Husband against autopsy on Brittany

By IANS
Tuesday, December 22, 2009

LONDON - British screenwriter Simon Monjack has urged officials not to hold an autopsy into the sudden death by cardiac arrest of his wife, 32-year-old Hollywood star Brittany Murphy.

Monjack said he did not want a full post-mortem but was quickly overruled by coroners, reported the newspaper website thesun.co.uk.

Brittany died of heart attack Sunday in Los Angeles. A senior police source said the investigation will focus on “overdose scenarios”.

Coroner Ed Winter said her death appeared to be “natural”. But the probe will be kept open until toxicology reports are completed - which could take six weeks.

Friends are concerned that Brittany, who acted in films like “Sin City”, “8 Mile”, “Girl Interrupted”, “Clueless” and “Just Married”, became a user of prescription drug Vicodin, which Michael Jackson had also taken.

As cops probed Brittany’s death, some unsavoury details of Monjack’s past have emerged.

He was reportedly arrested by immigration officials in April 2007 after over staying his visa. A month later he married Brittany and was forced to deny hurtful rumours that the wedding was arranged to avoid deportation.

Later, Monjack, who has a writing credit on Sienna Miller starrer “Factory Girl”, faced a series of financial problems. A judgment for 293,000 pounds was made against him in 2006 by Coutts & Company, the Queen’s bankers.

A year earlier he was booted out of his New York flat for failing to pay more than 5,000 pounds in rent. Even after he married Brittany in 2007, he was in court again - in a 30,000 pounds dispute over a divorce settlement with ex-wife Simone Bienne.

Brittany, who had Type 2 diabetes and a thyroid condition, had been unwell for several days before her death.

She was said to have been taking prescription drugs for “flu-like” symptoms.

She was found unconscious in the shower at her Los Angeles home by her mother Sharon and was pronounced dead two hours later.

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