Hmm, according to the AP, an autopsy is planned for Monday or Tuesday, toxicology tests are pending, and the family is cooperating.
From this link:
Natural causes mans it isn’t suicide or homicide. It doesn’t discount misadventure.
Cardiac arrest is not a cause of death it is a mechanism of dying… we all die when our hearts stop, it is what caused the heart to stop that is the question.
I’m so sad for that poor girl and her family. I think she may be someone else who got caught under the wheels of the Hollywood Juggernaut.
The sketch was first performed a couple weeks ago…
Never heard of her.
deleted
She was in The Mamas & the Papas. She died of a heart attack in her sleep. She was morbidly obese. Wikipedia says the death certificate had “fatty myocardial degeneration due to obesity” as the cause of death.
Wow, I didn’t see that there was a second page.
Not to cast aspersions on Brittany Murphy specifically (I only knew her name because of King Of The Hill) but remember that the L.A. Coroner initially stated that John Belushi’s death appeared to be natural causes as well, despite his hotel room being littered with drug paraphernalia and the presence of several fresh track marks on his arm.
I realise that the coroner back then (Belushi died on March 5th 1982) was Thomas Noguchi, L.A.'s infamous “Coroner To The Stars” (who has been retired for several years now) but again, as irishgirl mentioned “natural causes” is not always borne out…
Ok, it should have been removed weeks ago.
That shit was a crime against comedy.
Perhaps it was meant in the sense that “if anybody takes that much cocaine and heroin and then dies, it’s only natural.”
I’m not surprised because she was the default name in dozens of blind items regarding eating disorders and drugsdrugsdrugs. I feel bad for her family, what an awful thing, just before Christmas.
Now I’m reading here and there they are finding tons of “prescription drugs” in her house. (and she was very ill with flu-like symptoms before she died). Do you know what this means? With a trifecta of three Big Celebrity deaths (Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger, and now Brittany Murphy - that are known deaths, there are probably more) - I predict the gummint is going to look into this prescription drug thing, crack down even harder on the star-struck doctors who hand this stuff out to their idols. And that will filter down to the common suffering masses. Got a backache? Impacted wisdom tooth? Cancer? Here’s two tylenol, get yourself a positive attitude and do some meditation. We can’t give you any painkillers 'cause the celebrities are dropping like flies!
Well, RIP. I hope they look into that creepy husband’s part in this - HE looks like he never missed a meal in his life. Eww.
I always though that once Courtney Love died from an OD they would have got Brittney Murphy to play her.
Maybe it will be vice-versa?
MtM
Dont think it can’t happen—The Utah State Legislature actually debated a law making patients who were prescribed narcotic painkillers (wisdom tooth surgery etc.) take a mandated illicit drug test before being allowed to get your script filled!!!
Of course this would have never passed legal muster (yet?) but it was amazing (read fucking pathetic) to even hear something like this talked about by a state legislative body, even in mollyfocking Utah…
It could be that her heart was weakened by years of drug abuse. I think most people were surprised that Jerry Garcia lived to see his 50th birthday.
A real shame. Clueless really is a great, clever movie that holds up over time, and voicing LuAnne really set Murphy apart from other actresses of her age and fame level. Pure genius, and not just in retrospect. Though I’d read some stuff about her drug use and eating disorder (often in the form of unsubtle blind items), I always thought she’d achieved a decent level of fame – not hounded at every turn, but able to make a living and some respect. Now it seems to be framed in terms of a downward spiral, due to her supposed antics on set, tapering off into straight-to-video and made-for-TV movies. That kind of career’s only a tragedy, I guess, if you’re not happy with it.
“Fatty Myocardial Degeneration” is the British term for “ham sandwich”, kind of like they say “lift” for elevator and “holiday” for vacation or “chips” for fries. Go into any British deli (or “constabulary” as they call delis) and ask for a “Fatty Myocardial Degeneration with chips” and don’t be surprised if you get fries with your ham sandwich, though I understand “Mama Cass” is gaining currency as the name of the same combo. (Don’t ask for a “John Phillips”- trust me.)
A fun Luanne compilation. RIP.
My bad, I had a chance to look it up and I’m wrong. I was thinking, and I bet her husband was too, of an internal autopsy, which involves pretty invasive stuff. An external cause of death exam is still considered an autopsy.
Don’t forget she was also in Girl, Interrupted with Angelina Jolie, and was fantastic in it. Very sad. 
The episode is still on Comcast’s On Demand section, however, with the sketch intact. Which is a bit surprising since Comcast recently purchased a controlling stake in NBC Universal.