS ANGELES — Brittany Murphy, the actress who got her start in the sleeper hit "Clueless" and rose to stardom in "8 Mile" before her movie roles declined in recent years, died Sunday in Los Angeles of what appeared to be natural causes, a Los Angeles County coroner's official said. She was 32.

Murphy was pronounced dead at 10:04 a.m. at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Sally Stewart said.

Murphy was transported to the hospital after the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to a call at 8 a.m. at the home she shared with her husband, British screenwriter Simon Monjack, in the Hollywood Hills.

Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said Murphy apparently collapsed in the bathroom, and authorities were looking into her medical history.

An official cause of death may not be determined for some time, since toxicology tests will be required, but "it appears to be natural," Winter said. He said an autopsy was planned for Monday or Tuesday.

Winter said Murphy's family was cooperating with the coroner's investigation. Funeral arrangements have not been announced, he said.

Los Angeles police have opened an investigation into Murphy's death, Officer Norma Eisenman said. Detectives and coroner's officials were at Murphy and Monjack's home Sunday afternoon but did not talk to reporters. Paparazzi were camped outside the multistory home, located above the Sunset Strip.

Messages left for Murphy's manager and agent by The Associated Press were not immediately returned.
Neighbor Clare Staples said she saw firefighters working to resuscitate the actress Sunday morning. She said Murphy was on a stretcher and "looked as though she was dead at the scene."

Murphy's husband, wearing pajama bottoms and no shoes, appeared "dazed" as firefighters tried to save her, Staples said. "It's just tragic," she added.

TMZ.com first reported Murphy's death Sunday morning.

Murphy's father, Angelo Bertolotti, said he learned of her death from his son, the actress's brother, and was stunned.

"She was just an absolute doll since she was born," Bertolotti said from his Branford, Fla., home. "Her personality was always outward. Everybody loved her – people that made movies with her, people on a cruise – they all loved her. She was just a regular gal."

He said he hadn't heard much about the circumstances of Murphy's death. Bertolotti divorced her mother when Murphy was young and hadn't seen Murphy in the past few years. He said he used to be in the mob and served prison time on federal drug charges.

"She was just talented," Bertolotti said. "And I loved her very much."

Meanwhile, Murphy's publicist, Nicole Perna, said in a statement: "In this time of sadness, the family thanks you for your love and support. It is their wish that you respect their privacy."

Born Nov. 10, 1977, in Atlanta, Murphy grew up in New Jersey and later moved with her mother to Los Angeles to pursue acting.

Her career started in the early 1990s with small roles in television series, commercials and movies. She is best known for parts in "Girl, Interrupted," "Clueless" and "8 Mile."

Her on-screen work had lessened of late, but Murphy's voice gave life to numerous animated characters, including Luanne Platter on more than 200 episodes of Fox's "King of the Hill" and Gloria the penguin in the 2006 feature "Happy Feet."

She is due to appear in Sylvester Stallone's upcoming film, "The Expendables," set for release next year.

Her role in "8 Mile" led to more recognition, Murphy told AP in 2003. "That changed a lot," she said. "That was the difference between people knowing my first and last name as opposed to not."

Murphy credited her mother, Sharon, with being a key to her success.

"When I asked my mom to move to California, she sold everything and moved out here for me," Murphy said. "I was really grateful to have grown up in an environment that was conducive to creating and didn't stifle any of that. She always believed in me."

She dated Ashton Kutcher, who costarred with Murphy in 2003's romantic comedy "Just Married."

Kutcher sent a message on Twitter Sunday morning about Murphy's death: "2day the world lost a little piece of sunshine," Kutcher wrote. "My deepest condolences go out 2 Brittany's family, her husband, & her amazing mother Sharon."

___

AP Entertainment Writer Anthony McCartney and Matt Sedensky in Miami contributed to this report.

[Lady Macbeth]

Murphy's Husband Calls Drug, Anorexia Rumors 'Crazy'



Brittany Murphy's husband, Simon Monjack, is rebutting rumors that drugs or an eating disorder contributed to the actress' death, saying that he, along with the rest of the world, wants to know why she died from a heart attack at 32.
"These rumors that she was anorexic? It's crazy," Monjack told People magazine Tuesday. "She was slim but that was her natural physique. This is what's killing all of us? How did it happen? Her mum, myself and her family, we want to know why we lost our baby."

Monjack is eager to get the autopsy results, although he initially balked at the thought that "they're going to cut her open," he said, weeping.

The coroner Monday completed an autopsy of the actress who suffered cardiac arrest at her Hollywood home Sunday and was pronounced dead on arrival at 10:04 a.m. at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

It will be four to six weeks before laboratory results are in and the official cause of death can be determined, Los Angeles County Chief Coroner Ed Winter told ABCNews.com that.

Monjack, a British writer, producer and director, told People that his wife suffered from a heart murmur, which can cause fatigue, dizziness and irregular heartbeats. But she did not require medication to treat a condition that is generally not life threatening, he said.

The day before she died, he said, his wife was ill and stayed in bed all day. She was suffering from laryngitis, which she treated with herbal tea, ginger and lemon.
"She was on herbal remedies that wouldn't speed up her heart," Monjack said. "There was nothing here that could endanger her. There was prescription medication in the house for her female time and some cough syrup. That was it."

When asked if a drug overdose could have caused her death, Monjack responded: "I can get rid of that one right now."
The couple also ordered Murphy's favorite Thai food Saturday and ate soup prepared by her mother Sharon, who lived with them. They watched movies in bed with Murphy's pet Maltese named Clara.

"One of the saddest things is that Clara has looked everywhere for Brittany and can't find her," Monjack said.

The next morning, Murphy went into the bathroom around 7:30, Monjack told "Access Hollywood" Monday. After about half an hour, her mother went to check on her.

"[Her mother] Sharon went into the bathroom because she had been in there a long time. Her mom screamed for me and I ran. Then called 911," he said.

"My world was destroyed," he told "Access Hollywood."
"When someone dies like this it comes at you like a ton of bricks," Murphy's older half brother Jeff Bertolotti told ABCNews.com on Monday. "All of her brothers and sisters are devastated." Murphy had another half brother Tony Bertolotti, who was older, and a half sister Pia Bertolotti, who was two years younger. Their father, Angelo Bertolotti, was married to Murphy's mother, Sharon Murphy. The couple split when Murphy was two and she went to live with her mother in Edison, N.J., and later Los Angeles, when Murphy decided to pursue a career in acting.

She got her breakout role in the film "Clueless" when she was 17. "8 Mile" with Eminem, "Girl Interrupted" with Angelina Jolie and "Just Married" with Ashton Kutcher established her as a young Hollywood star.

"I saw a kid who was working far too hard," Jeff Bertolotti said. "But she really was finding her true voice in the last two years or so. [Hollywood] really takes people in and spits them out."

"Clueless" director Amy Heckerling echoed Bertolotti's comments in an interview for a Los Angeles Times blog on Sunday.

"Everybody's shaking their heads and going 'drugs,' of course. I don't know what was happening on the last movie. I know that, you know, she seemed to go through a change ... on 'Clueless,'" Heckerling said.

"Maybe she felt like she was not the, like, skinny, pretty girl, you know? And then the next few movies she was, you know, thinner, blonde ... and going out with Eminem and Ashton Kutcher, and, you know, suddenly got more into that whole glamorous scene," she said. "I think she felt the pressure to become a different sort of commodity to survive in show business, and I think it was awful."

Brittany Murphy's Husband Simon Monjack Calls Drug, Anorexia Rumors 'Crazy' - ABC News

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