Brittany Murphy’s husband, Simon Monjack, plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit against Warner Brothers claiming they are responsible for the death of his wife. Monjack in an interview with the The Daily Beast, claims Murphy was devastated after reportedly losing a role in the sequel to “Happy Feet.” While the L.A. County Coroner has not released the cause of death, Monjack believes losing the movie caused Murphy to have a heart attack.
Before the “Happy Feet” setback, Brittany Murphy had been fired from the film, “The Caller,” shot in Puerto Rico. Rumor was Monjack, who did Brittany’s hair and makeup, had been so difficult on the set, sometimes showing up drunk, that the producers had let her go and replaced her with Twilight star Rachelle Lefevre.
Monjack says. “The reports about the Puerto Rican set are fantasy. I was never, ever drunk there. What I did do was demand they follow union rules and after she had worked 12-hour days, six days a week, that she get the breaks she was entitled to. I was ‘difficult’ because I was the enforcer to protect Brittany. She was far too nice to stand up to directors and producers who wanted her to work to exhaustion.”
Daily Beast writer Gerald Posner claims a Hollywood executive told him that the studio had been looking for a reason to dismiss Brittany because Lefevre was a much hotter star.
Monjack said, “Warner Brothers relied on conjecture and hearsay about the Puerto Rico film for why they canceled Brittany’s role in Happy Feet.”
Acting is a cruel business, your hot one day and the next no one wants to touch you. But taking Warner Brothers to court claiming they are responsible for the death of Brittany Murphy, because they wrongfully fired her, that seems a stretch!
TMZ followed up on this story and got a quote from both studios on this story. The producers of “The Caller” say “The decision for Brittany to leave the film was mutual and amicable, and was in fact related to a serious illness in Brittany’s family. Any rumors to the contrary are false, and in the circumstances, particularly hurtful.”
Warner Brothers says: “Any claim that Warner Bros. Pictures was somehow responsible for Brittany Murphy’s tragic death is demonstrably false, reprehensible, and defamatory. Despite press reports to the contrary, Warner Bros. Pictures and Ms. Murphy never entered into any deal for “Happy Feet 2,” and thus, there was not a contract to cancel.”
