Actress Brittany Murphy dies of an eating disorder, heart condition, drugs?
22 Dec
Earlier this month, December 2009
Prior photo showing a more healthy looking Brittany
I woke up to the news that Actress Brittany Murphy had died. As actresses goes, she seemed to be relatively cool one, and really quite a beauty. To bad she didn’t know it.
Brittany died of cardiac arrest at age 32.
Rumors of drug use and plastic surgery addiction are also swirling.
The paparazzi vultures are all over this story at the moment, so as I bounced between TMZ and Huffington, the reports are all over the place, so I’ll keep an eye on the loss of this young talent.
But my gut tells me that the toxicology reports will come back with some sort of cause of death associated with the actresses recently shrinking frame and fragile appearance of someone who perhaps could not, would not, did not seek help for her ED.
Hooray for Hollywood,
mV
UPDATED 12/22/09…more information on reported heart condition, eating disorder and/or drug abuse
Brittany Murphy’s husband told Access Hollywood that she had laryngitis (days leading up to her death) but it didn’t seem that serious.
Weight Issues
The 32-year-old, who appeared in films such as Clueless, 8 Mile and Girl, Interrupted, recently admitted to a journalist she was too thin.
“I am a bit thinner now than what I would like to be,” she told Fox News at a fashion event on December 3.
“I was a ballerina for a long time,” she told Fox News.
“I still take ballet lessons now – what it does to your body is incredible.”
Two days prior to that interview, the petite actress appeared thinner than usual in a smart black jumpsuit at the Los Angeles opening of her new film, Across the Hall.
“It appears to be natural,” L.A. County assistant chief coroner Ed Winter said yesterday. An autopsy was scheduled for yesterday, but results of toxicology tests may take weeks.
A heart attack doesn’t seem so far-fetched: In ‘01, Murphy revealed that she had struggled with an unspecified heart condition since childhood.
Murphy had also told The Wrap columnist Michael Adams she had a heart condition “several years ago”.
“It was in an interview about (2001 film) Sidewalks Of New York but I asked her about other projects and she mentioned Spun,” Adams told The Wrap.
“I asked her – as a joke – if she’d taken meth for research and she laughed and said even if she wanted to she couldn’t take drugs because she’d had a heart condition since she was a little girl.”
Drug Abuse?
Many reports tell that Brittany was “out of it” on the set. Rumours of prescription drug abuse and health problems continue to swirl around her death, even as one of the star’s former directors defended her reputation.
Film industry news and gossip site The Wrap reported Murphy barely made it through the film she shot prior to The Caller.
“Her husband was her handler, he shuttled her around,” an unnamed source from horror film Something Wicked told the site.
“She was barely there.
“She’d go in and out of consciousness in the middle of takes.”
The director of ’90s smash hit Clueless, Amy Heckerling, spoke to the site about the drug rumours.
“Everybody’s shaking their heads and going ‘drugs’, of course,” she told The Wrap.
“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.
“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.
“I think she felt the pressure to become a different sort of commodity to survive in show business, and I think it was awful.”
I had the same thought, unfortunately…
I really want to believe that it wasn’t because of an e.d. But she was very thin and in the hollywood industry so my gut is saying she probably had one.
Paula Froelich of the Joy Behar Show just called her emaciation a “lifestyle”.
Thank you for reassuring the pro-ana community. *sigh*
I honestly don’t know if she had one or not- I hope not, even though I suspect she did especially with the plastic surgery stuff her friends came out with that she was obsessed with. She denys having an ED, which I know, with ED is not uncommon.
But You also have to realize that a lot of times, people who are addicted to drugs often have decreased appetite because they are so addicted and wired. It is not the SAME thing as an eating disorder. Even though I suspect she had some kind of one, I think it’s unfair to speculate and disrespectful to her family who are devastated right now. She was also very ill with flu like symptoms prior to her death and taking medication for it in addition to whatever else she was popping. The police report said perscription drugs were found- but not illegal ones. She was also diabetic and having troubles in her marraige.
I think low weight be it from possible drug abuse, a possible ed, ill health with flu all may have played a factor. While I have anorexia and am in recovery with therapy and such with a shrink and a nutritionist, I don’t think that everyone who is rail thin can always be necessarily an eating disorder. In her case, I don’t know… but I think you tend to jump to these conclusions a little too quickly without knowing all the facts.
However, that being said, I think it is unfortunate and your point well taken about seeking help if in fact she did have an ed or anyone else in that community where so many well connected people have the resources of where to get them help, and the afflicted can afford it. But also remember, that when youare over 18- no one can force you. I mean I suppose like in Mischa Barton’s case they found a loop hole around it, I will never know what happened, but it is pretty hard to do unless you’ve attempted your own life or you have a known established reason that you are going to hurt somebody elses to force you into treatment. I don’t agree that it is right, but it’s the way it is.
i doubt its an eating disorder. she wan’t THAT thin, common. as a society we terrorize women with anorexia, we would have heard about it a lot sooner.
Amber,
Again, I do not know if she had an eating disorder. But I whole heartedly disagree with you on her not being “that thin.”
She was emmaciated enough to genereate speculcation of an ED or Drug use. While she denied both, surely you know that this is not uncommon for people with ED. Your comment that it would have come out sooner… not true. It did come out long ago she was suspected of having one. Just because someone is suspected of having one and they don’t admit to one doesn’t mean they don’t have one. Unless the individual themselves or the individual’s family comes forward with an admission- as in Tracy Gold, Christina Ricci, and Mary Kate Olsen- there is no such thing as “coming out” in Hollywood otherwise unless there is public record that they have gone into treatment. All the rest is rumor and speculation.
Once again,I don’t know if it was ED or not, but it would not surprise me if any symptoms of it played a role. The reports from her friends say she had severe body image issues. My point to Mama V was, not that perhaps she may have had issues with ED, but to not jump on the band wagon that every underweight person does, which she often does. In this case, I think it’s probably more likely than not that she did have some kind of ED in addition to other problems. But Mamam V seems to think that anyone who is skinny in Hollywood has ED. At least that’s how I feel she can come across, and to me, that’s being judgemental and generalizing.
Mama V,
Unfortunately, I don’t have your websiste book marked, but when I google Mamam Vision, the tag line reads “the voice of reason” for eating disorders. I get you have had your own experience with ED- one you still can’t define, but I don’t think “voice of reason” is an appropriate category to place you in, as you have no preofessional experience in treating EDs. I get what you are trying to teach people with destructive ed behaviors, but you come across even though you claim not to be, as an expert. You are not.
What would you prefer I call myself? I figure “Voice of Reason” is fitting because that is what I am — a normal mom that knows one hell of a lot about eating disorders through my own life experience, and blogging here since 2006.
I am not expert, never claimed to be, so I am not sure why the attitude is necessary?
mV
I guess I didn’t word it well. I apologize. I sometimes just type things in a hurry and they come across in a way I didn’t intend and I will be more careful.
I think that you do a lot of great things raising awareness, it’s just that at times, I feel that while I know you do not nor have ever claimed to be an expert, your attitude can come across very authoritative like- like when you said Brittany Murphy perhaps did not and could not seek help for her ED and made projections that was the medical cause of her death. You don’t know whether she did or didn’t, or even if she had one. I don’t either, though I suspect. But it is not my place to judge if she did have one how she chose to deal or not deal with it. Maybe it’s just me who feels this way.
I understand you only have good intentions. But, eating disorders have no reason, and many people as you know struggle with them throughout their lives, even in treatment. There are times when I feel that you are critical of people who do. I certainly like you encourage people to seek help for them if they have an ED, but sometimes, it feels like you wack people over the head if they aren’t ready to or don’t want to.
I know you are going to say whatever you want no matter how I or anyone else on her feels about it, but I wish you could try to understand where I am coming from about how I feel you can come across. I am sure I don’t always come across well either. I am not perfect. But sometimes, I think you could be a little less critical of people who may struggle with ED and show a little more empathy. But maybe, I am the only one who feels this way.