All language subtitles for What.Happened.Brittany.Murphy.S01E02.WEBRip.x265-ION265

[indistinct chatter]

- Oh, they're gonna have a
weekend rendezvous, look out.

[laughter]

- One day, a friend of mine,
an Englishman,

who lives in Los Angeles,
who was in the world of film,

he called me and told me that
he had two friends in town,

a filmmaker who was making

an important indie film
in London,

and his girlfriend.

I learned that
this is Simon Monjack.

He said his grandfather
founded British Steel,

something like that,
and he's worth $1 billion.

Since I'd never met
a billionaire before,

and I'm a very curious person,
I decided to host a dinner.

[glasses clink]

So Simon kind of held forth

and he kind of
controlled the table.

And he told us a lot of things
about himself that night.

He said that he was the
largest collector of Vermeer,

the great Dutch painter.

He had more Vermeers
than anyone else in the world.

He had dated Elle Macpherson
and Madonna.

He said that he had been dying
from terminal brain cancer

and that he had bought
an experimental treatment

derived from
the fins of sharks

and that it
had saved his life.

He said that he had
a collection of Ferraris,

17 in all.

You know, we laughed
and we had a good time,

and, you know, I wondered
if he'd ever finance

one of the movies
I wanted to make,

and that was it.

The only hint
that anything was askew

was that Simon
had told me his movie

was getting the best reviews

in the history of independent
film in England.

My friend, in London,
went to see the movie,

and he came back and he said,

"This is--
it's pretty terrible."

- In this generation of lust,

I never [...] found you, Lucy.

No, I can't hear you, Lucy.

[tires screeching]

[screaming]

- So that was kind of shocking.

Time goes by, I get an email
from his girlfriend.

And I find out that
every single word

out of his mouth
was a lie.

One of the ways that Simon
legitimized those lies

was by bringing a lovely girl
into the equation.

That was the cloak.

And it was perfect because
she believed the lies too.

So he lived off this girl
that had worked her heart out

for every penny she had.

And when her money ran out,
he was gone.

And very quickly, he became
engaged to one of her friends.

I can't stress enough
how convincing this man was.

["Die Young"
by Sylvan Esso playing]

♪ ♪

- ♪ I had it all planned out
before you met me ♪

♪ Was gonna leave early
and so swiftly ♪

♪ Maybe in a fire
or crash off a ravine ♪

♪ People would weep,
how tragic, so early ♪

♪ I was gonna die young ♪

♪ Now I gotta wait
for you honey ♪

♪ I was gonna die young ♪

[thunder rumbles]

- I want to talk now
about Brittany Murphy,

her controversial husband.

The unemployed British
screenwriter Simon Monjack

is being portrayed
as the villain,

the drunken bully living off
a woman that he married

because his visa had expired.

- I don't think
Simon has recovered

from the bad publicity.
He was like a Svengali.

- People don't die at home
with the husband present

of pneumonia, of anemia.

- "Every story
needs a villain,"

Monjack said after his wife's
tragic death, concluding,

"And everyone decided
it is me."

And on that point,
ladies and gentlemen,

I agree with him.

- I'm Linda Monjack,
and I am

Simon Monjack's mother.

- And I'm James Monjack,
Simon's brother.

- As he was growing up,

Simon was
the most incredible guy.

He had an IQ off the scale.

He was able to charm anyone,
old ladies, mothers.

He would turn
his charm on anyone.

- From early childhood,
Simon had that ability

to manipulate the environment

to get what he wanted
out of it.

- Simon was 16
when his father died.

It was a terrible,
terrible shock.

He never was the same again.

He was still witty
and full of life and funny,

but something died in him.

And I think he became
more and more...

unreal.

He lived in the now.
The now is important.

The now meant
everything to him.

In a minute,
that's not the now.

The next moment happened,

and there's a new moment
to experience.

But he did fall in
and out of love very easily.

He was in a very good place
when he met Brittany.

They were very much in love.

When you saw them together,

they literally fell
into each other's eyes.

I mean, literally drowned
in each other.

The one conversation
that I remember with her

was just before she died,
and I said,

"Oh, Brittany, Simon tells me
you're not feeling well.

What's the matter?"

She said,
"I'm having trouble breathing.

If I go up the stairs,"
she was like,

"By the time I get
to the top of the stairs,

I can't breathe."

She said,
"Do you think I'm dying?"

So I said, "No, of course
you're not dying, you're fine.

But you need to go
to the doctor."

[siren wails]

I didn't speak to them again
until Simon phoned me

on that terrible day.

He was totally devastated,

and he cried for about
two hours on the phone.

He just could not get
his head around it.

He kept saying, "She's dead.
How can--she can't be.

How? How?"

[somber music]

♪ ♪

He was in shock for months.

Nobody could get
through to him.

He's too frightened
of the paparazzi,

and he was getting
increasingly ill.

And you could see it in
his face, his hair was wild.

I phoned him, and I couldn't
get him for a couple of hours.

And I finally got hold of him,
and he said, "I'm alive.

I'm alive.
I went sleep and I'm alive."

Which I couldn't get
my head around.

I didn't know why
he would say such a thing.

He was confused.

So I think he felt
let down by everyone.

[birds cawing]

[clock ticking, bell chimes]

- In May, I had
taken a trip to Hawaii

with, like, a significant
other at the time.

Simon called me a lot.

And I didn't answer a lot
because I was,

like,
"No, I'm on vacation."

Some of his messages,

you could sense
this growing frustration

that I wasn't there for him.

I certainly never viewed
my friendship with Simon

as anything romantic.

And I don't think he did.
I mean, I have a wife.

I don't even look
at men that way,

so it definitely
wasn't something,

but it did cross my mind
just because you never know.

That probably was hard
for him at the time.

I'll never know
because it was

right after I got home
from that trip that he died.

[helicopter blades whipping]

[indistinct radio chatter]

[siren wails]

[indistinct chatter]

- Everybody ready?
- Yes, sir.

- This evening, Mr. Monjack
was found unresponsive.

Paramedics responded
to the house.

He was pronounced
at 2145 hours.

His death
is under investigation

by the Los Angeles County
Department of Coroner

with the assistance of LAPD.

I got notified
of Simon's death,

and then it's like,
"Are you kidding me?"

- I get a call in the night.

Sharon's screaming,
"Please, please come here.

"Please come here.
It's happening all over again.

I'm living Brittany
all over again."

So I get in the car,
head up to the house,

and when I get up there,
there is media everywhere.

I couldn't get to the gate,

much less
get through the gate.

- That's a day I won't forget.

Simon came out,
he was sweating.

And he's got a cigar
in one hand,

a cognac in the other hand,
but he would be talking to me

and he would drift off
to sleep.

And then he would just
open his eyes

and come back
into the conversation

like he was there
the whole time.

And when I think
back about it,

he's dying in front of me,

and I don't know
he's dying in front of me.

- Here's a copy of
Simon Monjack's report.

Cause of death is listed as

community acquired acute
bronchial pneumonia.

The toxicology study

showed the presence
of multiple medications.

The media, they said,
"Isn't that strange?

Both died from the same
cause of death."

And it'd be like, "Yeah,
we don't get a lot of those."

- Just five months
after Brittany passed away,

Simon, her husband, passed away
in the same bathroom

in the same mansion
for almost identical reasons.

- A small, tiny, petite woman
and a very large man,

they die of the same thing
in the same house.

- People start thinking
there's more behind this,

there's something else.

[dark music]

♪ ♪

[wind whistling]

- After Simon died,
it was like, "What happened?"

You know?

I think the initial
thought was like something

is causing this
in the house.

- I've pleaded with Simon
to go to the hospital.

He looked terrible.

My husband was very worried
because he's a builder,

and he thought
it was to do with the mold.

- To me, it was obvious
when I went to the house,

in this gorgeous
picture window.

I'm looking around
the frame of that window

and you visibly see mold
on the side,

across the top,
across the bottom,

and I look over to the French
doors and there's mold there.

I don't think there's
any other explanation

for their death.

- All of the symptoms,
disorientation,

feeling sick,
dreadful headaches,

all these things come from
inhaling spores from mold.

- Sharon Murphy
claims she discovered

deadly mold hiding
in the walls of their mansion.

Just look at what we found
at Brittany's home today.

- I know that there
were rumors that toxic mold

may have played a role
in Brittany's death

and possibly the death
of her husband.

But on my autopsy,

I didn't see any evidence
of mold in her lungs

or any other organs because
you can see the hyphae,

which are little strands of
mold or the fruiting bodies.

- I told Sharon I would get
somebody from County Health

to come up
and they'd check the house.

And then I got a call
from her attorney

who said Sharon doesn't want
to give any access,

and she's selling
the house anyway.

Just stay away.

- New shocking allegations
coming from her father,

who says she was poisoned.

And Murphy's father, Angelo
Bertolotti, joining us now.

Angelo, do you
suspect somebody?

- Yeah, I do really, but I'd
rather not speak about that.

I feel she was poisoned.

There's no question
about that.

And I feel she was murdered.

- Once the two of them
had died of the same cause,

Brittany's dad
reached out to me.

He was sure that
someone had done it.

- Angelo Bertolotti
lived down in Florida

and ran a string
of nightclubs.

- Sharon, Brittany's mom,
really does not like Angelo.

She said that he only
came around

when she started making money.

- He says, "I was involved
with the mob.

I wasn't very involved
in my marriage."

- Angelo was actually banned
from ever seeing his daughter

at the gravesite multiple times
until he was able to prove

he was the biological father
of Brittany Murphy.

That's horrible.

- Take two.

- I'm Wendy Abrahamson,

and I was a fan of Brittany

and the best friend
of her father Angelo.

So her dad, he needed help
to find her grave,

and so some of the fans said,
"Oh, we're gonna help."

We just became really close.

Of course, that common
denominator of Brittany

started it and then we were
just best friends.

And of course, he thought
it was really strange

that the mother, his ex-wife,
was perfectly fine.

And that the married couple,
much younger than her,

were both dead.

These are things
that nobody has seen.

We went, of course,
to the coroner's office

to obtain the hair samples
and have those tested.

- Ed Winter says his office
did forward toxicology samples

to a private lab hired
by the late actress's father.

The private analysis
states Brittany Murphy

had high concentrations of ten
heavy metals in her system

and may have been
intentionally poison.

- I received a call, an email
from Angelo Bertolotti.

I can understand him asking,

"What are you telling me,
my 32-year-old daughter,

she just died like that
from pneumonia and anemia?"

He then said he had gotten
hold of a toxicology report

on a sample of hair,

and it showed heavy levels
of heavy metals.

I've had cases like that,
fascinating cases,

one with a woman
who was repeatedly poisoning

her husband with thallium.

I'm not unfamiliar with that.

- Heavy metals
are commonly found

in rat and insect killers.

They can cause the symptoms

Murphy experienced
before her death.

- I absolutely, positively
thinks she was poisoned, yes.

I'm calling for her
to be exhumed.

- You know, Angelo was
in the press quite a bit.

And they were
putting stuff out there,

like she poisoned them.

She's responsible
for their deaths.

So what happens?

You got a grieving mom who now
becomes a murder suspect.

That's ridiculous.
I mean, it's crazy.

- It was just magazine covers
and salacious headlines,

and it became this circus.

So that's when the conspiracy
theories go into overdrive.

- Like, maybe her mother
could have had something

to do with it,
just speculation.

- It was a plan from
the beginning for both of them

to take her money
after she died.

And the mom
got the last laugh.

- I would never put two
and two together,

but these days and age,
mothers, you know,

they take out their kids
all the time.

- Brittany and Sharon were as
close as two people could be.

Maybe Sharon
made some mistakes.

But I know that she loved
that girl wildly.

- Never for a minute
did I ever believe

that Sharon Murphy
was responsible

for those
two young people dying.

I would never believe it.

Not for a millisecond.

- Initially, when I was given
this private laboratory report,

I said, "Oh, my God.
What is this?"

And then I looked
carefully and saw

that this was not
a case of poisoning.

The heavy metals were found
in the hair, not in the roots.

Heavy metals take a while
to be absorbed from the blood.

In order to be in the hair,

they got to be picked up
by the hair root,

and then they got to grow out.

These metals had to have come
from hairsprays, hair dyes,

and things of that nature.

They are not
in her bloodstream.

They are in her hair.

Did she die because
someone poisoned her?

No.

- There were elevated levels
of things like aluminum

or one or two other things,
but it's hair dye.

That's what does it.

And Brittany has dyed her hair
many different times.

And I didn't see any evidence
of any type of poison.

- There is no question
in my mind

about the cause of death.

So this is
a 32-year-old woman.

I don't know the bankroll
of her and her husband,

but I assume
that they had money.

And yet they lived as if
they were peasants in squalor.

To develop an anemia
of this nature,

she was not eating.

How did all of this develop?

That's the fascinating
question.

This is where you got to bring
in the forensic psychiatrist

and see if he can dig up
enough information about her

and her husband Simon Monjack

to try to answer
that question.

- That was during a little dip
she was having

that he came along.

And I think that's
where her judgment

was muddled and desperate,

and she became prey to things

that she thought
would help her.

[tense music]

- I feel like what brought
Brittany Murphy's career down

is a perfect storm of getting
cast in the wrong movies

and her personal life.

Mid 2000s, the biggest rumors
that I was hearing

and not reporting
were about drugs.

- Do we read them?

No, we wait.
Okay.

- I remember her
as a presenter

at the 2003
Independent Spirit Awards,

where her assignment
was to read the names

of five nominees,

open an envelope,
and read the winner.

She kept trying to read
every nominee as the winner.

And when she arrived
triumphantly

at the real winner,

she inspired no confidence
that she had it right.

- America, just one moment,
please.

audience: No!

For crying out stinking loud,

please tell me
when you're going to drop it.

Okay.
And the winner is...

audience: No!

- Brittany Murphy, around
the beginning of my career,

was talked about a lot.

I first started hearing rumors

shortly after her split
from Ashton Kutcher,

rumors about her just being
impossible to deal with,

whereas Ashton was
the golden boy of Hollywood.

Ultimately, you can only
keep things quiet for so long.

When it starts
to get out there,

then you start to develop
a reputation.

- Perez Hilton didn't get
to be Perez Hilton

by writing nice stories
about celebrities.

He was writing doodles
on their photos.

Brittany Murphy,
"Is she pill popping?"

"Is she anorexic?"
"Is she bulimic?"

- I remember she called me
crying and said,

"Can you call my manager?"

Who was a very, very,
very big manager at the time.

"He thinks I'm on drugs."

I know that hurt her deeply.

- You were kind of nasty
at times.

- I was more than nasty.

I--I didn't even view
Brittany Murphy

or any of the celebrities
that I covered as real people.

They were characters to me.

It was almost like a way

to disassociate myself
from my actions,

from what I was writing
and saying.

"Oh, this isn't real,

and also Perez
is a character."

I would tell all these things
to myself

to help me sleep at night.

If you're at a point
in your life

where your career
is struggling,

your personal life
is also struggling,

you might be drawn
to the wrong people.

[indistinct chatter]

- Hey, hey, hey!
Whoa!

- Brittany, can we get
a fashion shot?

- She was an open vessel.

If she trusted you,
she let you in.

He saw her coming
a mile away.

She was pure, trusting,

loving, open,
and he saw her coming.

- And got it.
Mark.

Great.
Thank you.

- My name is Harley Pasternak.

I am a celebrity fitness
and nutrition author.

I trained Simon Monjack
a number of years ago.

First time I met Simon,

he rolled up
in a vintage Ferrari,

and he got out smoking
these fancy, I think,

Cohiba cigars,
and his girlfriend

had the biggest diamond ring
you've ever seen.

They got engaged the night
before, and she was happy.

And then he said, "We're both
gonna work with you."

And then his balance
started to run up a lot more,

and I wouldn't let him
book new sessions.

And then he called me
one day and he says,

"Hey, I'm dating
Brittany Murphy now.

"And I want to bring her in and
for us to work out together,

and I'll pay you
what I owe you."

And they showed up one day.

Brittany was for sure under
the influence of something.

Pills maybe.

She was kind of slurring
her words.

She was very sweet and--and--

but kind of
all over the place.

And he said,
"Brittany's got a big project,

and I want you to get her
ready for the role."

"Okay, well, if I'm
gonna work with Brittany,

I'll just deal
with her team."

And I remember reaching out
to her team and saying,

"She fired all of us.

"Simon is her agent, manager,
and lawyer and everything now.

You have to go through Simon."

And they said,
"We're concerned

"because no one
can contact her directly.

You can only
go through Simon."

I don't even know
if she had a phone.

Simon was the only one
who carried the phone.

- She just seemed
like she was high.

So I don't--I don't know.

[uneasy music]

♪ ♪

- I would say
that Simon Monjack

accelerated the path
that Brittany Murphy

was heading down by the time
that they got together.

- I couldn't believe that this
bottom-feeding sociopath

had actually worked his way
up the food chain

to someone who was actually
a legitimate artist.

So the first thing I did
was I called her agency.

I said, "You need to tell her
every word out of his mouth

is a lie and that she's got
to get the hell out."

The word coming back
was her manager had tried

and gotten fired
as a result,

that there was
no talking to her.

So I did something I never
imagined myself doing,

I called
the "National Enquirer."

I called their tip line,

and I said,
"I don't want money for this,

because this guy
is dangerous."

This big story comes out
about Simon and Brittany.

A week later, Perez Hilton
came out with a headline

that said
"The kook and the crook."

And I thought,
"Okay, my work is done here.

I have gotten the word out."

- This is all starting
to come out.

Her true friends know
that Simon's not good news.

There was this talk
of an intervention,

and this intervention
took place at Brittany's house.

These friends
were showing Brittany

and her mother documentation

that, you know, Simon
had trouble with the law,

that Simon had outstayed
his visa, which he had.

Brittany and her mom said,
"No, we love Simon,

and we believe Simon.
Sorry."

And the intervention fails.

- Simon started building
a wall around her.

He took charge--
he took charge of finances,

making investments.

He was buying property.

He was buying jewelry,
had a tiara made of diamonds

that was a replica
of Audrey Hepburn's tiara

in "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

So they could have

all these investments
to fall back on.

- He was making
all of her decisions.

He was clearly
getting her money.

He started driving her
to work but waiting.

And every time
there was a break,

she would leave
and go be in the car with him.

And it got more
and more restrictive,

and it got more and more
apparent to all of us

that she wasn't hanging out

or having lunch with us
or talking.

- One day,
her numbers were changed.

No one knew where she was,
couldn't find her.

Disappeared.
Disappeared.

Simon took her away.

That was it.

He made sure
no one could get to her.

♪ ♪

- Action.

- This room is a personal
favorite of mine.

You will be joining some
very distinguished company.

- Cut.

- My name is Alex Merkin.
I'm a director.

I directed Brittany Murphy

in the film
"Across the Hall" in 2008.

"Across the Hall"
was my first feature film.

When we sat down and we met,

she was incredibly engaged
in the material.

She was so enthusiastic,
so bright.

There's this energy
that's very infectious.

In the meeting, I felt
confident in her dedication

to the material
and her excitement for it.

- ♪ Shine in
my backyard someday ♪

- B15, 66 apple.
Take one, mark.

- ♪ I'm going down ♪
- Cut.

- I did start to feel
some red flags.

First day,
Brittany's coming set,

she's three hours late.

And I went to her trailer,

and Simon Monjack ordered
an egg sandwich off of me.

He seemed--he seemed
fairly out of it.

He seemed
to not exactly know

who he's talking to
or where he was.

And yeah,
I was concerned about it.

I was definitely
concerned about it.

I say, I say, "He's here.
He's at the hotel.

How did he find us?
Or how did he--"

- Yea, how did he--
- Set.

- How did he find me here?

- And...
- Oh, I'm sorry.

Hold on one second, please.
Sorry.

- There would often be times

where she just completely
didn't know the lines,

and I'd be feeding her
the line

or the actor would have
to feed her the line.

- He didn't screw it up at all.
- Line.

- I think you get off
on fucking him over.

- No, you mean everything
in the world to him.

More than I ever could.

We'll take it from here.
Keep rolling, please.

- The other thing
that I was seeing

was that Brittany
would come to set

and she'd be
in a really good space.

And then I would see her,
you know, go off with Simon

and spend some time,
and when she came back,

I felt a stark change
in her mood.

- [groaning indistinctly]

[sobs]

- It would be like
Jekyll and Hyde

from the moment she had
interacted with him.

I mean, I learned
that she didn't have access

to her own email address.

I learned she had no access
to her own phone.

And if I wanted to reach her,
I had to reach her through him.

It felt to me a lot like he
was planting this insecurity

and this fear into her.

- That's a cut.

- I'm so sorry.

- Yeah, let's go.

- We had a scene to film
with her, they embrace.

There's some short kissing,

and then they fall
out of frame, and that's it.

And I had to spend time
on the set with her

fighting where she was
not gonna do any scenes

that depict
any kind of intimacy

with anybody
other than her husband.

She sold it to me as this
thing that she could not do

because she's evolved into
this magical relationship.

This is actually
the moment where I was--

I was ready
to replace her.

I went outside with
one of the producers,

and I saw Simon Monjack.

And I intentionally
loudly said,

"We're gonna just have to go
with somebody else."

I wanted him to hear it.

And he did.

And he started to panic,
and he came up to me.

He said, "Hey, listen, we can--
we can work this out.

"She'll do whatever
you want to do.

Let me go speak with her and
we'll get this all worked out."

- Hey.
- Hey.

[gentle music]

♪ ♪

- I do love him.

I wanted to make sure
that it was my love

that I was feeling,

and not--not just his love.

- There was something,

I don't want to say worshiping
about their relationship,

but it did feel like it
bordered on that.

- [indistinct]

- It's something that felt
completely unhealthy,

something that felt
delusional on some level,

a manipulative ploy
on his part to control her

and to keep his hooks in her.

- This isn't me.

[indistinct chatter,
camera shutters clicking]

This--this isn't me.

Jules.

- We heard that
he was controlling.

Is that something
you would agree with?

- Well, only to say that
when I saw them together,

they were very much in love.

It's a very fine line,
isn't it,

between controlling somebody

and managing them
to have the best career?

I don't know.

- Do you think that how Simon
presented himself to Brittany,

he exaggerated things to her?

- Um, I don't know
how I can answer that.

- There's a chance.

- I know he wasn't in
the market to hurt anybody.

You know, people do believe
what they want to believe.

You hear what you want to hear.

You react to what you want
to hear from that other person,

and I think that's--you know.

[uneasy music]

♪ ♪

- Less than a week
after Simon passes away,

Sharon calls me
up to the house

and she brings out
this jewelry,

diamond rings,
bracelets, necklaces.

And she says,
"I need cash.

So I want you to take this
and sell it."

I said, "I represent
two jewelry designers

on Rodeo Drive."

And so I took everything

and I went to the first
jewelry designer client

and I said,
"Well, what's it worth?"

And he just took the thing
out of his eye and he said,

"None of it's real."

So I take it and I go
to my other jewelry client.

I said, "Can you tell me how
much this jewelry is worth?"

He takes the thing out,
puts in his eye,

and he's looking at it,
he's looking at.

He said, "Roger, I'm so sorry,
none of this is real."

And I started realizing,
"Oh, my gosh.

"He has lied to Sharon.
She's gonna be devastated.

"She thinks she's got
a million dollars

just in one piece."

So I get back to the house.

And she looked at me like,
"What is it?

Why is this jewelry here?"

I said, "I just have to
tell you, none of it's real."

And her face,

she didn't have
to say anything,

'cause her face said at all.

She said, "Well, I guess

"there's no property
either then.

"I guess there's
no stocks and bonds,

and I guess
there's no real estate."

Simon went through 3 million
of Brittany's dollars

in three years,

a million a year
in three years.

Sharon thinks
she's got financial security.

She has nothing.

All she's left with
is the house,

Brittany's pension,

and whatever was in the bank.

She was devastated.

She was devastated.

- He owed me a lot of money
for a long time.

It's funny, in Hollywood,

you don't need
to threaten violence.

You just need
to threaten publicity.

I told him
I was going to the press.

And then I got a check
for the whole amount.

He had been running
for a long time.

There was things he did
in other states,

used fake names,
stole money, bounced checks.

And then when he became
this public figure because

he was with Brittany Murphy
now, people could find him.

So all the people that he
screwed over all of a sudden,

"Oh, I know where he is."
Very simple.

- Once I was told
certain things,

everything else
made sense to me.

I was putting
a puzzle together,

a jigsaw puzzle,
very complicated puzzle.

And the more
information I got,

the more everything else
that happened made sense.

He had all these secrets.

None of--nobody knew about,
all these little secrets.

And if something started
come to the surface,

"It's absurd.
It's crazy."

He would, "No, they're lying.
It's not true."

Brittany and Sharon
believed him.

And what we find out later,
we find out that he had a child

that Brittany
didn't know about,

that none of us knew
that he had a child.

He was putting that child
through private school

in England.

So I'm sure quite a bit
of money of Brittany's

went to the child.

- The interesting thing
about Simon's personal life

is how little I think
Brittany really knew about it.

When he died,
it started coming out.

So he had a daughter
in England,

by then she was a teenager.

But what people didn't know
was that through my reporting,

I had gotten in touch with
a woman who lived in France,

and she had had
a son with him.

He had a child that
nobody was talking about

and nobody really knew about.

- Excuse me?

- There's a second child.
- I didn't know that.

Uh-uh.
I only know about one child.

There was a second child?
Wow.

- My name is
Elizabeth Ragsdale.

I knew Simon.

I was engaged to him,
and I have his child.

And so it's time now
to tell my story.

[mellow guitar music]

♪ ♪

So the night that I met Simon,
it was, like,

probably one of the strongest
times in my life.

I'd financed myself
an apartment in Paris.

I was gonna write my book.

A friend,
she called me up and said,

"You gotta meet this guy."

I'm like,
"Okay, I'll come."

So he had a car come
and get me.

I just immediately
was intrigued

with his
dark chocolate eyes.

I just felt like he could see
all the way down into my soul.

He wanted to see me
the next night.

And I stayed
the next night, so...

I never left him again.

He proposed to me
in Harrods department store,

and he called me on the phone.

And I answered it,
and he said, "Look behind you."

And I turned around,
and he was on one knee.

And he had a Tiffany's bag.

He took a box out of it
and a crowd gathered around,

and he--he said,

"Elizabeth Ragsdale,
will you marry me?"

And, um...

and I said,
"Yes, yes, I will."

Simon tearfully
told me one night

after I would not
make love with him

that he had spinal cancer

and that he was gonna
have to go

to have this shark cartilage
treatment in Monaco.

So of course,
I break down

because the love of my life
has cancer,

I find out all of a sudden,

and, you know,
so everything changes,

and then we have sex

after that.

- So he got what he wanted?
- He got what he wanted.

He was very rough.

It wasn't always
when I wanted to.

[gentle music]

♪ ♪

He said that we had
to get pregnant

if we were gonna have
our own children

because the shark
cartilage treatments

would make him sterile.

I was really sick in Monaco

in the beginning
of the pregnancy.

It was just severe nausea,

where I couldn't
raise my head.

So I wanted to fly my sister
and everybody over.

"No, no, no, no, I don't want
any people around right now."

Then my friend who,

she's not the type
to take no for an answer

and she was also
very worried about me

'cause I'd been cut off
from everybody,

and she showed up at the villa,
and she said, you know,

"You look like you've just come
out of a concentration camp."

And she tells Simon, "If you
do not get her to a doctor,

then I'm taking her now."

And he said, "I will."

But I believe that
my friend saved my life.

He said, "I want for you to
have the baby on U.S. soil."

So Simon got me to New York,
and he was in Monaco.

You know, he got my ticket
and everything,

and I got there and I got up
into my little studio,

and I called him
to tell him I was there.

And I said, "Simon,
I've made it, I'm here in--"

Click, he hung up on me.

And then trying to call him
back a million times

and realizing
he's just not picking up

or something's happened to him
or something's wrong.

And I started
looking for ways

to get in touch
with his mother.

And I found his mother,
and she told me

that he didn't have
spinal cancer

and that he had been
using her money for that.

But she was furious with him.

The owner of the villa
told me

that he was already
with somebody else.

I thought about, um...

killing myself

because I didn't--

Who does that?
I mean--

And then the reason I didn't
is because of the baby.

[light music]

♪ ♪

After not being in touch
for a long time,

I worked in Paris
and lived outside Paris.

And so I was on the train
coming home from work,

reading a magazine, there was
a little picture that said,

"Brittany Murphy
has married."

And it was Simon.
He got in touch with me.

He offered, at that point,
to buy me a house,

and we talked
for a little while,

and that one ended with him

threatening to come
and get my son.

So I was quiet.

That, I believe,
was his intention

was to try to keep me quiet

because the stakes
were a lot higher with him

being married to Brittany.

He didn't need
anybody to know

that I was out there
with his son.

I know why Brittany
chose Simon.

He worked his spell on her.

And she fell for it
like I did.

- Everything is a lie?

Everything is a lie.

[static crackling]

Every--every--everything--
everything is a lie.

- Don't take it personally,
Mare.

Mare Bear.

- Don't touch me.

- The man you fell in love
with is not real.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

- So, you know, we did speak
to Elizabeth Ragsdale,

Elijah's mom.

- Well, he never
acknowledged--

you do know that he never
acknowledged his existence.

When you look at Elijah,

you can see
there's a likeness,

but what I'm saying
is that it's very difficult

to acknowledge something
that you don't know.

- There's this story about
the shark fin treatments.

Was there any truth
to any of that?

- He was terribly fearful that
his father got cancer at 29.

I certainly don't think
he went out to tell people,

"I have cancer."
I think he believed it.

- We heard that
Simon had actually

swindled money off of you.

- He never swindled money
from me.

I gave him money,
copious amounts of money,

but I just gave it willingly
and freely, probably foolishly.

But nevertheless, he didn't--
he didn't cheat me.

[gentle music]

♪ ♪

- Simon and Brittany

were basically
locked up in that house.

They did these really
weird photoshoots

in the middle of the night

where he would dress her
like a doll.

He encouraged her to become
addicted to plastic surgery.

He would tell her,
"Your teeth aren't right.

"Your nose isn't right.

We might need to do something
with your chin."

And she became increasingly
insecure about her appearance,

increasingly paranoid about
people being out to get her.

Simon had the landlines
disconnected.

So the only way you could
reach Sharon or Brittany

was through Simon.

Simon and Brittany
would stay up late nights

and take downers
and then chug coffee

and take uppers
to come back up.

And, you know,
they rarely left the house.

- I remember
I was at some show,

like 40 minutes into it,

she shows up scooting
through the seats with Simon

with, like, bleary eyes,

and I just didn't
recognize her anymore.

Brittany was
just cloudy and gone.

- It was alarming to see
how thin she had gotten.

Emaciated.

She was so frail.

- When I saw Brittany Murphy
getting really thin,

I knew that he had
something to do with that.

He loved anorexic women.

He would look at me from behind
in my jeans and he would go,

"Do you really think
you need to wear those jeans?

Because, you know,
you look kind of--"

- He was everything.

He was the agent.
He was the manager.

He was the makeup artist.

Nobody touched her.
Nobody got close to her.

It was all him.

When the offers are drying up

because you got going
around town,

"Don't deal with Brittany

because her husband's
a lunatic,"

he took what he could get.

- If you look at someone
who just a few years ago

was in really iconic movies,

I mean, "Eight Mile,"
"Clueless."

These are movies that will
stand the test of time,

to then be in thrillers
and slashers

that are going
straight to video,

it looks like failure.

- Mark.

- I'm Trista Jordan.

I am a celebrity
makeup artist.

And I was the last one
to film with Brittany.

When I got to that set,
I was told her husband

was gonna be
her makeup artist.

So it's day one.

I rushed to set just to find
a makeup disaster.

[chuckles]

Simon had taken
a red tube of lipstick

and had drawn lips

outside her natural lip line
like a clown.

Her blush was lopsided.
Her hair was greasy.

Your job as a makeup artist

is you're looking behind
the monitor

to see if things
are changing.

And watching Simon, he wasn't
looking in the monitor.

He was looking straight ahead.

He was in a catatonic state,

and I snapped my fingers
in front of his face

to see if he'd react,
and he didn't even flinch.

I've been around
thousands of actors

and never seen
someone that thin.

Her elbows.

And getting out of a chair,
she looked like Bambi.

She just seemed
like she was in pain,

especially when she moved.

I think she was sick.

She didn't care
if her hair was messed up.

She didn't ask for a mirror.

And that's unusual
in Hollywood.

I just think she lost
the ability to care.

She was a disaster
in her heart,

and she was a disaster
emotionally and physically.

[thunder rumbles]

- We found that, evidently,
Simon got involved.

I don't know if he slapped
somebody or hit somebody,

and she got fired.

And that's why
they came back early.

- It was reported this week
that actress Brittany Murphy

was fired from her
upcoming film "The Caller"

for being a detriment
to production and--oh, no.

- Seth...
[laughter]

- Brittany Murphy.

- Yeah.

They fired me.

[chuckles]
Yeah.

[laughter]

- In Puerto Rico, they became
ill with flu-like symptoms.

They had flown back.

Brittany started showing signs
of not feeling good,

but they were treating
her sickness

with over-the-counter
medications.

And, you know,
after a few days,

if the over-the-counter
medications aren't working,

you know, seek a professional
diagnosis on what's going on.

According to the information
that we got,

it was kind of a habit
that Simon,

he'd keep her up late,
they would order food in

at 2:00 and 3:00
in the morning,

and stay up
and watch television.

She'd be exhausted
the next day

and she wasn't getting
enough rest

and her immune system
was dropping.

He just was blanketed
around her

and yet didn't remove
that blanket

and seek medical attention
when she needed it.

- She was a tiny girl.

Your body can only
take so much.

[static crackling]

[light music]

♪ ♪

[indistinct chatter]

- Don't move, ma'am.
Don't move.

♪ ♪

- The premiere of our film
was at the end of 2009.

When I saw her there,
she was extremely sweet,

she was extremely proud.

But she was also,
felt to me, extremely frail.

- She embraced my hands
and her hands were shaky.

She looked very,
very, very thin,

like she had lost
a lot of weight.

Outside of that,
she wasn't acting strangely.

She actually talked to me
about children that she was

planning on having,
things that were very sweet.

It felt really a lot more
like the person that I had met

when we were going into
this whole process.

- Thank goodness
everyone was kind.

No one generally
tends to be in a--

on a set that's
an independent film,

that has a short schedule
unless they really want to be.

- What do you think--

- Everyone
wanted to be there,

and that was a pleasure.

♪ ♪

- Obviously,
the shoot experience

was crazy and chaotic
and volatile at times.

But I saw the person that
I had originally met with.

It almost felt like it
came full circle.

If we were like,
let's do another one,

I probably would have been
in this weird sort of,

you know, euphoric space
with like,

"Oh, this is great,
everything's good,

and she's proud
and she's here to support."

It turned out to be two weeks
before she passed away.

- Thank you.
- Thank you.

- On a radio interview
in 2009,

somebody asked me to make
a prediction of who would die,

what celebrity
would pass away.

And I said Brittany Murphy.

And all these years later now,
I just--

I regret saying that, just
putting that energy out there.

It's gross.

Gross of the interviewer

and gross of me
for giving a response.

But that's definitely
telling of the time.

2009, in many ways,
was a very gross time.

- [indistinct] 197.

What's the address
of the emergency?

- 1895 Rising Glen Road.

- Tell me exactly
what happened.

- My daughter's passed out.

She's--they're doing
mouth to mouth.

Please get here.
Please, please.

[wind howling]

- My husband came in,
he said I have bad news.

And I said,
"Did Brittany die?"

And he said, "Yes."

And I just felt so--
I felt bad for her.

But I also felt,

why didn't I
just go over there

and knock on the door
all day long?

And just have her hate me
or call the police

but just knock on that door
and take her away.

[uneasy music]

♪ ♪

- You know, I ofttimes think
about Sharon too,

just hoping she's okay,

'cause when I had been
to the house,

she would walk by
Brittany's clothes

and she would smell
the clothes.

But I remember
when she finally

got all of Brittany's
clothes together

and it filled up a whole room
and she had a sale.

She sold them all.

It took her about a year
to be able to do that,

to come to terms with that.

The last I heard about Sharon,

she was living
in Southern California,

but very reclusive.

She won't return emails
or phone calls.

Sharon was just heartbroken.

- I had to accept

there were no answers
for me to find in this.

So I had to kind of
step away from it.

That was difficult
for me to do,

but for a mother to accept

that she might
not fully understand

what happened to her son
can be quite devastating.

- I can't say why or what
happened in that house.

It became
a really awful tragedy

that should never
have happened.

But the reason why it happened
is very difficult to state.

- I believe
that Simon Monjack,

even if he did not kill
Brittany Murphy,

he allowed her to die

because he did not get her
to the doctor and get her help,

and I believe that he did
the same thing to himself.

Knowing that he needed
medical treatment,

he didn't get it and he died.

He would rather be dead
than to be discovered

as the con artist he was.

- I think if it wasn't
for Simon Monjack,

there's every chance
Brittany Murphy

would still be alive.

It ultimately is like
a very banal story.

It's just--it really
isn't a huge mystery.

It's just very simple,
a predator targeting someone

at their most vulnerable.

It was the perfect storm.

- The cause of death
is not a mystery.

The mystery is why
didn't somebody catch it.

Had they taken her to
the doctor a few days before,

she'd still be alive.

There are some people
that they're not satisfied.

You know, they think
maybe there's more.

You just have
to go on the facts.

- Why do you just want
to settle for,

"She died of pneumonia,
oh, well"?

It just doesn't make sense.

- Her death was not accidental,

and her husband's
was not accidental.

I believe they both
were targeted.

- I think that their autopsies
were forged.

- Something happened.

Someone must have
bribed someone.

- No, it just--it just
doesn't sound right.

It doesn't even sound
like it adds up.

It just--I'm sorry.
It don't add up.

[gentle music]

[indistinct radio chatter]

♪ ♪

- Please.
Why can't you just let me die?

♪ ♪

- We're gonna get out of here.

- Where are we gonna go?

- I don't know, someplace
where there's trees and sky,

we can breathe
the fucking air.

Some place that's
not so fucked up.

♪ ♪

Hi, my name
is Brittany Murphy,

and I go to Herbert Hoover
Middle School.

♪ ♪

[light dramatic music]

♪ ♪