BRITTANY’S MYSTERIOUS DEATH
A NEW DOCUMENTARY WILL REVISIT THE DEMISE OF A PROMISING YOUNG TALENT
Six months after Clueless star Brittany Murphy died unexpectedly in 2009 at age 32, her ex-boyfriend and former Just Married co-star, Ashton Kutcher, told reporters he was more interested in remembering her spirit than speculating about her death. “I just try to celebrate who she was and not make sense of it. Because there is no making sense of it.”
Twelve years later, many are still trying to make sense of her mysterious demise. So much so, that HBO Max has ordered a new two-part documentary to investigate. “It’s a shame Brittany’s promising life and career has been eclipsed by the circumstances of her death,” says Cynthia Hill, director of the upcoming project about the star. “I think it’s important to celebrate Brittany’s talent as we struggle to explain the tragic circumstances of her death.”
Though questions remain, much is known: the last night Murphy spent in the Hollywood Hills mansion, which she bought off Britney Spears in 2003, was restless as she dealt with power outages. She was frequently up in the night taking care of her husband, Simon Monjack, who suffered from sleep apnea, bouts of asthma and frequent seizures, and her mother Sharon, a breast cancer survivor who struggled with neuropathy. The star had been battling flu-like symptoms for weeks. It was a Friday night, and Murphy had a doctor’s appointment booked for Monday morning. She never made it. Around 7.30am on December 20, 2009, “She said, ‘Mummy, I really don’t feel well,’” Sharon later told The Hollywood Reporter. When she collapsed, Monjack tried to revive her in a cold shower while Sharon called for an ambulance. Murphy was rushed to CedarsSinai Medical Center and was pronounced dead at 10.04am.
The scene-stealing star’s sudden death resurrected eating disorder and drug abuse rumours that had plagued her over several years, even though she had frequently denied them. On February 25, the LA County coroner concluded that Murphy had died from pneumonia combined with anaemia and “multiple drug intoxication” from prescription and over-the-counter medication. “We are vindicated in that we always said Brittany never did any kind of illegal substances,” Monjack said in a statement to Radar Online. “I hope people realise that they shouldn’t believe anything they hear and read, and I love my wife as much today as I did on the day I married her.”
On May 23, 2010, Sharon discovered 40-year-old Monjack’s dead body in the same bedroom her daughter had died in five months earlier. His cause of death was found to be curiously similar: acute pneumonia and severe anaemia. “Some prescription drugs were detected in his system, but not in lethal levels,” said the coroner. The odd coincidence raised more suspicions, but Sharon was dismissive. “It’s with great relief that Simon’s preliminary autopsy findings have been released, so the media speculations can stop,” she said. “As I was sure of, just like my daughter Brittany, there was no kind of drug overdose.”
Still, conspiracy theories ran rampant. In late 2010, the Los Angeles County Department of
Public Health investigated the home to determine whether toxic mould could have contributed to the deaths. Sharon initially called the theory “absurd” but by December 2011, she had filed a malpractice lawsuit against her former attorneys for failing to sue the home’s builders in a wrongful death claim. She sold the house in July 2011 for $3.6 million and dropped her lawsuit in 2013. But more sinister speculation followed.
In 2013, Murphy’s estranged father Angelo Bertolotti said he suspected foul play. Sharon swiftly responded to Bertolotti, who died in 2019 at age 92, in an open letter to The Hollywood Reporter, “He has made outrageous statements over the past few years, culminating in this latest madness: that my darling daughter was murdered,” she wrote. “We will never know for sure. However, we do know the Los Angeles County Coroner did extensive tests and found that she died of natural causes.”
By Jennie Noonan
“I try to celebrate who she was” –KUTCHER