On Tuesday, actor Eric Balfour visited Brittany Murphy’s mother Sharon and husband Simon Monjack at the Hollywood Hills home where the actress, 32, died Sunday.

“Everyone is devastated,” he told UsMagazine.com. “We are trying to be strong for them.”

In the early 90s, Balfour, now 32, was also a member of a band called “Blessed with Soul” that featured Murphy.

He said her death is “just a tragedy. I’ve known her since I was 14-years old,” he told Us. “Brittany was one of my oldest friends. We are very sad she is gone, and we are asking everyone to be respectful,” he told Us.

Added the actor, “Life is fragile. There is no easy way through this.”

Source, Bauer-Griffin

A shocking number of strong prescription meds were found on Brittany Murphy’s bedroom nightstand after her sudden Dec. 20 death, but her husband denies she took anything dangerous enough that morning that would have killed her.

“My wife did not take anything on the morning of her death that would have caused her to be sick or ill, let alone die,” Brit screenwriter Simon Monjack tells the New York Daily News. “It’s beyond even the sickest speculation.”

According to the the coroner investigation notes (obtained by TMZ.com), medications confiscated included Topamax (anti-seizure meds also to prevent migraines), Methylprednisolone (anti-inflammatory), Fluoxetine (depression med), Klonopin (anxiety med), Carbamazepine (treats Diabetic symptoms and is also a bipolar med), Ativan (anxiety med), Vicoprofen (pain reliever), Propranolol (hypertension, used to prevent heart attacks), Biaxin (antibiotic), Hydrocodone (pain med) and miscellaneous vitamins.

Monjack confirmed that investigators took away a lot of prescription meds, “but nothing else,” and denied rumors that the 32-year-old actress had a drug problem.

“There’s no question that’s rubbish,” Monjack said. “I’m confident it wasn’t an overdose,” he added when asked how she died (toxicology report results won’t be available for about six weeks). “She was not a drug addict.”

He also called reports that Murphy had an eating disorder “heartless.”

“The attacks on me, the attacks on my wife and suggestions that she was anorexic and drug addicted, it’s like, look at the (recent) photographs,” Monjack said.

“Look at that smile,” he went on. “That’s not the smile of an anorexic or drug addict or someone in a bad marriage. That’s someone who was content with her life.”

Source, Bauer-Griffin

Amy Heckerling – who directed the late Brittany Murphy in the 1995 comedy classic Clueless – tells UsMagazine.com she is “shocked and angry” after the actress’ sudden death at the age of 32.

“She was a young girl, and I don’t know why nobody was watching out with what was going on with her,” Heckerling tells Us.

Heckerling says she noticed that the actress lately “seemed a little too energetic. I think everybody did.”

Murphy’s frail frame at the Dec. 3 opening of Tt Collection’s Pop-Up shop in Los Angeles caused many to wonder whether she suffered from an eating disorder. Her husband, British screenwriter Simon Monjack, denies she had any issues. (Notes from an investigator with the Los Angeles coroner’s office revealed Murphy consumed “some noodles, leftover Thai food, Gatorade, water and tea with lemon” the night before her Dec. 20 death.)

Heckerling hadn’t seen Murphy in a year or so — and she didn’t know anything about her last film, from which she was reportedly fired (Murphy’s rep says the actress and the studio “mutually parted ways”).

“I was not around the last movie,” Heckerling tells Us. “I can’t say that I noticed anything that led me to believe, ‘Oh my god, this person is messed up.’ But one hears rumblings. It’s a small town, and you hear from other people on other crews, but that’s all rumors and stuff.”

A shocking number of strong prescription meds were found on Murphy’s bedroom nightstand after her death, according to the investigator notes.

“I just feel like I can’t say, ‘Oh, she was on drugs,’” Heckerling says. “I didn’t work with her the past couple of years, and I know she was enjoying people treating her like she was the beautiful girl. That’s where I get angry at what Hollywood does to young girls.

“This town has a very strong idea of what girls are supposed to look Like, and they all try to fit into a certain mold, and it’s not healthy,” she adds. “That’s what is tragic about Brittany.”

After Murphy filmed 2002′s 8 Mile, “I was feeling — maybe not just then at that particular time, but over time — that she was maybe being pressured to be a certain body type and a certain kind of actress as far as playing the sexy, blonde, thin girl,” Heckerling says. “And that she was buying into what she was supposed to be, rather than just being a wonderful, innocent young girl.”

“She’s all over the magazines like, ‘Look, she had a makeover and now she looks hot!’ But I didn’t think so,” Heckerling goes on. “I mean, yes, she does look beautiful all the time, but I didn’t like that she was being forced into that.”

No one ever intervened about Murphy’s weight loss over the years.

“I mean, you tell people you think they’re getting thin or whatever, but not, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’” the director explains. “It just seemed like she was blowing up, being on every magazine and being treated as though she had suddenly become beautiful. And I think she was feeling very good about that. I’m just not happy with Hollywood.”

Murphy was “a wonderful actress and a sweet lovely,” Heckerline tells Us. “She was like a puppy. She was so sweet and lovable.”

She hopes young girls can learn a lesson.

“I think girls have to have a stronger sense of who they are and not give in to all the pressures,” she says. “It’s a hard thing to do.”

Source, Bauer-Griffin

A “devastated” Simon Monjack tells People his wife Brittany Murphy did not overdose on drugs and did not suffer from an eating disorder.

“These rumors that she was anorexic? It’s crazy – she was slim, but that was her natural physique,” Monjack tells People. “This is what’s killing all of us? How did it happen? Her mum, myself and her family – we want to know why we lost our baby.”

During a sometimes tear-filled interview, an exhausted Monjack, 39, who hasn’t slept since his mother-in-law found his wife collapsed in the bathroom early Sunday, said all he knows is what doctors told him at the hospital: She died of cardiac arrest, but they won’t know details until after an autopsy. (A coroner’s spokesperson says the results could take up to six weeks, for toxicology reports to be final.)

“My initial reaction to the autopsy was – they’re going to cut her open – I couldn’t bear it,” Monjack said, weeping. “That would break her mother, but we realized we needed to know. I look forward to getting the results.”

He added that his wife of three years did suffer from a heart murmur (mitral valve prolapse), which can cause fatigue, dizziness and irregular heartbeats – but is generally not life threatening. Murphy didn’t require medication to treat it, says Monjack. But on Saturday, he says, his wife was ill, resting in bed all day suffering from laryngitis, which the actress treated with herbal tea, ginger and lemon.

“She was on herbal remedies that wouldn’t speed up her heart,” Monjack says. “There was nothing here that could endanger her; there was prescription medication in the house for her female time and some cough syrup. That was it.”

Asked point-blank if a drug overdose was a possible cause of death, Monjack replied, “I can get rid of that one right now,” he says.

Her Last Night
Last Saturday, the couple just relaxed in bed, watching three movies as Murphy prepared to cast her vote as a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. They ordered Brittany’s favorite takeout – Thai food – and ate soup prepared by Murphy’s mother, Sharon, who has lived with them for 3½ years.

“She was tired and a little sad because she was sick,” Monjack says about Brittany. “She wore her pink Beverly Hills Hotel robe and monkey pajamas. We saw It’s Complicated, Public Enemy and The Princess and the Frog.

The couple were joined by Murphy’s companion, a pet Maltese named Clara, a Christmas gift last year from Monjack that Murphy named after her favorite silent screen star, Clara Bow. “One of the saddest things is that Clara has looked everywhere for Brittany and can’t find her,” says Monjack.

Feeling ‘Beyond Devastated’
Monjack, a photographer, first met Murphy on a photo shoot when she was 13 after she moved to Hollywood with her mother, Sharon. They began dating after being reintroduced at Murphy’s 28th birthday party and married a year later.

“So many people have their views of us, but they never met us or sat down with us,” he says. “I’m not perfect, but I don’t think anyone is … I am feeling beyond devastated. I was in love with Brittany and Brittany with me.”

The couple had plans for 2010: Brittany would continue to work, but she wanted to get pregnant. “She was an only child,” says Monjack. “She wanted a baby. Her big dream next year was to have a child, and we talked about how he or she would look. She’d say, ‘They’d better have your eyes and lips and my hair.’ ”

But Monjack did concede his wife was trying to get heavier. “She tried to gain weight but had one of those metabolisms – a high metabolism – but enjoyed food as much as anyone. I wish I could show all the receipts from the take out restaurants,” he says.

Upset by Stories
“We are faced with this ridiculous reality that people out there believe she felt, ‘Oh, poor me, I’m fat, I’m thin.’ Brittany didn’t see beauty as a physical thing, which I’m bloody lucky for,” he said with a laugh. “I know there was a disparity in how we looked and I’m no movie star, but she always saw the person.”

Monjack says he has been upset by some of the published reports. “It’s horrible – the death of a beautiful young woman, a Hollywood icon; it has to be explained. It just can’t be a tragic accident,” he says, trying to explain the headlines. “We don’t want to accept that a beautiful young wife and daughter woke up one morning and died a tragic death.”

But he’s most worried about his mother-in-law. “I don’t know if she will ever recover, and I know when she reads all this nonsense about her son-in-law and her deceased daughter, her heart is breaking. She has lived with us and saw the love and support. I hope she stays – I can’t imagine my life without Sharon – she’s my link to Brittany.”

Monjack says Brittany’s family arrived in town Monday and that funeral plans are pending.

Source, Bauer-Griffin

Here’s the latest from TMZ:

Brittany Murphy’s husband and mother made a frantic attempt to revive her before paramedics arrived … this according to notes written by an investigator from the L.A. County Coroner’s office. And, there were a shocking number of strong prescription meds on Brittany’s nightstand.

TMZ has reviewed the documents, written by Investigator Blacklock. According to his notes, Brittany Murphy “had been complaining of shortness of breath and severe abdominal pain” for 7 to 10 days prior to her death. According to the notes, Murphy went into the bathroom at around 7:30 AM Sunday and shut the door.

A half hour later Brittany’s mother, Sharon Murphy, went to check on her daughter, opened the bathroom door and “discovered the decedent lying on the floor unresponsive.” According to the notes, Sharon yelled for help. Brittany’s husband, Simon Monjack, who was in bed, heard the screams and ran to the bathroom.

According to the notes, Sharon called 911 and Simon “attempted to revive the decedent by placing her in the shower and running the water.”

The notes continue — “The decedent remained unresponsive and purged her stomach contents prior to the arrival of the paramedics.”

When the paramedics arrived, Brittany was “without signs of life.”

Paramedics moved Brittany from the bathroom to the master bedroom, where they found a slew of prescription drugs — “A check of the nightstands revealed large amounts of prescription medication in the decedent’s name. Also noted were numerous empty prescription medication bottles in the decedent’s husband’s name, the decedent’s mother’s name and unidentified third party names.” (Could she have been taking prescriptions prescribed to her husband and mother?)

According to the notes, the medications included Topamax (anti-seizure meds also to prevent migraines), Methylprednisolone (anti-inflammatory), Fluoxetine (depression med), Klonopin (anxiety med), Carbamazepine (treats Diabetic symptoms and is also a bipolar med), Ativan (anxiety med), Vicoprofen (pain reliever), Propranolol (hypertension, used to prevent heart attacks), Biaxin (antibiotic), Hydrocodone (pain med) and miscellaneous vitamins.

The notes say, “No alcohol containers, paraphernalia or illegal drugs were discovered.”

According to the notes, “The night prior to her death, the decedent had consumed some noodles, leftover Thai food, Gatorade, water and tea with lemon.”

The notes also say Brittany had a history of hypoglycemia and was hospitalized in April 2009 for low blood sugar while on location in Oregon.”

Monjack told the investigator during the 7 to 10 days prior to her death, Brittany complained of shortness of breath and severe abdominal pains but he was not overly alarmed because “she often suffered from severe menstrual pains.”

The investigator spoke with police at the scene, who told him “foul play is not suspected.”

Source

In a sad twist of fate, Brittany Murphy expressed her happiness and hopes for the future, just weeks before her shocking death. “I’m looking forward to enjoying the holidays, first and foremost,” the beaming brunette told In Touch on December 3 at Tiffany Saidnia’s Tt Collection Pop Up Boutique, adding that she wanted to spend Christmas in a “snowy, cold climate” like New York.

In her long-term plans, the Clueless starlet also wanted to create a big brood with her husband of two years, director Simon Monjack. “I am looking forward to having children soon. However many God is going to bless us with, we will be happy,” Brittany gushed, patting her stomach.

“We have a beautiful puppy now, she’s our little puppy person and no matter how many children we have she’ll always be my first daughter,” she told In Touch. I can’t wait to give her brothers and sisters, but I’d like to raise my children in an East Coast environment. An environment that has the change of seasons.”

The actress was thrilled about recent projects, including indie film Across the Hall. “Life is starting again in a different way for me as far as my career is concerned, and that’s exciting,” she said.

Brittany’s life was cut short when she died of cardiac arrest in her LA home at age 32 on December 20.

Her Clueless costar remembers her friend as a woman who was full of life. “I am deeply saddened by Brittney’s death,” Stacey Dash tells In Touch exclusively. “She was a bright shining light and I am sorry that we will not get to watch her grow. As an actress she was an inspiration. So good. I will always remember her laugh, it was infectious.”

Source

From TMZ:

TMZ has learned Brittany Murphy’s autopsy is complete. There were no signs of foul play, we’ve learned, and there was nothing that pointed to a cause of death. The cause of death has been “deferred” pending other tests.

Sources say the L.A. County Coroner will wait for the toxicology report, as well as the histopathology (study of her organs and tissues) and neuropathology (study of her brain).

One source said the body appeared “normal.” In addition, we’re told she did not appear overly thin — in contrast to some photos that surfaced several weeks ago. There was no evidence of trauma to the body.

We’re told the Coroner will not determine cause of death until the other reports are submitted — in 4 to 6 weeks.

One issue the Coroner is interested in — what prescription drugs were in Brittany Murphy’s system.