RIP Brittany Murphy

Back to the Blogosphere! I plan to spend this next week getting caught up with everyone. Hope you all had a fantastic Christmas!

After I last posted on Dec 19th, the next day - which was the day before my birthday - I got online to check my e-mail and was stunned to read the headline on my homepage: one of my favorite actresses, Brittany Murphy, age 32, had died. Tears came to my eyes. I was in disbelief. Not Brittany, the most full-of-life and energetic actress I can think of. Not Brittany, who was just two years older than me. Not Brittany, who had starred in several major motion pictures and who I had expected to be in many, many more. Not Brittany, who had repeated over the years that she was healthy, despite rumors of anorexia or drug use.

But it was true. Cardiac arrest. Her mother, whom she still lived with, found her unconscious in the shower at approximately 8 am on Sunday, December 20, 2009. How awful. . . just five days before Christmas my "Hollywood friend" was gone.

The first time I saw Brittany was like most other people, in Clueless, which I saw at the theater with my mom and maternal grandmother in 1995. But it was 2001/2002 when she really caught my attention because I happened to see FOUR of her movies in one year: Girl, Interrupted (which had come out in '99), Summer Catch (released '01), Don't Say A Word (released '01), and Riding In Cars With Boys (released '01). Each character was so different from the last, she played such a variety of types of characters, I was like who is this super talented actress?! I then began seeing her on talk shows and reading articles about her in magazines. She seemed like a sweet, good, down-to-earth person. I loved her sense of humor and yet she also seemed like someone you could cry with.

Throughout my life I've chosen my favorite actress based on three factors 1) Their talent 2) If we have similarities/things in common 3) I connect with them and actually feel I could be their friend if I knew them in "real life."

As a child it was Soleil Moon Frye who played Punky Brewster, then it was Anna Chlumsky who played Vada in the movie My Girl, and in high school and college it was Reese Witherspoon. (Mixed in was also Beverly Hills 90210 star Jennie Garth and Days Of Our Lives actress Krista Allen.) Otherwise, there are a lot of stars I like (Sandra Bullock, Sarah Jessica Parker, etc.) but nobody I can think of that has made me want to buy all of their movies or every magazine they are on the cover of and follow their life - but that's what happened with Brittany Murphy.

The movie, Just Married, came out the same year I was getting married (2003) and is still one of my favs, as well as Little Black Book (2004). She was loveable in Uptown Girls with Dakota Fanning and received national acclaim for her role in Eminem's true story, 8 Mile, as well as Sin City. I liked her voicework in Happy Feet (2006) and I even rented some of her less-known DVDs like Dead Girl (it came out in 2006, I saw it either Halloween 2007 or 2008).In 2004, I took a picture of her to my hair stylist and said, "I want to look like her!" Aside from us both being 5'3" we had similar coloring. Back when I was on MySpace, my profile song was often her #1 hit, "Faster Kill Pussycat" with Paul Oakenfield (2006).

Three movies of Brittany's are set to still come out; her final film is titled Abandoned and could possibly be released in 2010. I can't believe she died before ever receiving an Oscar. She definitely left this earth too soon.

Brittany was born in Atlanta, Georgia on November 10, 1977. She was an only child (first similarity to me) and her parents split up when she was two years old (second similarity to me). She was raised as Baptist and later became a non-denominational Christian (I was raised Catholic and later became a non-denominational Christian). When she was 9, her mother moved to Los Angeles so Brittany could pursue her interest in being an actress. She received her first role at the age of 14 in a TV show and continued small parts on television for the next three years before she broke through as a film actress. (But she still acted on TV off & on over the years.)

In 2002, Brittany began dating Ashton Kutcher (from Iowa, where I am from) but he broke up with her to date Demi Moore whom he later married. She then became engaged in 2004 to Jeff Kwatinetz, a talent manager, however they parted ways and then she became engaged to Joe Macaluso, a production assistant, in December 2005. In May 2007, Murphy married British screenwriter Simon Monjack whom she was still married to at the time of her death.

In 2005 when there was speculation as to whether she did cocaine she said, "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 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."

This rumor came because she denied having an eating disorder, since she appeared much thinner in her twenties than as a teenager. "I'm the same size I was in Clueless," Brittany said in regards to her tiny frame. "It's just that the weight in your face changes as you grow and get older... I used to feel embarrassed about being too tiny. It made me really self-conscious — then I came to terms with it. This is my body; I'm proud of it, so who cares? Now I've stopped trying to eat 12 eggs for breakfast. I'm healthy, which is the most important thing."

Brittany had said that 2010 was the year she had planned to try for a baby with her husband.

Her Memorial Service was on Christmas Eve 2009. It will be weeks before toxicology results come back but police say that there were no illegal substances found in the home. In the meantime there is only speculation as to what caused a 32-year-old to have a heart attack. She was recently made fun of in a Saturday Night Live skit for acting "out of it" during a recent interview and she was replaced in her last movie. (Executives say that they mutually parted ways - she was not fired like some reports.) The final pictures of her (taken December 3rd) make my heart drop, as she is missing the normal sparkle to her eyes, she does not look happy. . .she does look on the verge of death.It has also been rumored that she recently had plastic surgery and may have become addicted to painkillers. Also, her husband was not well-liked in her Hollywood circle and may have been involved in money fraud. He is reported as saying he did not want an autopsy (but the police department did anyway, since her death is under investigation). In the days before her death, Brittany complained of flu-like symptoms. The day before she died, the actress watched movies in bed with her husband as they ate Thai takeout.

"Brittany was tired and a little sad because she was sick," her husband said. He says his wife was taking herbal remedies for a heart murmur. Meanwhile, her mom said she may have had diabetes. An insider to law enforcement says that many prescription bottles were found in her home, so it may just be another case of an accidental overdose due to combined prescription medication - i.e. the same thing that killed Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger, Anna Nicole Smith as well as her son.

Any of these reasons seem so incredibly senseless to me. . . but then again, I'm not sure any explanation will be good enough. No matter what, my favorite actress is gone and I'm sad that she had to leave on this dark note. But she will not be forgotten. Her wonderful bubbly and warm personality, and terrific acting talent will be remembered every time I, or anyone else, watch one of her movies that is recorded for eternity. In fact, now that I'm back from Christmas travels I will be watching her movies back to back. May you rest in peace, Brittany Murphy.