Hollywood & Crime: What Happened to Brittany Murphy?

It's been 17 years since Brittany Murphy died at the age of 32. Her passing left behind a lot of pain and unanswered questions. How did someone who had grown from a child star and teen icon to a beloved leading lady and singer die under such unusual circumstances? Alas, we are all too familiar with Hollywood figures dying before their time, and with young women being thrown to the wolves. Murphy had been in the midst of a career downturn, and the headlines had not been kind to her. Still, her death was a punch to the gut, and the passing of her husband several months later left her passing shrouded in the air of conspiracy. Everything about it just felt wrong, and almost two decades later, the truth hasn't become any clearer.

Brittany Anne Bertolotti was raised by her mother, Sharon Murphy, in Edison, New Jersey. As a kid, she had attended the Verne Fowler School of Dance and Theater Arts, where she found her calling with stage musicals. In 1991, before she started high school, she moved to Los Angeles to seriously pursue acting. After a slew of TV parts, she landed her breakout role in the iconic teen comedy Clueless. She was only 17 at the time of filming, but she was a scene-stealer as Tai, the new girl who Cher takes under her wing as her latest makeover project ("You're a virgin who can't drive!")

Soon came a string of indie roles, including one of her greatest performances in Girl, Interrupted. Everyone remembers Winona and Angelina in that film, and rightly so, but Brittany is positively haunting as a troubled rich girl with an eating disorder and history of abuse at the hands of her father. In the most gut-wrenching scene, Angelina Jolie's Lisa taunts Murphy's Daisy, claiming that she likes being abused by her dad. Murphy's tight and devastated face as Lisa tears her dignity to shreds is astonishing. Jolie got the Oscar, but Murphy more than deserved one too.

The 2000s saw her branch out into leading roles in rom-coms like Uptown Girls and Just Married, and her being cast as Luann in the animated comedy King of the Hill. During this time, she lost a lot of weight, which led to concerned headlines but also coincided with her A-List rise. She recounted to Interview Magazine the time that "someone very important in Hollywood said that I wasn't "fuckable" enough. He said I was "huggable" but not "fuckable"." Her friend Melanie Lynskey noted how Murphy struggled with being called "the fat one" as a teenager. Losing weight impacted her health, but the industry loves a skinny pretty girl that it can turn into a sex symbol. How familiar is that story? In the entertainment business, being ill is preferable to being even the slightest bit chubby.

The press went wild over Murphy’s body, and wilder over her love life. She dated Just Married co-star Ashton Kutcher. There was a brief fling with Eminem while they made 8 Mile together. After sharing a kiss in public with Winona Ryder, the lesbian rumours began. Both of them said they were just friends. Generally speaking, the press around Murphy during the 2000s was pretty damn cruel. The overall tone was one of snide scorn towards a young woman who was incredibly earnest but also going through something. Away from the headlines, she was helping her mother with her cancer diagnosis. She was also dealing with her own health issues, including diabetes. And then there was Simon Monjack.

Fuck this guy.