Did “Hollywood” Kill Brittany Murphy?
Appearing on the Today show, Simon Monjack, husband of deceased actress, Brittany Murphy, along with Brittany’s mother, Sharon Murphy, adamantly dismissed rumors of cocaine use, extensive prescription drug-taking, mental disorders, and anorexia.
They insisted any and all of these rumors were flat out false. And in the oddly long absence of an official toxicology report, this begs the question: What did kill Brittany Murphy?
According to Brittany’s husband and mom, it was “Hollywood” — specifically, the brutal treatment of talent by the industry, the media, and, presumably, the fans. They point to Brittany’s more recent dismissal from voice-acting the role of Gloria in “Happy Feet 2″, based, they say, upon a rumor that Brittany was becoming difficult to work with and unreliable.
Gossip mongers, rumor spreaders, vicious insiders (and outsiders) — that’s who’s responsible, according to the family.
THE VALIDITY OF THE ARGUMENT
It’s extremely rare for a 32-year old woman to die from completely natural causes.
It would not be absurd to think that the stress of working in Hollywood, the emotional, psychological, and physical demands, could lead to a number of disorders, any number of which could eventually become life threatening.
The most common two among these would be drug addiction and eating disorders, both of which could lead to death, but both of which the family denies ever touched Brittany.
Then what? One simply can’t perish from unhappiness or job discontent or having a jerk as a boss. Heart attack from stress? It’s certainly not impossible, but it remains statistically unlikely, and it would tend to fly in the face of the far more common cause of death among young celebrities.
CELEBRITIES GONE TOO EARLY, THE COMMON THEME
Outside of accidents, most notably automobile related, the common theme that runs through young celebrity deaths is as a result of drugs, both prescription and illegal.
Battling addiction to crack cocaine most of his adult life, on August 28, 2009, DJ AM finally succumbed to drug overdose when mixing crack cocaine with numerous prescription medications prescribed to him as part of his recovery from burns sustained in a plane crash (along with good friend, Blink 182′s, Travis Barker) a year earlier.
Reports are that Heath Ledger resorted to more and more prescription drugs as a means to cope with stress and anxiety related to his work, until on January 22, 2008, those drugs were the cause of his death from acute intoxication of prescription medication.
On February 8, 2007, Anna Nicole Smith was found non-responsive in her room at the Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, Florida, a death resulting from a acute intoxication by way of combination of eleven prescription drugs, most notably, sleeping agent Chloral Hydrate.
This physical comedian, straight from the heartland of America, Chris Farley struggled with obesity issues his entire life, leading to a weakened heart that failed in combination with a drug mix of cocaine and morphine on December 18, 1997.
With a public reputation for environmentalism and clean living, most of the world was shocked to learn of River Phoenix’s long-standing, drug-use, and, ultimate death from a combination of heroin and cocaine in the early morning hours of October 31, 1993, outside of Johnny Depp’s nightclub, The Viper Room, in Los Angeles.
Having spent the night with friends including Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro, on March 5, 1982, John Belushi, overdosed on a speedball (heroin and cocaine, the same deadly concoction as River Phoenix) in his bungalow at the Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard.
THE FINAL SAY ON BRITTANY MURPHY’S DEATH
Toxicology reports due back in a few weeks will shed some light on the precise cause of death.
While initial reports cited numerous prescription medications as a potential factor in Brittany Murphy’s death, her husband continues to insist that a majority of these medications were prescribed for his own use, not his wife’s, and that drugs played no role in her death.
Whether or not drugs factored into Brittany Murphy’s death, it’s hard to accept in total the claim of her grieving family that she was killed by “Hollywood”, though the town and the industry and the job, and everything that goes with it, surely is tougher than often imagined by the glamorous photos and the larger-than-life stories.
I’m so sick of hearing about how it’s “extremely rare” for a 32 year-old to die from natural causes. It isn’t. It’s something we understandably don’t want to accept, but it happens. There’s no magical age range during which you are invincible to dying of natural causes. Babies die, children die, teens die, young adults die…it happens all the time. I’m 29 years old and I’ve lost 2 schoolmates within the past three years to completely natural causes. One was epileptic and died after suffering a seizure in his sleep. The other was a young lady who had no known health problems, no history of substance abuse, but died after going into cardiac arrest. Autopsy and toxicology results came back normal.
In the case of Brittany Murphy, until toxicology results tell me otherwise, I’m going to believe she died of natural causes. Until someone comes forward with clear footage of her snorting coke, popping pills, and refusing to eat…the rumors are nothing but rumors.
I’m still saying it was eating related. Even if she did eat, it could have been too little, or a serious lack of nutrition in her diet. No one can deny that she was at a low, unhealthy weight near her death. If she had no other medical problem which led to her being that skinny, then she was eating very little. Doing that for years is likely what led to her death. I’m sure we’ll see more young stars dying in the next decade as so many of them will have had eating disorders for years and years which will finally catch up to them.
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I realize Simon is going thru a hard time. But truly, it’s not Hollywood’s fault. Bless her soul.
Jay Sidney | January 22, 2010 12:23 PM
I believe that she may have been fired over false tabloid rumors. My friend was fired over office rumors/gossip that she was having sex in the office unisex bathroom on the second floor with a male coworker which were not true. Now she has been blacklisted from getting another office job somewhere else. I had contacted a friend that was my old office boss during my senior year work study on the job training program who has a reputation of thoroughly checking on whether or not rumors/gossip are true (which Warner Bros. apparently didn’t do) because they need people to input data into Microsoft Excel, and she may be getting a phone call within a few business days. I won’t be taking my sister to see this film (I am her transportation to the movies) if it is made.
I think when you’ve got someone so young passing away common sense tells you that there were external factors at work, generally people in their 30s are not dropping dead in the street. The facts in most of these deaths indicate extensive enabling by those around the deceased. When you’re a shameless gold-digger like Anna Nicole it’s hard to dig up someone sleazier than you are and have them lead you “into temptation” so to speak but apparently the folks around her like Howard K. Stern and those doctors she was seeing fit that bill. Apparently in Brittany Murphy’s case I would say either her husband or someone else around her was either acquiescing in her harmful activities or at least turning a blind eye….is either one worse? This enabling is an epidemic and the courts and the medical community need to make an example of the sorts of people/doctors involved in this dangerous game.
I agree that Anna Nicole Smith, Brittany Murphy, Michael Jackson, etc. were responsible for their own actions, but that doesn’t mean that others don’t bear some guilt as well. Bottom line: somthing must be done to make it harder for these celebrities and their sycophants to get their hands on and abuse prescription drugs. Hopefully when Howard Stern and the two doctors in the Anna Nicole Smith trial are found guilty, it will be the wake up call these people need!
Well, it says a lot that people’s inital reaction whenever a celeb dies is that “hollywood killed them”- i.e. probably some sort of drug problem or other issue that related to the “let me get you everything you ever wanted right this minute” lifestyle that is part of the celebrity culture. in this entourage society, i’m afraid that there won’t be a substantial change in this trend until these “caterers”learn that their actions have consequences (other than the celeb’s fame rubbing off on them).
[quote=CTM]I’m so sick of hearing about how it’s “extremely rare” for a 32 year-old to die from natural causes. It isn’t. [/quote]
You can be sick of hearing it all you want, but statistically it is, no matter how many people you personally may have known. That’s why statistics are compiled, to illustrate what cannot be garnered from one individual experience.