62 - Brittany Murphy

Tune in for our first ever LIVE episode as we welcome the winner of our listener contest, @FallGirl81! Together, we dive deep into the captivating life and mysterious death of beloved 90's actress Brittany Murphy. Join us as we unravel the chilling rumors surrounding her infamous home, rumored to harbor portals to a dark world and toxic mold. Could these eerie elements have played a role in her untimely demise and that of her husband just months later? And, of course, we'll explore the intriguing real estate story behind it all. Don't miss this thrilling episode packed with mystery, intrigue, and a touch of nostalgia!

The Real Estate: 1893 Rising Glen Road | Los Angeles, CA

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Show Notes & Sources: https://www.crimeestate.com

This episode edited by the oh-so-talented, Elena

[00:00:05] At the intersection of true crime and real estate, you'll find Crime Estate. I'm Heather.

[00:00:09] And my name is Elena. As real estate agents and true crime junkies, we view crimes through a different lens.

[00:00:15] So walk through the door of some of the most notorious true crimes with us and discover how sometimes the scene of the crime has its own story to tell.

[00:00:27] Hey y'all, this is FallGirl81 and I'm so excited to be part of Crime Estate this week.

[00:00:31] I chose Brittany Murphy because being a elder millennial, I was prime age for her movie rise.

[00:00:41] And growing up, my middle name was Brittany. And so I always connected to Brittany Murphy, Brittany Spears, and it was very exciting.

[00:00:50] And after hearing all the story and it coming back to me, I am convinced the mother did it.

[00:00:55] Hey y'all, thanks for joining us for another episode of Crime Estate.

[00:00:58] I'm Heather and I'm joined as always by my fellow real estate obsessed gal pals, Elena and Melanie.

[00:01:04] Hey ladies.

[00:01:05] Hey Heather. Hey Melanie. How's it going?

[00:01:06] Great. It was really lovely to see you. It's been two weeks since I've seen you two.

[00:01:10] Uh huh.

[00:01:10] Yeah. And today's episode is incredibly special because we have the winner of our listener Instagram review contest.

[00:01:19] I don't know what we decided to call it, but we asked y'all earlier in the year to go online and leave us a review on Spotify or Apple Podcast and, you know, sign it with your Instagram handle.

[00:01:30] And we've got FallGirl here today. Thank you so much.

[00:01:33] And one of her gal pals too. So we're excited to be recording live with you guys.

[00:01:37] Yeah. I'm so excited about recording today's episode in front of our live studio audience.

[00:01:42] I'm going to insert like a, like a clap track here.

[00:01:44] I like it.

[00:01:45] Yeah. Um, if y'all remember one of our goals for the show in 2024 was to do a live episode once a quarter and well, best laid plans.

[00:01:52] Here we are in November and we are finally recording the first one, but there's no one else I'd rather do this with than you guys.

[00:01:58] Yeah. And this crew of lovely ladies with us.

[00:02:01] Yeah.

[00:02:01] It's so fun.

[00:02:03] So today's story actually comes courtesy of our contest winners who asked us to do an episode on one of the true icons of our generation, Brittany Murphy.

[00:02:12] Her life and death always fascinated me, but I had no idea how much more there was in the story until we started researching for today's episode.

[00:02:19] So great choice, fall girl.

[00:02:21] So honestly, I didn't know as much about this story and I was trying to figure out why.

[00:02:26] Um, but I think it happened right before my son was born and I think I was just in that newborn haze of not sleeping and not, you know, everything revolved around what was going on in my house, not what was going on in the world.

[00:02:38] And so I think I missed a lot of it initially.

[00:02:40] Well, Lincoln was born and you're growing that beard we were talking about earlier.

[00:02:44] Thank you so much for bringing up my, uh, my hair issues.

[00:02:48] Thank you for providing that.

[00:02:50] I'm a big fan of laser hair removal.

[00:02:51] If anybody would like to, uh, support the podcast and be a sponsor, I'm a big fan.

[00:02:56] Yeah.

[00:02:56] I mean, I had a, uh, I think I was pregnant at right around this time as well.

[00:03:01] And so it sort of was vaguely in the back of my memory, but about a year or two ago, for some reason, I, I re-remembered the story and I had gone down one of my Google Wikipedia research holes.

[00:03:14] So as soon as a fall girl, uh, mentioned it, I was like, damn, yes, we gotta do that one.

[00:03:19] Yeah.

[00:03:19] If you're not a Gen X like me or an older millennial, like, um, other people here, Brittany Murphy's name might seem vaguely familiar, but you might not recall exactly who she was.

[00:03:31] And we will dive more into her later in the story.

[00:03:34] But just to give you a brief reminder, she was a mainstay of the nineties and the early two thousands movies.

[00:03:39] She was at It Girl.

[00:03:41] She co-starred in Clueless with Alicia Silverstone, Girl Interrupted with Angelina Jolie, Eight Mile with Eminem.

[00:03:48] And of course, Ashton Kutcher in Just Married.

[00:03:51] So there is no surprise that us ladies would want to revisit her story as it loves our, um, it blends all of our loves of pop culture, movies, unsolved, maybe potential crime.

[00:04:04] And of course, fabulous real estate.

[00:04:07] Yeah.

[00:04:08] There's a lot going on here that, you know, we like to talk about it.

[00:04:11] It's sort of, you're right.

[00:04:11] It does blend all of our favorite things in this episode.

[00:04:14] And for those of you who are unfamiliar with the story, Brittany Murphy died in her home in the West Hollywood Hills at 1893 Rising Glen Road in Los Angeles, California on December 20th, 2009.

[00:04:28] Now she had owned that property for six years, having purchased it fully furnished from Brittany Spears in 2003 for $3.85 million.

[00:04:38] Two Brittany's?

[00:04:40] Yeah.

[00:04:41] Maybe not so confusing.

[00:04:42] Yeah.

[00:04:43] Well, we're not going to talk much about Brittany Spears, so.

[00:04:45] But you know that, um, that Brittany's were one of the most popular names of the 80s and 90s.

[00:04:53] So, uh, you don't hear a lot of Brittany's anymore.

[00:04:56] No.

[00:04:57] Are you a Brittany?

[00:04:58] Yeah.

[00:04:59] We're looking at our, uh, our audience over here.

[00:05:07] Oh!

[00:05:08] You don't strike me as a Brittany.

[00:05:10] Not at all.

[00:05:11] Wow.

[00:05:11] I would not have guessed you were a Brittany.

[00:05:13] I like that.

[00:05:13] I like all these hidden insights.

[00:05:15] Heather and Melanie were also really popular.

[00:05:17] Or so was yours.

[00:05:17] All of you had really popular 80s names.

[00:05:19] Yeah.

[00:05:19] You're the, you're the odd, odd one out.

[00:05:21] Yeah, totally odd.

[00:05:21] Can I tell you how many people come up to me and have problems with how I pronounce your name on the podcast?

[00:05:28] Not problems.

[00:05:29] I thought, they thought it was soothing.

[00:05:31] Well, soothing.

[00:05:31] But they're like, but sometimes you don't say it the same way.

[00:05:34] Yeah.

[00:05:34] That's what I said.

[00:05:35] I said, you say it.

[00:05:36] Melanie says it wrong 100% of the time.

[00:05:38] And I tried to tell her how to do it.

[00:05:40] But, and then you, like, 95% of the time you say it correctly.

[00:05:44] And here I thought I had improved.

[00:05:46] Okay.

[00:05:46] No.

[00:05:47] Say it.

[00:05:48] Say it again real slowly.

[00:05:50] Elena.

[00:05:51] Elena.

[00:05:52] Yeah.

[00:05:53] Elena.

[00:05:54] You sort of have to whisper it to get it right.

[00:05:56] Make it a little sexy.

[00:05:57] I guess so.

[00:05:58] Let's skip from the names and back into the story.

[00:06:00] Okay.

[00:06:00] Britney Spears.

[00:06:01] Yeah.

[00:06:02] So Britney Spears owned this house.

[00:06:04] What do you think her house looked like?

[00:06:06] Pink and diamonds, glitter, pink.

[00:06:10] I mean, right?

[00:06:11] Yeah.

[00:06:11] How old would she have been?

[00:06:12] Mel, I hate to, like, throw this at you, but how old would Britney Spears have been in 2009?

[00:06:17] Young still, right?

[00:06:18] Yeah.

[00:06:18] I think she was early, early 20s.

[00:06:20] Yeah.

[00:06:20] So she has this gorgeous mansion.

[00:06:22] Surprisingly enough, I saw a video that Britney Murphy did for MTV Cribs right after she bought

[00:06:29] the house and she's giving the tour.

[00:06:31] And it was actually pretty tastefully done.

[00:06:35] I mean, it was tastefully done for 2003.

[00:06:38] Not probably what she would do today.

[00:06:40] But it was much more like Laura Ashley, French country.

[00:06:46] Like, very nice.

[00:06:48] Maybe she just hired an interior designer.

[00:06:50] Maybe.

[00:06:50] Or maybe she bought it fully furnished.

[00:06:51] I think she still has an aesthetic like that.

[00:06:54] Like, follow her Instagram.

[00:06:55] Oh, really?

[00:06:56] Yeah.

[00:06:57] You do follow her Instagram?

[00:06:58] Yes.

[00:06:59] I follow her.

[00:07:00] Do you all follow Britney Spears on Instagram?

[00:07:01] Oh.

[00:07:01] Oh, I follow it because it had train wreck.

[00:07:04] I'm the only one.

[00:07:05] Oh, no.

[00:07:05] She'll have hands.

[00:07:05] Anybody else?

[00:07:06] Oh, but it's a...

[00:07:07] Oh, I follow it because it's a train wreck.

[00:07:09] I mean, I felt sorry for her when she was under conservatorship.

[00:07:14] But now you might understand why she was under conservatorship.

[00:07:20] But that was back when she was living with Justin Timberlake or dating Timberlake.

[00:07:25] So who knows how much she actually stayed in her house.

[00:07:28] That's fair.

[00:07:29] That's fair.

[00:07:30] Well, okay.

[00:07:31] So Brittany Murphy is doing this MTV Cribs video, which in retrospect is a little bit disconcerting.

[00:07:39] And because she talks about how much she loves the bathroom and how the bathroom has always been her sanctuary.

[00:07:47] Going so far as to say that growing up, she would sometimes sleep in the tub because it was cozy.

[00:07:52] Plus, the video goes on to capture like her bubbly personality and that raspy voice that she came to be known for.

[00:07:58] So we'll link that episode on our socials and in our show notes if you guys want to check it out.

[00:08:02] Regardless, moving into the home on Rising Glen Road was sort of like this outward symbol of making it for her in Hollywood.

[00:08:10] As a child, Brittany was raised by her mother and the two of them often lived with other friends and family trying to make ends meet.

[00:08:16] Her father was not involved in her life spending nine years in prison for, I think, racketeering.

[00:08:22] He was definitely involved with the mob.

[00:08:23] Gotcha.

[00:08:24] Something mob related.

[00:08:26] And so it was essentially her and her mom against the world.

[00:08:29] So when she purchased the home on Rising Glen Road, it was only natural to Brittany that her mom would move in with her.

[00:08:35] The two had struck out to L.A. on an adventure together, moving from New Jersey to L.A.

[00:08:39] when Brittany was younger with the same hopes and dreams that so many young people have when they moved to L.A.

[00:08:45] to make it big on the big screen.

[00:08:47] Early roles on sitcoms paid the bills.

[00:08:48] I was actually shocked by all of the shows she was on, including Blossom, Murphy Brown, Party of Five, Frasier, Sister's Sister, and Boy Meets World to name a few.

[00:08:59] I have two things to say.

[00:09:00] Okay.

[00:09:01] Boy Meets World is one of my favorite TV shows ever.

[00:09:04] Thank you.

[00:09:05] And also you did not mention Almost Home.

[00:09:07] Do y'all remember that?

[00:09:08] I don't remember that.

[00:09:10] It was really bad writing, but it was a really cute little show.

[00:09:14] And that's the first time I remember hearing about her was Almost Home.

[00:09:17] It was only on for two episodes, or excuse me, two seasons.

[00:09:20] So you'll blink and you'll miss it.

[00:09:22] Maybe we can find it on like Netflix or Hulu or something.

[00:09:24] Maybe so.

[00:09:25] Boy Meets World.

[00:09:26] Have y'all gone back and rewatched that as adults?

[00:09:28] Does that hold up?

[00:09:29] I don't think much holds up from that time period.

[00:09:31] Well, I mean, haven't they done, they have a new Boy Meets World, like a new-

[00:09:36] Girl Meets World.

[00:09:37] Yeah.

[00:09:38] Like where some of the same characters and they're talking about her daughter, his daughter as a grownup now.

[00:09:43] Yeah, no, I think I was a little old for Boy Meets World.

[00:09:47] So it was one of those things that I knew about, but I didn't actually watch at the time.

[00:09:50] Okay.

[00:09:51] So in 1994, at the age of 17, she landed the role that would launch her career, the role of Ty Frazier and Clueless.

[00:09:59] Now, the writer-director of Clueless said on this Max documentary that I watched about Brittany Murphy that they saw a lot of people for the role of Ty.

[00:10:07] But everyone, they felt, was just sort of like acting it and wasn't really the character themselves.

[00:10:13] But when Brittany came in to audition, she was that sweet girl who didn't fit in with others.

[00:10:18] She was charming and nice, but they felt like she was also lost in this world in L.A.

[00:10:24] And that was sort of the quality that they were looking for.

[00:10:26] And Ty Frazier was an awesome character.

[00:10:29] For sure.

[00:10:30] So cute.

[00:10:31] So cute.

[00:10:31] So Brittany Murphy's first agent in L.A. said that when she came into the talent office, she absolutely wanted to be a movie star with every fiber of her being.

[00:10:40] And he said he loved calling to give her the news that she got the Clueless movie because he knew it was about to change her whole life.

[00:10:48] That's really sweet.

[00:10:48] Isn't that awesome?

[00:10:49] Yes.

[00:10:50] Okay.

[00:10:50] Can we talk about Clueless for a minute?

[00:10:52] Let's do it.

[00:10:53] Have you watched it recently?

[00:10:56] I've seen it a couple of years ago.

[00:10:57] I watched it with Lincoln a few years ago.

[00:10:59] Yeah, I've watched it with my boys.

[00:11:02] At least once or twice.

[00:11:03] Yeah.

[00:11:04] Now I kind of want to go home and watch it again tonight.

[00:11:06] Well, we've talked on the podcast about how I really want the Judy Jetson hair machine.

[00:11:10] I want Cher's closet machine too.

[00:11:13] I'm all in for the Cher closet.

[00:11:15] And her big – I'm not going to do it justice, but her like – the best line in that was when she looked at Cher and she was like,

[00:11:23] you're just a virgin that can't drive.

[00:11:25] Oh, and she said it was an accent.

[00:11:26] It was really cute.

[00:11:27] But I think that was like really her accent.

[00:11:30] Super cute.

[00:11:30] Yeah.

[00:11:31] Okay.

[00:11:32] Let's move on.

[00:11:34] Unfortunately, all of that fame brought her a lot of attention, but it wasn't quite the attention she wanted.

[00:11:40] By Hollywood standards, Elena, she was chubby and unpolished.

[00:11:45] And she heard that everywhere she turned.

[00:11:47] I agree.

[00:11:48] I think she was darling and cute and clueless.

[00:11:51] Hollywood did not agree.

[00:11:52] No.

[00:11:52] I mean, different generations have different standards for beauty.

[00:11:58] And I think nowadays I'd like to think there's a lot more variety and diversity and build types.

[00:12:04] I mean, I'm sure there's always a lot of pressure.

[00:12:07] But particularly in the late 90s, I mean, it was – I mean, think about the pop stars that were of that generation.

[00:12:16] You know, Britney Spears, you know, to name her.

[00:12:19] And Christina Aguilera and, you know, and Paris Hilton.

[00:12:22] And there was a very stick-straight blonde girl, not a curly girl.

[00:12:27] And make no mistake, Britney was not a big girl by any means.

[00:12:32] She just wasn't, like, a waif.

[00:12:35] Yeah.

[00:12:35] And she became convinced that in order to get a leading role, she needed to give producers exactly what they wanted, a thin blonde bombshell, just like you said, Melanie.

[00:12:45] So she set out to transform herself.

[00:12:48] Yeah.

[00:12:48] It's totally a tough decade to be a female with some extra curves.

[00:12:51] Yeah.

[00:12:52] I feel like I remember seeing a lot of women with, like – or young – women in their 20s with, like, hip bones sticking out.

[00:12:58] You know, like the pants would drop low and you could see their hip bones.

[00:13:02] Oh, well, I mean, it was very much the style to wear your pants as low as possible.

[00:13:07] So you would see the hip bones and, you know, underwear if you were wearing any.

[00:13:12] My goal is just to see my collarbone again one day.

[00:13:16] I feel like you're pretty damn close.

[00:13:19] I'm going to get there.

[00:13:20] I'm going to get there.

[00:13:21] All right.

[00:13:22] So, of course, the praise for Murphy's extreme weight loss soon turned to talk of an eating disorder without much regard for her actual health.

[00:13:30] Bruce Bibby, a journalist who wrote for E! under the pseudonym Ted Casablanca, says in the documentary that she was going around with a scarlet A on her body for anorexia.

[00:13:39] Everyone knew it.

[00:13:41] Everyone talked about it.

[00:13:43] Why does Bruce Bibby need a pseudonym?

[00:13:45] Because that's a cool name like that.

[00:13:47] I don't know.

[00:13:47] I think Ted Casablanca is pretty –

[00:13:49] They're both cool, but Bruce Biddy.

[00:13:51] Like, Bibby.

[00:13:52] Yeah.

[00:13:53] That's pretty cool.

[00:13:54] Maybe he was writing lots of ugly stuff that he didn't want linked back to him.

[00:13:58] That's why I needed the pseudonym.

[00:13:59] That's what I'm going with.

[00:14:00] So, an article in The Cut says Murphy was somewhat open about her transformation, though she adamantly denied having an eating disorder.

[00:14:08] In 2000, she told Interview, a very important person in Hollywood said I was huggable but not fuckable.

[00:14:13] So, I got these extensions put in my hair and that's made a big difference.

[00:14:18] The article goes on to say, and she did book more parts, including her role alongside Ashton Kutcher, like we said, in Just Married.

[00:14:24] And they went on to date for a little bit after that.

[00:14:29] Yeah.

[00:14:29] I mean, who didn't Ashton date in that time period?

[00:14:34] That's fair.

[00:14:35] Before he settled down with Demi.

[00:14:38] It was so weird.

[00:14:40] You know, I was telling my – for some reason that came up the other day when I was talking to Justin, my older son, and he's like, what?

[00:14:47] Like, Demi Moore?

[00:14:49] And Ashton Kutcher?

[00:14:50] I'm like, yes.

[00:14:51] Yes, they were together for quite a while.

[00:14:54] Yeah.

[00:14:55] Most of her relationships were pretty short-lived, though, and ended like sort of once the movie was over.

[00:15:02] It was more of a movie marketing relationship, maybe.

[00:15:06] But at her 28th birthday party, she reconnected with Simon Monjack, a man seven years her senior who had already been married and divorced twice.

[00:15:15] The two were married within four months, and Simon moved into the house on Rising Glen Road with Brittany and her mom, Sharon.

[00:15:22] There's a lot of red flags.

[00:15:23] Yeah.

[00:15:24] Can we try out about the red flags?

[00:15:25] Sure.

[00:15:26] Um, I don't like that he's seven years older.

[00:15:29] Mm-hmm.

[00:15:29] That's not awful.

[00:15:31] No.

[00:15:32] But that would make him, what, 35?

[00:15:35] And he's been married and divorced twice.

[00:15:37] And it's been four months?

[00:15:39] It's been four months.

[00:15:40] Mm-hmm.

[00:15:41] Did John have any red flags when he met him?

[00:15:44] He was a baby.

[00:15:46] They were both babies.

[00:15:47] Actually, y'all are gonna, this is awful.

[00:15:49] Um, I remember saying to my girlfriend, well, he was in a fraternity, and I'd said I'd never date a fraternity boy.

[00:15:56] You know, my Southern belle.

[00:15:58] I was like, not those fraternity boys.

[00:15:59] Um, but I got into his car one day, and he had a Justin Timberlake CD.

[00:16:03] And I grew up in Kentucky, and I didn't know anything about any music other than country music.

[00:16:08] So I said to my girlfriend, I was like, is it weird that he likes Justin Timberlake?

[00:16:12] And she's like, no.

[00:16:14] Everybody likes Justin Timberlake.

[00:16:16] So that was weird.

[00:16:18] Oh, you think so, Paul girl?

[00:16:19] That he liked Justin Timberlake?

[00:16:20] You think so?

[00:16:21] All right, see?

[00:16:22] I appreciate that.

[00:16:24] But, well, I didn't, I didn't stop dating him.

[00:16:29] Spoiler alert.

[00:16:30] Right.

[00:16:31] Newsflash.

[00:16:31] Yeah.

[00:16:32] All right, any other red flags you want to cover before we move on?

[00:16:36] I think, well, I think you're going to talk about a few other ones.

[00:16:39] Yeah, I think there are a few things coming that we haven't yet.

[00:16:41] So an article in E! News Online quotes Simon as saying,

[00:16:45] No one knows this, but I took Brittany's first photograph for a magazine.

[00:16:48] It was Jane magazine.

[00:16:50] Brittany was this big, and I imagine him holding up his fingers, like, pretending she's really small.

[00:16:55] And then he goes on to say that Murphy was too young to touch when he first met her,

[00:17:00] but to make a long story short, I was very patient.

[00:17:04] So disgusting.

[00:17:05] That's the biggest red flag of all.

[00:17:07] Yes.

[00:17:08] If she had, I mean, but she knew that he had photographed her before.

[00:17:12] And I think he probably told her, you've always been beautiful.

[00:17:15] You've always been gorgeous.

[00:17:17] I think he fed her what she wanted to hear.

[00:17:20] Mm-hmm.

[00:17:20] But that's so gross.

[00:17:22] Yeah.

[00:17:23] Yeah, exactly.

[00:17:25] Our audience is giving us the thumbs down.

[00:17:29] So yes, we agree.

[00:17:30] No, I mean, it just seems icky.

[00:17:33] Like, and he was very much like Hollywood celebrity adjacent.

[00:17:40] Oh, yes.

[00:17:41] Yeah.

[00:17:41] I mean, he didn't really have a name for himself, which, I mean, it's fine.

[00:17:45] I mean, you know, there's lots of people who work in the entertainment industry behind the scenes,

[00:17:49] but he just seemed to be hovering on the edges.

[00:17:53] And, you know, hindsight's 20-20, but, you know, the fact that he's been married and divorced twice,

[00:17:59] and that he's going for this younger kind of rising star.

[00:18:03] And, oh, they get married in four months.

[00:18:05] Yeah.

[00:18:06] It feels like he's like, I'm going to put a ring on that real quickly because she's got residuals.

[00:18:11] Yeah.

[00:18:11] And also, I think this is an example of even if you think it, maybe you shouldn't say it.

[00:18:16] Mm-hmm.

[00:18:17] Sometimes you need to keep stuff to yourself.

[00:18:19] Yeah, totally.

[00:18:21] All right.

[00:18:22] Well, in the Max documentary that I talked about earlier entitled What Happened, Brittany Murphy,

[00:18:27] they use a clip of a reporter saying that this was, quote,

[00:18:30] a marriage between a fading starlet and an unknown screenwriter.

[00:18:35] You sound like a wayward guy.

[00:18:36] I read of multimillion dollar lawsuits filed against him, evictions, credit card fraud.

[00:18:40] He wasn't who you would think a Hollywood starlet would end up marrying.

[00:18:44] I know.

[00:18:45] Go looking at pictures.

[00:18:46] Yeah.

[00:18:46] I love it.

[00:18:47] He was not attractive.

[00:18:48] Mm-mm.

[00:18:49] I mean, we don't like to, like, body shame here, but he was not attractive.

[00:18:55] He must have had a sparkling personality.

[00:18:58] I don't think it's a body, I mean, just everything we know about him, too.

[00:19:01] Just, yeah, not gross.

[00:19:04] But he reportedly also became her sole representative, even charging, changing her phone number

[00:19:09] and restricting the access she had to her own email.

[00:19:11] If anyone wanted to contact Brittany, they would have to go through Simon.

[00:19:14] So he effectively became her agent, manager, everything for her.

[00:19:18] Yeah.

[00:19:19] Another red flag right there.

[00:19:20] Totally.

[00:19:20] Cutting her off from the people that are her support system.

[00:19:23] Mm-hmm.

[00:19:24] And according to multiple articles I read, Simon, like you said, sort of fired her entire

[00:19:28] team of handlers so he was able to slide into those roles, including, like, accountant,

[00:19:33] agent, manager, a quote from one of the articles I read said, as far as I'm concerned, he also

[00:19:39] became her abuser.

[00:19:41] There are other types of abuse other than just physical abuse.

[00:19:44] Forcing someone into solitude and keeping them away from everyone else in their life is

[00:19:47] a form of abuse.

[00:19:49] It's clear from the words of her friends and those that were originally hired to help Brittany

[00:19:53] that Simon intended to keep her isolated.

[00:19:55] There's a statement from her accountant where he went to Brittany's home to have a tax form

[00:19:59] signed.

[00:20:00] And even then, he was not allowed to see her.

[00:20:03] He had to pass the tax form into the door to Simon, who interacted with Brittany and brought

[00:20:07] the document back.

[00:20:09] Again, she had no cell phone.

[00:20:11] That's just crazy in today's world, even back then.

[00:20:14] Yeah.

[00:20:15] Late, I mean, like, late first decade of the 2000s.

[00:20:19] Yeah.

[00:20:20] I mean, I had my first cell phone in, like, 99 or so.

[00:20:24] Yeah.

[00:20:25] I mean, I think at this time period, it was weird.

[00:20:28] Many people call her husband, Simon, a Svengali character, referring to a character in an extremely

[00:20:32] old book.

[00:20:33] According to Wikipedia, after the book's publication in 1894, the word Svengali has become to refer

[00:20:38] to a person who, with evil intent, dominates, manipulates, and controls another.

[00:20:43] In court, Svengali defense is a legal tactic that portrays the defendant as a pawn in the

[00:20:48] scheme of a greater and more influential criminal mastermind.

[00:20:51] Thank you, Elena.

[00:20:54] No.

[00:20:55] No.

[00:20:55] Damn it, I tried.

[00:20:57] You did try.

[00:20:58] Alana?

[00:20:58] No.

[00:20:59] Alana.

[00:21:00] Alana.

[00:21:00] And the fact is, I speak more Spanish than she does.

[00:21:03] It's true.

[00:21:04] It's true.

[00:21:04] Do we want to continue arguing about this?

[00:21:06] Oh, sorry.

[00:21:06] Or should we go back to the podcast?

[00:21:08] Oh, what I was actually trying to say was, thank you so much for, like, educating us.

[00:21:15] Yeah.

[00:21:15] I had always heard that term but didn't quite know exactly what it meant, but I think it fits

[00:21:19] to a T.

[00:21:21] Totally.

[00:21:21] Absolutely.

[00:21:22] So, according to Newsweek and what happened Brittany Murphy, several people close to Brittany

[00:21:27] and Sharon, remember her mom, alleged that Monjack was in control of their entire lives.

[00:21:32] Brittany's former personal trainer, Harley Pasternak, recalled the moment he tried to arrange

[00:21:37] with Brittany's team a workout schedule in preparation for a role when he was told her entire team

[00:21:43] had been fired and Monjack was now her agent, manager, lawyer, and everything.

[00:21:47] He also recalled that he was concerned because nobody could contact her directly.

[00:21:52] And these concerns were echoed by childhood friend Lisa Raphael and King of the Hill co-star Kathy Najimy.

[00:22:00] Najimy?

[00:22:00] Najimy.

[00:22:01] I forgot she was in King of the Hill for a while, too.

[00:22:03] Yeah.

[00:22:05] And several others.

[00:22:06] Raphael went on to say that at one point Simon took her away and he made sure nobody could get to her.

[00:22:13] Sharon Murphy's and Monjack's former publicist, Roger Neal, shared that Monjack took care of the finances,

[00:22:18] making investments, buying jewelry, and even had a tiara made that was a replica of Audrey Hepburn's tiara from Breakfast at Tiffany's.

[00:22:25] He revealed that Simon spent $3 million of Brittany's money in three years.

[00:22:30] Sharon thinks she's got financial security.

[00:22:33] She's got nothing.

[00:22:34] All she has is the house and Brittany's pension and whatever was in the bank.

[00:22:37] Many people also blamed Simon for getting her fired from her last movie, The Caller,

[00:22:42] after showing up on set and being belligerent.

[00:22:44] It was only two weeks after she was fired from this movie that her mother found her unresponsive

[00:22:49] after collapsing in the bathroom she loved so much and called 911.

[00:22:53] While waiting on the paramedic, Sharon and Simon pulled Brittany into the shower to see if they could revive her.

[00:22:58] Paramedics arrived quickly and rushed her to Cedars-Sinai, but to no avail.

[00:23:02] The world was shocked that the seemingly healthy but very thin 32-year-old woman had died

[00:23:08] and rumors started that it had to be an overdose.

[00:23:10] Why else would someone at this age pass away?

[00:23:13] That's what I think of first, either an overdose or suicide.

[00:23:17] Yeah.

[00:23:18] I mean, it's...

[00:23:18] A younger person.

[00:23:19] Celebrity.

[00:23:19] I think statistically, that's what makes sense.

[00:23:22] Yeah.

[00:23:23] But what investigators found did not dampen those rumors.

[00:23:26] When they looked around the house, they found over 90 prescription bottles on Simon's nightstand.

[00:23:31] Some were prescribed to him and others to various aliases such as Trevor Williams and Lola Manilow.

[00:23:37] Authorities conducted a search on the pharmacies where the prescriptions were filled and rumors

[00:23:40] started that perhaps Simon was controlling both Brittany and her mother, Sharon, with pills.

[00:23:45] Because in the days following Brittany's death, Sharon's behavior was odd.

[00:23:49] And so was Simon's.

[00:23:50] And we should recall that Sharon and her mom lived with them.

[00:23:56] So it was a weird kind of scenario.

[00:23:57] Like it was this newlyweds and her mom.

[00:24:01] So...

[00:24:01] Yeah.

[00:24:04] Yeah.

[00:24:04] I mean, I feel like the house was probably big enough for all three of them.

[00:24:07] But it...

[00:24:07] As newlyweds, that would be weird.

[00:24:09] I agree.

[00:24:10] But 90 prescriptions.

[00:24:11] And so the video shows or the documentary shows, you know, like, I guess probably the

[00:24:16] crime scene or the detectives coming in, their video walking through.

[00:24:20] And it's just like pill bottle upon pill.

[00:24:22] I mean, imagine 90 pill bottles next to your bed.

[00:24:25] And the whole house was very, um, overrun with things.

[00:24:31] Like when they show the bathroom, it's like every hair product you've ever seen stacked.

[00:24:36] And like there was no empty space anywhere.

[00:24:40] Not to the hoarding level, but almost.

[00:24:44] Which is also like indicative in my mind of some unhealthy behaviors from one or both parties.

[00:24:51] What is?

[00:24:53] Is that it was not put up or that there was so much of it?

[00:24:56] What's the red flag being?

[00:24:57] I think it's the so much of it.

[00:24:59] Because they're very wealthy.

[00:25:01] They can...

[00:25:02] Presumably they can hire a housekeeper, you know.

[00:25:05] Okay.

[00:25:06] So let's go back to some of the flags that we saw with Simon in particular after Brittany died.

[00:25:12] Not the flags like when they were in a relationship.

[00:25:15] These are the red flags and the weird things that happened after she passed away.

[00:25:18] Okay.

[00:25:19] So to start, Simon did not want an autopsy.

[00:25:22] In what would become an infamous and cringeworthy interview with Larry King, Simon explained why he requested that Brittany not be autopsied.

[00:25:30] Now the two are sitting, y'all.

[00:25:32] It's Larry King, right?

[00:25:33] You can visualize this set.

[00:25:35] And he's got Sharon, her mom, and Simon, her husband, sitting across the table from him.

[00:25:40] And Simon says, there was this woman who just lost her daughter.

[00:25:44] This pristine body that was curvy in all the right places and skin like silk.

[00:25:49] How can I say to her mother, cut her up?

[00:25:51] That's super gross.

[00:25:52] I remember hearing about that and was totally grossed out.

[00:25:54] Who says things like that?

[00:25:56] I don't know.

[00:25:56] You know, I think we've talked on the podcast a lot.

[00:25:58] My mom stays with us like a week a month.

[00:26:00] Mm-hmm.

[00:26:02] And she's the best.

[00:26:03] She is the best.

[00:26:05] But like, John would never say something that inappropriate about me next to her.

[00:26:10] That's so weird.

[00:26:11] Mm-mm.

[00:26:12] All right.

[00:26:12] Well, the Larry King interview just got weirder.

[00:26:15] Many said that Sharon was submissive to Simon in the interview, further fueling speculation that Simon was controlling both Brittany and Sharon prior to Brittany's death.

[00:26:26] Larry King landed all the big interviews of that day.

[00:26:29] He really did.

[00:26:30] Didn't he also do John and Patsy?

[00:26:32] Oh, he did.

[00:26:33] That's right.

[00:26:34] I think I looked this up and it was March of 2000.

[00:26:38] So this would have been 10 years later that he was, you know, still at it.

[00:26:42] How long did he do that show?

[00:26:44] Well, interesting, you should ask, Elena.

[00:26:46] He stopped doing that show in 2010.

[00:26:48] You know, that's funny because, you know, we're watching 30 Rock with my kids, like kind of going back and watching it.

[00:26:55] And there was an episode last night where Tracy Jordan was being interviewed by Larry King.

[00:27:01] Oh, Tracy Jordan.

[00:27:02] And it was, and he was kind of thinking like about the Menendez brothers.

[00:27:07] So, you know, it all goes back.

[00:27:09] It all comes together.

[00:27:10] So, off mic, we were talking before we started the podcast today about who is the Larry King of our day.

[00:27:18] And our guests say it's Joe Rogan.

[00:27:21] It makes sense.

[00:27:22] Yeah.

[00:27:23] I think that's probably right.

[00:27:24] He probably gets like the hard, quote, unquote, hard-hitting important interviews of our time.

[00:27:31] Yeah.

[00:27:31] I've never listened to Joe Rogan's podcast.

[00:27:33] I haven't either, but I read about him a lot.

[00:27:34] Here are a few of the other weird things that Simon did after Brittany's death that caused a lot of suspicion to fall on him.

[00:27:42] According to Newsweek, he called reporter Amber Ryland with Radar Online and gave her a tour of their home, including the bathroom where Brittany was found unconscious, only 53 days after her death.

[00:27:53] That's the interview I saw where I was talking about all like the beauty products stacked up and stuff all over the floors.

[00:28:00] Y'all need to go to our website or in socials and take a look at the bathroom in particular.

[00:28:04] And I want you to like, I've put a side-by-side of the bathroom from the MTV Cribs episode and then the side-by-side when they did the Radar Online interview.

[00:28:14] So, you can see the juxtaposition of like what it looked like when they bought it and what it looked like when she died.

[00:28:19] Got it.

[00:28:19] It's a chaotic mess.

[00:28:21] And it was during this tour that Ryland said that the bed in the primary bedroom of the home was, quote, ruffled on both sides and she believed it was clearly evident that two people had recently been in the bed together.

[00:28:35] When Ryland pressed Monjack on whether he and Brittany's mother had been sharing the bed, he responded, Sharon crawls in with me and we just cried.

[00:28:44] So disgusting on so many levels.

[00:28:46] Now, I'm confused why Ryland would even have, like where his mind would even gone to that.

[00:28:51] That was not, I would not think that the mother-in-law, I don't know, I would not even accuse somebody of that.

[00:28:59] Well, it ended up being true.

[00:29:00] True.

[00:29:01] Well, it did.

[00:29:02] But like, let's assume you're being interviewed by somebody and they're like, oh, number one, why isn't your bed made?

[00:29:08] If you have a reporter coming to walk through your home, that's weird.

[00:29:13] But two, the bed's ruffled.

[00:29:15] You're like, oh, that's very private.

[00:29:16] Or I had company less.

[00:29:19] I don't know like what you say, but you don't see your mother-in-law's crawling in bed with you.

[00:29:23] I'm a messy sleeper.

[00:29:24] Like, you know.

[00:29:25] That's great.

[00:29:26] Yeah.

[00:29:26] I mean, I am a messy sleeper.

[00:29:29] I joke, I'm like, it looks like my, you know, everything's been wrapped around because I flip-flop all night long.

[00:29:35] That does not mean that when my husband's out of town, there's been somebody else in the bed with me.

[00:29:40] I'm a messy sleeper would have been the perfect answer.

[00:29:43] He didn't have a lot of great sense about these kinds of things.

[00:29:47] So, Sharon later told the coroner that they shared a bed to comfort each other.

[00:29:55] And I just, I can't.

[00:29:58] I can't.

[00:29:59] I can't think about my mom and my husband crawling into bed together to comfort each other.

[00:30:03] That's so weird.

[00:30:04] So gross.

[00:30:05] So weird.

[00:30:06] Well, we will make sure if you unexpectedly ever pass away that your mom and him do not share a bed.

[00:30:15] I'm not, I'm just not worried about it.

[00:30:17] Well, I'm just letting you know.

[00:30:19] We got your back.

[00:30:20] Don't put me in this.

[00:30:21] Not me.

[00:30:21] No, I don't want any part of this.

[00:30:23] Okay.

[00:30:23] She doesn't.

[00:30:24] I will make sure.

[00:30:27] Okay.

[00:30:27] So, y'all, Simon not surprisingly protested that anything, like, he's like, there's nothing odd going on.

[00:30:34] Not with my relationship with Brittany.

[00:30:36] Not with my relationship with Sharon.

[00:30:38] And so he told a reporter, quote,

[00:30:40] Our marriage was dogged by these ridiculous rumors.

[00:30:43] Brittany's life was dogged by ridiculous rumors.

[00:30:46] And the truth always wins out.

[00:30:47] I hope people have the sense to really understand that everything was so beautiful and wonderful in our relationship and so pure.

[00:30:56] Everything that comes out of his mouth sounds so creepy.

[00:30:58] It really does.

[00:30:59] And I think I've got a quote later in the podcast from his mom, but everything that comes out of his mom's mouth is creepy, too.

[00:31:06] Like, I'm wondering if it's just a family trait.

[00:31:08] I don't know.

[00:31:10] Anyway, in the final straw of creepiness, Simon had the audacity to turn Brittany's memorial into a fundraiser for himself.

[00:31:20] He created the Brittany Murphy Foundation, which he said on Larry King would help young people, education, and people in Haiti.

[00:31:26] I'm like, pick a lame man.

[00:31:27] What are we doing here?

[00:31:28] Are we helping young people?

[00:31:30] Are we helping education?

[00:31:31] Are we going to Haiti?

[00:31:32] Like, those are very broad strokes.

[00:31:36] And a friend went on to make a memorial video to give to the family.

[00:31:39] But then the family requested a donation to the foundation in order to go to the memorial.

[00:31:45] Charging friends and family to go to her memorial came across as tacky and money-grubbing.

[00:31:49] And in the end, it never transpired.

[00:31:53] Brittany was buried in an intimate ceremony on Christmas Eve in 2009.

[00:31:58] So he took money and then what?

[00:32:01] Didn't do it.

[00:32:01] Well, I think maybe a lot of people just didn't give money.

[00:32:05] Everybody was like, yeah, okay, that's weird.

[00:32:09] I mean, doesn't it just feel like everything he did afterwards was sort of capitalizing on her death?

[00:32:14] I think everything he did from the beginning was capitalizing on her life and her money.

[00:32:20] And then he just kept...

[00:32:21] Larry King, he's inviting people to come see the house.

[00:32:24] He's trying to do a memorial that's not, you know, family and friends.

[00:32:30] Yeah, it just seems odd.

[00:32:34] I 100% agree.

[00:32:36] And let's...

[00:32:38] Okay, so let's skip.

[00:32:40] Brittany has passed away.

[00:32:41] They marry her.

[00:32:42] But it's not until February of 2010, so like another two months later, that the autopsy results come out, right?

[00:32:51] And so the Los Angeles County coroner found that Brittany Murphy's primary cause of death was pneumonia with secondary factors of iron deficiency, anemia, and multiple drug intoxication.

[00:33:03] Now, after all of the controversy and speculation, it was really hard for everybody to believe that she died of pneumonia, not like an overdose like everybody expected.

[00:33:12] And, you know, it's like pneumonia at 32.

[00:33:15] This is something that can easily be treated.

[00:33:18] A young, healthy person should not be dying of pneumonia in, you know, first world countries, right?

[00:33:25] I mean, she also was anemic, which partly you wonder how much, you know, with all the severe weight loss, you know, maybe that was somehow involved.

[00:33:36] I don't know.

[00:33:37] I mean...

[00:33:38] But anemia is not an uncommon thing.

[00:33:40] Yeah, and we're obviously not doctors, so I don't know how all that plays in.

[00:33:44] But all I can say is, like, if you're sick at 32 and you're healthy, you go to the doctor.

[00:33:49] Right.

[00:33:49] Or you go to the hospital.

[00:33:51] And there are treatments for these things.

[00:33:55] Okay.

[00:33:56] So the autopsy results only led to more questions.

[00:34:00] Again, like I said, why hadn't she been treated by a physician?

[00:34:04] Then there was some talk about, like, is it possible that there was black mold growing in the house that had caused further complications with the pneumonia?

[00:34:13] And before all of these questions died down, Simon Monjack also passes away.

[00:34:20] Of the exact same thing, only five months later.

[00:34:25] Dun, dun, dun, dun.

[00:34:27] That was good.

[00:34:28] I like it.

[00:34:29] Now, Brittany's agent said that she was sort of caught in a vacuum between childhood and adulthood.

[00:34:35] And, you know, she didn't go to school like regular kids did.

[00:34:38] She wasn't able to figure out things the way some of us typically learn things, right?

[00:34:44] With experiences in classrooms and in situational settings with our peers.

[00:34:49] She was forced right into this world of young Hollywood actors.

[00:34:55] And his thought process was that essentially she did not have the ability to discern between, like, good people and bad people.

[00:35:03] And he insinuated that she married Simon because she just couldn't tell that he was a bad guy.

[00:35:08] Yeah, I think it's a really great way to describe how long do celebrities go from being a child actor to an adult actor or celebrity that they don't know how to communicate with their peers or be a normal member.

[00:35:21] Well, I think all of us can feel in our audience, too, like, your kids grow so much between 10 and 18.

[00:35:28] And so much of that is social growth.

[00:35:31] Right.

[00:35:31] And learning how to navigate the world and do things on their own.

[00:35:36] And so, yeah, I can see where if you're in this weird little space at that age, that does make it hard.

[00:35:42] Yeah.

[00:35:43] And not, I'm sorry, and being an actress, like, not being able to explore her own personality, like, she's being paid to be other people.

[00:35:52] Like, I feel like that's a whole other mind thing that's going on.

[00:35:56] Oh, that's interesting.

[00:35:56] It just came to me.

[00:35:58] I love it.

[00:35:58] I know.

[00:35:58] It's very, uh, right?

[00:36:00] Yeah.

[00:36:01] Well, I mean, I just want to interject that, you know, we have been very dogging on Simon.

[00:36:07] I mean, like, you know, there's a lot of red flags that are going on, but he also died young.

[00:36:14] I mean, he was of pneumonia and anemia, which is an odd combination for even someone at the ripe old age of 40 to get.

[00:36:23] And it was like five months after, you know, his wife.

[00:36:27] I mean, that is odd and a shocking coincidence.

[00:36:32] I mean.

[00:36:33] Okay.

[00:36:33] No, you're right.

[00:36:34] And so, I mean, as much as we're dogging on him, it is sad for his loved ones.

[00:36:41] I would, I would say that probably neither of them were in the best health of their life.

[00:36:47] Brittany from rapid weight loss, where she probably was not getting, you know, all the things her body needed.

[00:36:53] And Simon, maybe on the, the other extreme, you know, he was, he was like almost a 300 pound man.

[00:36:59] Like, he was a big man who was obviously abusing drugs because he had 90 prescription bottles on the side of his bedside.

[00:37:08] And maybe that's why they didn't go to the hospital.

[00:37:10] Have you ever like, ooh, that just came to me.

[00:37:12] Like, maybe they didn't go into the hospital to have her treated because they'd be like, well, what has she been taking?

[00:37:18] Oh.

[00:37:20] Yeah.

[00:37:21] Yeah.

[00:37:22] I mean, because this should have been highly treatable for both of them, independent.

[00:37:27] And God forbid, you would have thought that after his wife just passed away of pneumonia a few months later, he would have also, like, gone to the doctor the moment he got sick.

[00:37:36] Mm-hmm.

[00:37:37] So, it had to have been other complications.

[00:37:40] Yeah.

[00:37:42] Yeah.

[00:37:42] All right.

[00:37:42] Well, we mentioned before that Brittany Murphy bought the house from Brittany Spears, but I'm not sure if it's a case of hindsight.

[00:37:49] But there are now reports that she apparently claimed to have had otherworldly encounters that led her to leave the property and never come back.

[00:37:58] The Toxic Singers former makeup artist Julianne Kaye recounted the situation on an episode of We Need to Talk About Brittany podcast in February 2021.

[00:38:07] Have you all listened to that?

[00:38:08] No, I haven't.

[00:38:09] No, but I sort of want to go listen to it now.

[00:38:11] Okay.

[00:38:11] So, she said Spears had that place up on Sunset Plaza, and I'm just going to say, this is really weird.

[00:38:17] She calls me.

[00:38:18] I had a friend do Reiki?

[00:38:20] Reiki?

[00:38:21] Reiki.

[00:38:22] Thank you very much.

[00:38:23] Healing on her, Kaye explained on the podcast.

[00:38:25] He had come up.

[00:38:26] I guess she had had a crazy partying weekend and needed to relax.

[00:38:29] He left, and she swears to God that he opened some spirit portal or something, and these bad spirits had come in, and they were trying to, like, push her down the stairs or something crazy.

[00:38:42] End quote.

[00:38:42] I 100% believe that.

[00:38:44] Of course you do.

[00:38:45] Yes.

[00:38:48] You don't.

[00:38:49] That is so you.

[00:38:50] Y'all don't.

[00:38:51] No.

[00:38:52] Do?

[00:38:52] Yes.

[00:38:53] Oh.

[00:38:53] Okay.

[00:38:54] Hands in the audience.

[00:38:55] Yes?

[00:38:56] No.

[00:38:56] Over 50-50.

[00:38:58] Oh, are we 75-25?

[00:39:00] Maybe?

[00:39:01] Okay.

[00:39:01] So, according to another article on Yahoo.com, wait, wait, no, hold on.

[00:39:06] We have to finish talking about Britney Spears.

[00:39:09] Okay.

[00:39:09] And her craziness before I go on to this other article.

[00:39:12] I don't think she's crazy.

[00:39:13] I think she's misunderstood.

[00:39:14] What?

[00:39:16] Okay.

[00:39:17] I thought that for a while until I started following her on her Instagram, and I don't want to say she's crazy because that is not a nice thing.

[00:39:27] Nice thing to say.

[00:39:28] She is mentally unstable, and I hope she gets the support and love that she deserves, and that's all the nice things I'm going to say about her.

[00:39:39] From a real estate perspective, I want to know if you have to disclose if a portal has been opened in your home.

[00:39:45] In Texas, you don't have to.

[00:39:46] To the spirits.

[00:39:47] There was a state that we covered, though, that—

[00:39:49] It was like New Jersey or something where it's like if you thought your house was haunted, you had to disclose it.

[00:39:54] I don't know if a spirit portal counts or not.

[00:39:57] It's a very nuanced portion of the lawn.

[00:39:59] I am thinking that Brittany Murphy paid too much for this house.

[00:40:03] I mean, I guess she did, you know, she got some—what did you call it, Laura Ashley?

[00:40:10] Designed aesthetic?

[00:40:11] Yeah.

[00:40:12] All right.

[00:40:13] So let's continue on with the story.

[00:40:15] According to an article on Yahoo.com, Brittany's estate was worth approximately $10 million when she died.

[00:40:22] The beneficiary of her estate was not her husband, Simon.

[00:40:26] Instead, it was Brittany's mother, Sharon.

[00:40:29] Now, of course, as we mentioned, Sharon was living with Brittany at the time that Brittany passed away.

[00:40:33] And it appears that Simon was pushing Sharon into the same corner that he pushed Brittany into.

[00:40:39] No one could talk to Sharon unless they went through him.

[00:40:41] And it was clear in subsequent interviews after Brittany's death that Sharon was afraid of Simon and that she was afraid she would be thrown out of the home that Brittany intended to leave to her.

[00:40:51] The report is that Simon acted as everything belonged to him.

[00:40:55] But he knew that it didn't.

[00:40:57] Well, yeah.

[00:40:58] But I mean, he—yeah.

[00:41:00] Thanks.

[00:41:00] Yeah.

[00:41:01] Now, here's the rub, guys.

[00:41:02] Brittany did do a last will and testament.

[00:41:05] And in her will, she left her entire estate to her mother, including her Hollywood mansion.

[00:41:08] She even made a statement in the will that said,

[00:41:11] I am married to Simon Monjack, who I have intentionally left out of the will.

[00:41:16] Oh, they had a portrait session.

[00:41:17] That's gross.

[00:41:18] Mm-hmm.

[00:41:19] We didn't talk about that, did we?

[00:41:21] No, that's—that's the malls.

[00:41:22] They're holding hands.

[00:41:23] Yeah.

[00:41:23] And our audience just reminded us that in also one of the creepiest red flag things that Simon did after Brittany died that we have left out,

[00:41:33] which is really neglectful on our parts, so my apologies.

[00:41:39] Simon and Sharon did this photo session where they're holding hands.

[00:41:43] And then there's another picture where they're, like, snuggled up together and they have a picture of Brittany next to them.

[00:41:49] Um, essentially all the PR people said, you tried to go out and salvage this situation and you royally messed it up.

[00:41:58] It's sort of like the John and Patsy Ramsey interviews where they went out and they—you're like, you should have just not talked to anybody.

[00:42:04] Because you've only made things worse.

[00:42:06] It seems so obvious.

[00:42:07] Like, don't do that.

[00:42:08] Like, that's—oh, sorry.

[00:42:10] That's, um—

[00:42:11] Gross.

[00:42:12] Yeah.

[00:42:12] That's the only way to say it.

[00:42:13] It's gross.

[00:42:14] It does sound obvious.

[00:42:15] But that goes back to the point of, like, was he controlling Sharon through drugs in some way?

[00:42:21] Because you would think if I passed away, my mom would not do a portrait session with John where she's holding his hand.

[00:42:30] That's so weird!

[00:42:32] I mean, and remember, he passed away five months after Brittany died.

[00:42:36] So this all had to have happened very quickly.

[00:42:39] Very quickly.

[00:42:42] All right, so before I tell you what happened to the house, do you want to tell me what you think happened to Brittany Murphy?

[00:42:49] Oh, man.

[00:42:50] I mean, you think somebody from the portal came and got him.

[00:42:52] I didn't say that.

[00:42:53] I just said there was probably a portal there.

[00:42:56] I don't want to sound crazy, but that's the only thing that makes sense, right?

[00:43:02] I mean, for both of them, and then Brittany Spears left?

[00:43:07] That's very obvious.

[00:43:10] Okay.

[00:43:13] What about you, Mel?

[00:43:15] I obviously, I don't think it's a portal, but I think there's something in the house.

[00:43:20] I think that there was toxic elements in the house, like mold or something like that in the house.

[00:43:29] Well, and that was a really big thing in, like, the early 2000s in real estate, like—

[00:43:36] Black mold.

[00:43:37] Black mold.

[00:43:38] Black mold everywhere.

[00:43:39] I don't know how it works in other states, but in Texas, when we get an inspection on a house, they're not allowed to write the words mold.

[00:43:46] They will write things like organic substance, black organic substance, because they're not qualified to test for mold.

[00:43:56] And so they have to be really careful about that.

[00:44:01] I've had a couple of clients test for mold over the years.

[00:44:05] What about you, Alana?

[00:44:06] No.

[00:44:07] Usually, you know, it's in a situation where it's like—launder rooms are a big example where a washer has leaked, and there's a lot of humidity from the dryer.

[00:44:18] And so nobody ever, like, cut the drywall out and fixed it after a washer leak.

[00:44:22] That's a—I would say nine times out of ten, that's where I find the problem.

[00:44:28] And that's an easy-to-fix solution because, you know, mold guidelines are sort of crazy, but you get so many, like, square feet per portion of the house that if it's on just a small section, you can just cut it out and fix it.

[00:44:40] It's when it gets to be like—I had one client who had a water heater that had a leak under the house, and so you've got hot water under the house in a moist environment, and it, like, spread mold all under the crawl space.

[00:44:56] That's a lot harder problem to fix.

[00:45:00] Yeah.

[00:45:00] But also, these people have means and resources, so if they think there's a problem—

[00:45:07] And I read that he had an inspection done when that rumor came out.

[00:45:11] Yeah.

[00:45:11] And there was nothing in there, and there was nothing in her talks report that would show that she—I don't know, read any of that stuff.

[00:45:19] I don't know.

[00:45:19] There wasn't enough in her system, at least.

[00:45:22] I mean, and I agree.

[00:45:23] I did read, you know, jump in the head of the story.

[00:45:25] I did realize that that's what had come out, but it just seems where there's smoke, there's fire.

[00:45:33] Two relatively healthy, youngish people, you know, it's either an overdose or it's something, you know, in the elements.

[00:45:43] Ooh.

[00:45:44] Ooh.

[00:45:44] Fall girl.

[00:45:45] Yes.

[00:45:49] A fall girl wants to know who's the only person still alive to gain from all of this.

[00:45:52] Okay, so this is a great question.

[00:45:54] And actually, Brittany's dad thinks that Sharon is behind this.

[00:46:00] And he went so far—okay, so refresher.

[00:46:04] Brittany's dad was not really in her life.

[00:46:06] He was in prison because he worked for the mob.

[00:46:08] But then he's out of prison now, and he thinks Sharon's to gain, right?

[00:46:14] And she must have been behind this.

[00:46:16] And so he hired a detective, and he, like, went back to the local authorities.

[00:46:21] And he paid to have her hair tested for additional toxins because he's like, maybe somebody was poisoning her.

[00:46:30] And it came out that she did test very heavily positive for a lot of, like, metal-based toxins.

[00:46:40] And so to my understanding from my short reading—so if you're, like, in the world of toxins, don't hold me to this—but arsenic can have a lot of the same properties as anemia.

[00:46:55] I'm looking across the room.

[00:46:57] Yes, yes, I'm getting a nod that maybe that's correct.

[00:47:01] And so there was a thought that maybe Sharon had been poisoning her with arsenic.

[00:47:08] But I'm going to say, unless Sharon's real stupid, she doesn't poison two people the same way within five months.

[00:47:13] She got away with it the first time.

[00:47:15] I mean, that's true.

[00:47:16] That's how criminals are.

[00:47:17] They're like—

[00:47:21] Holy shit.

[00:47:22] Okay, from the audience, we have a really good suggestion.

[00:47:24] Maybe she had been poisoning them equally, but because he was so much bigger than her, it took longer.

[00:47:31] Oh, my gosh, you're a genius.

[00:47:32] I mean, that—

[00:47:33] I mean, that—

[00:47:34] I don't like that idea.

[00:47:35] I mean—

[00:47:36] We've solved the case.

[00:47:37] Yeah.

[00:47:37] I mean, we've all seen those movies where the mom who takes advantage, especially the show—what's the term?

[00:47:47] Like, the show child?

[00:47:48] Like, where the mother—

[00:47:50] Pageant mom.

[00:47:51] Yes, exactly.

[00:47:52] Has put all their emphasis on their child.

[00:47:55] And we are in no way accusing Sharon of anything wrong.

[00:48:01] I'm just saying that if I was writing a story about people that weren't real people, it would seem odd that maybe—

[00:48:10] But see, this doesn't make sense to me.

[00:48:11] It does make sense to me from what we've just laid out.

[00:48:14] Obviously, that's the answer.

[00:48:16] But Britney was her ticket for, like, the rest of her life.

[00:48:20] Britney was going to pay the bills for her.

[00:48:23] Really, Simon was the problem.

[00:48:25] She needed Simon out of the way.

[00:48:27] Now, if Simon had died first, I could see more, like, I don't know.

[00:48:32] But she was—like, they were literally, when I mentioned earlier, like, Britney sleeping in bathtubs, they were staying with friends because they could not afford their own place.

[00:48:43] And, like, Britney would sleep in the bathtub of a friend's apartment.

[00:48:48] So, Sharon did not have any funds of her own, for sure.

[00:48:53] But she was already left the money.

[00:48:56] I mean, the estate.

[00:48:57] Oh, so once she was left—but why would she want the estate?

[00:49:00] What I'm saying is, like, wouldn't she want Britney to continue making money?

[00:49:03] To make money.

[00:49:07] Oh, okay.

[00:49:08] Our audience thinks maybe Britney will write her out.

[00:49:11] And there was some discussion that Britney and Simon were going to move to New York and start a family.

[00:49:17] So, you know, perhaps she was worried that her time as the only person in Britney's life was coming to an end.

[00:49:24] All right.

[00:49:25] Or this is all just complete coincidence as the authorities have ruled it.

[00:49:31] Or the portal.

[00:49:31] Or the spirit portal.

[00:49:33] Yeah.

[00:49:33] Obviously.

[00:49:34] That's the answer.

[00:49:35] Okay.

[00:49:35] I actually think that's the easiest one.

[00:49:37] All right.

[00:49:37] Well, do you all want to know what happened to the house now after I teased you about it earlier?

[00:49:41] Okay.

[00:49:42] So, according to property records, you know, Sharon gets the estate.

[00:49:46] They have a really hard time selling this house, as you might imagine.

[00:49:49] There's not just been one death here.

[00:49:51] There's been two.

[00:49:52] Then there's the talk of toxic mold.

[00:49:54] I mean, this is a pariah property.

[00:49:56] So, she sold it for $2.7 million, which is much less than they paid for it in 2011 after really struggling to find a buyer.

[00:50:05] And let's be honest.

[00:50:06] I mean, this was a sprawling.

[00:50:08] I saw varying degrees of like it was either 5,000 or 8,000.

[00:50:14] Let's just say it was a huge sprawling three-tiered because it was in the Hollywood Hills.

[00:50:19] So, parts of the house were on different parts of the hill.

[00:50:22] It had Spanish terracotta-style roof.

[00:50:26] It was, I mean, you know.

[00:50:28] It was gorgeous.

[00:50:28] I mean, it was gorgeous.

[00:50:31] And the fact that it was sold for, you know, under $3 million in the 2010s.

[00:50:37] I mean.

[00:50:38] What did we say?

[00:50:38] She paid $4 million for it?

[00:50:39] Yes.

[00:50:40] Yeah.

[00:50:40] I mean, I don't have that type of money.

[00:50:42] But let me tell you, it actually seems like a decent deal for what you were getting of that kind of ilk.

[00:50:49] And I wanted to ask our audience, do you know who owned it before Britney Spears?

[00:50:56] Oh.

[00:50:57] Ooh.

[00:50:58] Another fabulous blonde.

[00:51:00] A fabulous blonde who was also like a virgin.

[00:51:05] Madonna!

[00:51:07] Yes!

[00:51:08] And we have brought this full circle.

[00:51:10] Thank you very much.

[00:51:10] I just wanted to.

[00:51:11] Yes.

[00:51:12] I read varying descriptions of whether or not she built the house or she just lived it, but she definitely owned it in the 90s.

[00:51:20] Isn't that amazing?

[00:51:21] Okay.

[00:51:22] So this buyer buys the house.

[00:51:24] I'm sorry.

[00:51:24] What?

[00:51:27] You know, we should just call up Madonna and ask her if she thinks it had a spirit world.

[00:51:32] That would be hilarious.

[00:51:33] That would make sense.

[00:51:34] I'm sure she would take her call.

[00:51:37] Okay.

[00:51:38] So somebody buys it in 2011 for $2.7 million, which we have said is a hell of a deal.

[00:51:43] Apparently it's lot value because in 2013 they tore it down and totally just rebuilt like a whole new contemporary sprawling house on the lot.

[00:51:53] But when it was sold again in 2017, it sold for $14.53 million and it will be no surprise that it looked totally different from the original structure.

[00:52:06] And like many of our crime estate houses, did you notice that they also changed the address?

[00:52:12] I did not notice they changed the address.

[00:52:14] Street name or number?

[00:52:16] No.

[00:52:16] Same street name, two digits off.

[00:52:18] Oh, so that's interesting because when I was researching the story, a lot of it came up with like a hyphenated like 1234-1235, you know, like, yeah.

[00:52:29] That makes sense.

[00:52:30] Okay.

[00:52:32] But all the video that I have shows the address we used.

[00:52:37] Okay.

[00:52:37] I love that.

[00:52:38] All right.

[00:52:38] So question of every episode and we'll put it hands up to our audience.

[00:52:44] Would you live there?

[00:52:46] Yes or no?

[00:52:46] I'm getting one yes and one no.

[00:52:49] Okay.

[00:52:51] New question.