Brittany Murphy

[Spinderella]

If they had cast Ariana Grande to play the role, I would find her a lot more believable. The girl they did end up going with looks nothing like Brittany, nor had the singing chops. Train.Wreck. of a show.

[Deleted]

Brittany's most striking feature was her big gorgeous eyes. I don't know why they couldn't cast an actress who could at least somewhat capture that aspect of Brittany's beauty. It's not like the girl who got the part nailed the role to the point where her appearance didn't matter. Not by a long shot.

[Ginger]

I watched the Brittany Murphy documentary on HBO Max yesterday. I can't say there was a lot of groundbreaking new information in it, except that E! gossip columnist Ted Casablanca now goes by his given name, Bruce Bibby.

It presented most of the tabloid rumors about Brittany in the 2000's as being true: her husband was shady, she dieted to an unhealthy degree, she and her husband liked to do drugs, and her movie career tanked because of her unreliability and her husband's unprofessional interference.

What I found most interesting was the coroner's explanation of the autopsy results and the debunking of various conspiracy theories:

-Mold did not kill her. When people breathe in mold, you can see evidence of that in the lungs and there was none.

-She had slightly elevated levels of heavy metals in her hair only, which would be the result of frequent hair-dyeing, not poisoning.

-She was severely anemic, probably from prolonged dietary imbalance, and she had an advanced case of untreated pneumonia. Both of those things together meant she just wasn't able to get oxygen anymore. A few routine prescription medications also contributed.

Had she just visited the doctor a little more often, she probably would have been fine. But her husband wasn't into doctors, and that's largely why he died of the same thing 6 months later. And actually, this is not new information, it's exactly what the LA Coroner said at the time:

"In simple English — they didn't take care of themselves," Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter told The Associated Press. "They didn't seek medical advice from a doctor. Brittany could have survived if she had gone to a hospital and Simon I think could have done the same."

[Ladybug]

Mar 13, 2005 12:45:42 GMT -4 Ginger said:

She was severely anemic

This is very common for menstruating women. You can increase your iron intake through nutrition, but you have to actually eat and it seems Brittany struggled with an eating disorder. I always tested anemic and just tried eating more iron rich foods, but it was never enough. I finally felt better after I started iron supplements. They're $5 at Walmart.

I do know a lot of people who try to self-treat what they think is "just a cold" when it's something more serious. I knew someone who died from pneumonia because she would not go to a doctor and just tried to treat herself with herbal remedies. By the time her son talked her into going to the ER, she had a very serious case of pneumonia and died less than 24 hours later.

[laurenj]

Oct 15, 2021 14:19:23 GMT -4 Ginger said:

I watched the Brittany Murphy documentary on HBO Max yesterday. I can't say there was a lot of groundbreaking new information in it, except that E! gossip columnist Ted Casablanca now goes by his given name, Bruce Bibby.

It presented most of the tabloid rumors about Brittany in the 2000's as being true: her husband was shady, she dieted to an unhealthy degree, she and her husband liked to do drugs, and her movie career tanked because of her unreliability and her husband's unprofessional interference.

What I found most interesting was the coroner's explanation of the autopsy results and the debunking of various conspiracy theories:

-Mold did not kill her. When people breathe in mold, you can see evidence of that in the lungs and there was none.

-She had slightly elevated levels of heavy metals in her hair only, which would be the result of frequent hair-dyeing, not poisoning.

-She was severely anemic, probably from prolonged dietary imbalance, and she had an advanced case of untreated pneumonia. Both of those things together meant she just wasn't able to get oxygen anymore. A few routine prescription medications also contributed.

Had she just visited the doctor a little more often, she probably would have been fine. But her husband wasn't into doctors, and that's largely why he died of the same thing 6 months later. And actually, this is not new information, it's exactly what the LA Coroner said at the time:

"In simple English — they didn't take care of themselves," Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter told The Associated Press. "They didn't seek medical advice from a doctor. Brittany could have survived if she had gone to a hospital and Simon I think could have done the same."

This thread opened on page 1 instead of this page, oof, not a popular gal back then.

I've always assumed that anorexia was an underlying cause, the difference in her appearance from the first time I ever took note of her (Clueless) to how she looked later, it just didn't seem possible that she didn't have an eating disorder.

Regarding the routine prescription meds, what were they and what kind of contribution did they make to her death?

[Ginger]

Brittany's anemia was not typical though. Coroner said a normal hemoglobin value for women is about 15 g/dl, and Brittany was at a 3 g/dl. On the anemia scale, that's way past "serious/severe" and well into "life threatening" range. And then on top of that there was the pneumonia, which the coroner said was so bad that three of the four lobes of her lungs were basically not functioning at all.

And then her jackass mother and jackass husband didn't get her medical help until she was basically dead, even though she was in really dire condition all night - unable to breathe, having seizures, and telling her mother she was dying.

There are still conspiracy theorists in the documentary exclaiming, "A young and healthy person doesn't just die!" Well, she wasn't healthy. At all.

Aug 19, 2008 9:02:06 GMT -4 laurenj said:

Regarding the routine prescription meds, what were they and what kind of contribution did they make to her death?

I don't remember whether the documentary actually listed what the drugs were. "Multiple drug intoxication" was listed on the autopsy as a secondary contributor, but the coroner made it really clear that she considered them only a minor contributor.

[Ladybug]

I just finished watching the documentary. If forgotten just how obvious to everyone at the time that he was bad news. No one would look at him and think he was anything other than a sleazy, lying, user.

It was hard to understand how her mom could also be taken in by this con man and watch him destroy her daughter’s life and career. I could understand Brittany being taken in by him, unfortunately that has happened to a lot of women. But her mom also ceded all control to him, he just dominated their lives. I would be fighting like hell to get my child away from a predator, but she trusted him completely.

Someone in the documentary said it was a “perfect storm” and Brittany was an easy target for him. I agree with that assessment. Hollywood damaged her. They did not get into it, but her breakup with Ashton Kutcher also seemed to hit her hard and she had a couple of other broken engagements.

Couldn’t get over how bad the state of their house was. No wonder there was mold growing in it. The whole place was disgusting.

[Auroranorth]

It's just sad. She didn't have anyone around her who really had her best interests at heart. Her husband sucked, her mom sounds straight up abusive at times, and her father had checked out years ago, only to show up and be dramatic after she died.