Brittany Murphy Case Analysis | Was Simon Monjack Responsible for Brittany's Death?

hello this is dr grande today's question is can i analyze the case of brittany murphy the events surrounding her death and her relationship with simon manjack were explored in the two-part hbo documentary what happened brittany murphy just a reminder i'm not diagnosed in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon i will put the link to patreon in the description for this video so first i'll look at the background in this case then i'll move to my analysis brittany murphy was born in atlanta georgia on november 10 1977 her mother is sharon murphy her father is angelo bertolotti her parents divorced when she was two years old she had two half brothers who were older and one half-sister who was younger britney was raised by her mother in edison new jersey in 1982 brittany attended school to learn dancing and theater in 1991 her family moved to los angeles to allow brittany to pursue a career in acting brittany wanted this career and her mom was supportive brittany had a number of small roles in television series but she really didn't become popular until she was in the 1995 movie clueless from this point she was offered roles in several movies like freeway girl interrupted don't say a word eight mile just married uptown girls sin city and happy feet her final movie was something wicked it wasn't released until 2014. brittany voiced a character on the animated sitcom king of the hill from 1997 to 2009. as britney was building her career in movies and tv she was active romantically she dated aston kutcher in 2002 she became engaged to a talent manager then became engaged to a production assistant in 2005. that engagement was terminated in 2006. brittany would meet a british screenwriter named simon manjack in 2006 the couple would marry in may 2007 it was a bit of a surprise they didn't really tell anybody what they were doing they stayed together for the rest of brittany's life on december 20 2009 at 8 a.m emergency services were called to brittany's residence she was there along with her mother sharon and her husband simon sharon said that britney collapsed in the bathroom brittany was taken to the hospital and went into cardiac arrest she died at 10 04 am here's what sharon and simon said happened when they were in puerto rico two weeks earlier brittany developed flu-like symptoms on the day she died brittany was complaining of shortness of breath and severe abdominal pain brittany went to the bathroom at 7 30 a.m about 30 minutes later sharon discovered brittany unresponsive sharon and simon carried brittany into the shower and ran cold water on her to wake her up instead of starting cpr or calling for help the authorities found 90 prescription bottles on simon's side of a nightstand in the house some of the prescriptions were in different names they found many bottles for brittany as well again some used aliases many different physicians wrote the prescriptions simon requested the no autopsy be performed but of course one was performed brittany died at age 32 which is highly unusual the autopsy indicated that britney had pneumonia was severely anemic as if she had not been eating and had a number of prescription and over-the-counter drugs in her system she had not been using alcohol or illegal drugs britney had been in a car accident on the set of the movie 8 mile she was taking hydrocodone as a result she was also taking a number of other drugs just to name a few topamax klonopin an antidepressant cough medicine and a beta blocker pneumonia was ruled as the official cause of death the other conditions were contributing factors on may 23 2010 simon manjack was found unresponsive in the home he had shared with brittany he was pronounced dead at 9 45 pm the autopsy revealed that he had acute bronchial pneumonia anemia and several drugs in his system including valium vicodin celexa indoral ativan and lyrica his cause of death was ruled as pneumonia and anemia so we see a striking similarity between the way that he died and the way britney died now moving to my analysis right before meeting simon brittany appeared to be going through a rough time her career was on the rise but she was feeling insecure she was particularly aware of how she didn't exactly meet the hollywood ideal for a leading lady she felt under pressure to lose weight in order to increase her chances of being considered for a significant leading role brittany really wanted to be a legendary movie star not just a good actress she wanted to make it big she was probably not well equipped to deal with all these external forces people described her as childlike trusting and naive this would not be unusual she was only 17 when she started working on the movie clueless in addition she was cut off from some of the normal socialization opportunities because she was an actress she had a tutor on set instead of having to go to school she was primarily relating to other people who were older than her and more experienced brittany was described as an authentic person who never had an unkind word for anyone looking at her personality on the five factor model she had high openness to experience low to mid-range conscientiousness very high extroversion very high agreeableness and mid-range to above average neuroticism britney's personality combined with the stress that she was under left the door open for somebody like simon manjack to enter her life let's take a look at simon's personality he appeared to have average openness to experience low conscientiousness mid-range extroversion low agreeableness and high neuroticism during one dinner with various hollywood people simon was controlling and talkative as he made a number of astounding claims simon claimed that he was a billionaire saying something to the effect that his grandfather founded british steel he was a large collector of vermeer paintings this is a famous dutch painter he dated l mcpherson and madonna at one time he had been dying of terminal cancer but then he bought an experimental treatment made from shark fins and was cured he owned 17 ferraris he claimed that a movie of his two days nine lives was getting the best reviews in britain in the history of independent film later it was revealed that simon had lied about all those claims this doesn't seem particularly surprising considering the nature of those claims we also see that he had a son and a daughter from two other relationships brittany did not know about either of these children simon had an arrest history he had overstayed his visa in the united states and at one point he was charged with credit card fraud those charges were dropped he had some civil litigation as well he had been evicted from four different houses a prior love interest suggested that he had demanded sex and claimed that he had cancer in order to get sex a number of simon's behaviors are consistent with narcissism and psychopathy the excessive deception particularly of a grandiose nature his manipulative controlling demanding and possessive behavior his claiming to have cancer to get his way his criminal history and of course his excessive drug and alcohol use simon was a dangerous romantic partner regardless of who he was with but britney murphy appeared to be particularly vulnerable around the time they became a couple brittany was losing weight and probably using drugs after she was with simon she lost more weight and used more drugs simon was able to take control of brittany they spent a lot of time in britney's residence they hardly went out at all she became more isolated from her friends and colleagues eventually britney did not even have a cell phone and there were no landlines in her residence her friends attempted to intervene on at least one occasion but britney would have none of it she insisted simon was good for her brittany became increasingly paranoid worried about the paparazzi for example in part because of simon's warnings simon was functioning as her business manager agent and even her makeup artist he had a lot of interest in brittany's money he spent three million dollars that belonged to her during their relationship he bought fake jewelry and pretended it was real like it was some type of investment it seems likely he was doing this so he could have some type of explanation as to where the money was spent so he was buying this cheap jewelry saying it was expensive and probably doing something else with that money when britney was working on the movie across the hall the quality of her work had diminished greatly she was late for work appeared to be out of it like in a fog simon would hang around on the set britney seemed to be in a good mood before she talked to simon but then after spending time with him she was in a bad mood at one point brittany told the director that she would not act intimate with another actor only with her husband they had a magical relationship after the director allowed simon to overhear that brittany could be fired simon decided the relationship wasn't so magical and britney could follow the script from this point britney's condition only grew more serious she continued to isolate and use drugs simon pushed her into getting plastic surgery he was very focused on her physical appearance in particular he wanted her to be thin it's almost like he desired this narcissistic perfection this idea that narcissists want beauty that has no flaws simon staged these unusual late night photo shoots in brittany's residence so again we see this focus on appearance britney's last job was in a movie titled the caller her behavior was so non-productive she was fired a few days in after brittany died simon continued to use drugs many people thought that he responded to brittany's death in an unusual way for example during an interview with larry king simon defended the fact that he didn't want an autopsy by saying that britney had a pristine body was curvy in all the right places and had skin like silk so once again we revisit this idea of narcissistic perfection some people also thought that simon became inappropriately close with sharon murphy for example sharon would spend time in bed with him crying and they took some unusual photographs together simon romanticized britney's death like it was some great love story that had a necessarily tragic ending he took credit for britney's career success he also attempted to make money from having a memorial for brittany where people would have to pay to attend he cancelled it but the damage to his reputation was already done one might think that simon had some type of master plan maybe he was getting ready to move on to another victim but then he died in the same way that britney died adding just another twist to an already bizarre story with all the information about the behavior personality characteristics and the events in this case what led to the death of these two individuals here are my thoughts this is just my opinion i think that britney wanted to achieve the hollywood ideal in terms of appearance as she lost weight she became more vulnerable she didn't feel well she was more susceptible to partnering with somebody who she believed could take care of her simon had a reputation for taking advantage of women but brittany did not know that he probably saw britney as the perfect target a famous hollywood actress with a lot of money in addition we see some alignment in what they wanted he had this idea of the narcissistic ideal narcissistic perfection and britney wanted to achieve an ideal like this for different reasons to advance her career nothing related to narcissism but either way there was this alignment in a sense they wanted the same thing for different reasons simon immediately used his manipulation skills to take control of brittany he encouraged her to lose more weight which made her more vulnerable and he used drugs with her which masked some of the pain that brittany was experiencing she did not realize how physically vulnerable she was because the drugs made her feel good as symptoms increased in severity the drug use increased brittany and simon were both in a tailspin simon had been pulled in by his own nefarious methods caught in his own web so to speak he was too dependent on prescription drugs the couple was able to get all the drugs they wanted due to brittany's wealth and simon's criminal knowledge their dissent in the chaos and danger would have gone unnoticed if it weren't for brittany's fame but even that could not protect them there's the sense when looking at this case that simon was destined for this fate he was a narcissistic criminal that lived impulsively britney was not she appeared to be destined for greatness but simon's behavior combined with britney's poor partner selection led to her downfall some people who have looked at this case have said that the emphasis on simon is misplaced he wasn't really that bad his behavior did not lead to all this destruction britney was an adult she had enough money to hire proper advisors she was responsible for her own behavior including the drug use i look at this case a little differently i think that britney was caught in a whirlwind of fame money pressure and drugs when she had the misfortune of running into simon the dangerousness of a master manipulator should never be underestimated britney was somewhat naive and agreeable but it was really simon's behavior that trapped her in a cycle of low self-esteem and drug use he was able to project his own insecurity sense of failure and penchant for destruction onto brittany he dragged her down to his level and sealed her fate along with his own simon has been portrayed as a villain in this case and many people have a low opinion of him solo in fact that the suggestion that he was dead weight could actually be considered a compliment in comparison to other descriptors which have been assigned to him it is important to remember that even though it appears as though simon was guilty in this case he was a human being and his behavior was shaped by circumstances just like anyone else's people don't choose to have narcissism and psychopathy there's a story behind what happened to him it's just not known what that is the story of brittany murphy and simon manchak is really not about the dangers of fame and fortune it's about the dangers of narcissistic manipulators who target vulnerable people those special manipulators know how to find the vulnerability in that mixture of fame and fortune and disguise their bad behavior in a sea of media scrutiny those are my thoughts on the case of brittany murphy please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always i hope you found my analysis of this topic to be informative thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

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Id: 4x0sW6q4pdY

Length: 16min 22sec (982 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 09 2021