Simon Monjack and Sharon Murphy, the grief-stricken husband and mother of late actress Brittany Murphy, brought their campaign to clear the actress’ name to The TODAY Show on Thursday. Brittany died suddenly after suffering cardiac arrest in her Los Angeles mansion last month. She was 32. In an interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer this morning, Sharon and Simon vehemently denied tabloid rumors that the shockingly-frail Brittany had been abusing drugs or suffering from an eating disorder in the last years of her life. Monjack, who married the Clueless star in 2007, blames the rumors for destroying the actress’ once promising career.
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Monjack has accused film producers of firing the actress from the Happy Feet sequel because of tabloid rumors about her lifestyle.
“There was a great deal of stress in her career. A week before she died… unfortunately Warner Brothers pulled the offer (for Happy Feet) based off rumors, which were untrue.”
He’s now urging actors to withdraw from the sequel in protest.
“So any actress that takes the role is terrible. And I would say to Brad Pitt and Matthew Damon, who are considering doing the movie, to rethink your friendship with Brittany before you do it.”