Sources involved in Brittany Murphy‘s autopsy say the actress’ death was “preventable,” TMZ reports.
The primary causes of Murphy’s death were pneumonia and severe anemia, according to the L.A. County Coroner’s report. Officials believe Brittany’s condition was “treatable” but no one took her to the hospital in time, sources told TMZ.
As for the multiple drugs found in her system, both were prescription, including medicine for cramps, and over-the-counter medications, including cough syrup. Sources say the drugs “pushed her over the line” but the underlying problems were the pneumonia and anemia, TMZ says.
In other words, “Brittany was really sick, didn’t get treatment and by self-medicating it pushed her over the line,” TMZ said.
Likewise in the case of Johnson & Johnson heiress Casey Johnson, who died of natural causes linked to diabetes, she was not following doctor’s orders to deal with her condition, sources said.
Sources said the coroner’s findings show that Johnson, who died at 30, was not taking her insulin shots, was not exercising, did not follow her strict diet and was not taking other medicines she needed.
Autopsy results on the two women were released Thursday by the Los Angeles County Coroner, answering questions that swirled about both women’s sudden and tragic deaths.
Johnson, who had a history of drug and alcohol use, died as a result of her diabetic condition, the autopsy showed.
The cause of death was listed as diabetic ketoacidosis — a lethal condition condition caused by lack of insulin and sky-high blood sugar.
Johnson was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes as a child.
The daughter of Jets owner Woody Johnson was found dead in a West Hollywood home by a maid on Jan. 5.
Shortly before her death, Johnson announced her engagement to bisexual reality TV star Tila Tequila.
Murphy, 32, the star of “8 Mile” and “Clueless,” was suffering from pneumonia when she collapsed and died in the shower of her California home on Dec. 21, the autopsy showed.
While the illness was cited as her primary cause of death, the autopsy found “multiple drug intoxication” — all prescription medications, said coroner’s spokesman Craig Harvey.
Her death was ruled accidental, he said, and a full autopsy report was expected in two weeks.
Popular ’80s band Men At Work owes millions of dollars after a judge ruled that a portion of their hit song “Down Under” was copied from a popular folk song.
Australia’s federal court said the band stole the flute melody from the 1934 Girl Guides’ song, “Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree.”
Men At Work songwriters Colin Hay and Ron Strykert, along with EMI music, face a massive bill for unpaid royalties and losses suffered by publishing firm Larrikin Music.
Justice Peter Jacobson said the flute melody in “Down Under” was unmistakably the same as the Kookaburra song written by teacher Marion Sinclair, London’s Daily Mail reports.
She had entered the song in a competition that called for a tune, a short story, a poem or a picture that could be used for a Christmas card. Competition details were printed in a circular and the official Girl Guide magazine Matilda.
Larrikin Music claimed in court that it had won an application for the copyright for Kookaburra from the South Australian Public Trustee in 1990, after Sinclair died.
‘I have come to the view that the flute riff in ‘Down Under’ in the 1979 recording and 1981 recording infringes on the copyright of Kookaburra, because it replicates in material form a substantial part of Ms Sinclair’s 1935 work,’ judge Jacobson ruled.
Though it had a different ‘feel’ and musical context in “Down Under,” Jacobson said the riff was clearly an Australian melody and had been ‘substantially’ reproduced by Men At Work.
Officials say singer Wayne Newton owes a Detroit-area airport more than $60,000 after abandoning his plane more than three years ago and leaving it to gather mold.
Oakland County International Airport President Joe Borgesen says the plane once worth about $2 million was flown into the airport about 25 miles northwest of Detroit to have interior work done that took about a year to complete. He said Newton, who is known as “Mr. Las Vegas,” initially paid storage fees but then stopped.
Borgesen estimates moving the non-working plane would cost about $30,000.
A woman who answered the phone at Erin Miel Inc., the entertainment company owned by Newton, told The Oakland Press on Wednesday she is aware the plane is at the airport but provided no further information.
——— Information from: The Oakland Press, http://www.theoaklandpress.com
