Following Paris Hilton’s This Is Paris and the New York Times’s Framing Britney Spears, HBO Max has announced a documentary series about another Noughties blonde relentlessly pursued by tabloids: Brittany Murphy, who died at the age of 32 in 2009. According to the press release, the two-part series will provide an “in-depth and intimate” study of the actor’s life – weaving together archival footage with commentary from her loved ones.
Directed by filmmaker Cynthia Hill, the yet-to-be-titled project will also investigate the circumstances around Murphy’s death, which a Los Angeles coroner determined to be a result of pneumonia and “multiple drug intoxication”. However, given that Murphy’s widower Simon Monjack died under nearly identical circumstances less than six months later, various fans have proposed that there’s more to the story.
“I agreed to do this film because I think it’s a shame that Brittany’s promising life and career has been eclipsed by the circumstances of her death,” Hill explained in a statement. “I think it’s important to celebrate Brittany’s talent as we struggle to explain the tragic circumstances of her and Simon’s deaths.”
Murphy famously had her breakthrough role in Clueless as the “tragically unhip” teenager Tai Frasier, before going on to star in Girl, Interrupted alongside Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie. She later received critical acclaim for her performance in 8 Mile alongside Eminem. As her star rose, however, so did media coverage of her personal life – with endless speculation about her weight and battle with drugs.
“Vicious rumours, spread by tabloids, unfairly smeared Brittany’s reputation,” the star’s father Angelo Bertolotti stated years on from her death after commissioning another toxicology report. “My daughter was neither anorexic nor a drug junkie, as they repeatedly implied... I will not rest until the truth about these tragic events is told. There will be justice for Brittany.”
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