Part of the shock surrounding Murphy's death is clearly related to her age, though it may also be attributed to the fact that Murphy has been in the public eye for over 15 years, starting out in Hollywood when she was 14, when she booked guest spots on shows like Murphy Brown and Kids Incorporated before landing more substantial parts on sitcoms like Almost Home:



Murphy's big break, and perhaps her best known role, however, came in 1995, when she was cast as Tai, the outcast-turned-makeover-project-turned-popularity-queen in Amy Heckerling's Clueless. In watching Clueless, you recognize that there was something very unique about Murphy, most notably her famously scratchy voice, which also landed her a long-running voiceover role as Luann Platter on King Of The Hill, and was still apparently relevant enough for an SNL parody less than a month ago, even though Murphy's formerly formidable career had stalled as of late.



Though Clueless brought Murphy mainstream and later cult favorite status, her next big role in the 90s didn't come until 1999, when she cast in Girl, Interrupted as a suicidal incest victim living in a mental hospital alongside the likes of Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie:

But after a decade of playing sidekicks and outcasts, Murphy reinvented herself as a romantic lead, dying her hair blonde and losing a dramatic amount of weight by 2001:



It was a shocking transformation for those of us who grew up connecting Murphy with her character in Clueless, and speculation over Murphy's weight haunted her for the remainder of her career. In 2005, she spoke out about rumors that her weight loss was connected to drug use or an eating disorder, claims she dismissed as ridiculous, noting, in a now-slightly eerie quote: "I have never tried [cocaine] in my entire life. I've never even seen it. ... I am also way too high-strung. I can't even take a Sudafed. Can you imagine? My God. I think my heart would explode."





Murphy's career soared following the dramatic makeover, kicking off with a dark love-interest role in the Eminem film 8 Mile and a romantic comedy she shot with then-fiance Ashton Kutcher, called Just Married. It was around this time, however, that reports of Murphy's "diva" behavior started to surface: in a "night out" piece for the New York Times, author Linda Lee noted that there was "no sign of the difficult star who was reported to have been fired by her publicist the week before."

After Kutcher and Murphy split, the actress continued taking on Meg Ryan-esque roles in films like Little Black Book and Uptown Girls with Dakota Fanning, as well as sexier parts in films like Sin City, and her career trajectory (or handlers) seemed to be guiding her toward America's Sweetheart status, though that never quite materialized. Following Sin City, Murphy's career stalled, and she began taking on roles in television movies (reminiscent of the career path of another early 00s starlet, Lindsay Lohan) and lesser known films where she was arguably the biggest star in the cast. The fact that Murphy was dropped by her agent and publicist around the time Sin City was released in 2005, alongside rumors of her drug use, may account for the dip in her career.

Murphy was engaged twice more before marrying screenwriter Simon Monjack in 2007, a marriage that sparked some controversy - there was speculation that the two had married in order for Monjack, a Brit, to receive his green card. It was not the last time that the couple found themselves at the center of tabloid gossip: in 2008, a source told Page Six that Murphy's on-set diva-like behavior was causing trouble, as was the ever-looming presence of her husband: "She's extremely difficult," said the source, "When she gets to the set, it comes to a grinding halt. She's so hot and cold, you never know what's going to happen that day."



Hust last month, Monjack was rushed to the hospital for an alleged asthma attack, just after Murphy had left a film (she denied being fired) due to the old Hollywood standby, "creative differences."

TMZ is now reporting that Murphy was discovered by her mother, unconscious in the shower, and pronounced dead on arrival at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Radar is reporting that an autopsy may take place as early as Monday, and the LA Times is reporting that the LAPD are launching an investigation to determine exactly what happened to Murphy. Though details are still sketchy (we'll continue to update) speculation about Murphy's death and what led to her cardiac arrest will surely overtake the internet, if it hasn't already. Murphy's rumored drug use and long-discussed weight loss will certainly be thrown into the mix, and though the cause of her death is still unknown it doesn't take a genius to recognize that Murphy's story is as old as Hollywood itself: a starlet who works her way up from bit player to headliner, only to see her career fall apart, and all within a matter of years.



It's something we've watched progress this entire decade: young women who are held up as the next big thing (Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears) and then brushed aside or openly mocked after they no longer fit an expected mold. It is both a story of self-destruction and mass-destruction, the business of creating and destroying a star; sometimes it's caused by internal forces, and sometimes its fed by the rest of the world.

We don't know yet why Brittany Murphy is gone; for all we know, her death may have nothing to do with any of the Hollywood rumors surrounding the last few years of her life. All we know is that a woman who gave much of her life and herself to millions of strangers through her performances is dead at the age of 32, and that is truly a tragedy. For many, her passing will be just another addition to the "Year Of Celebrity Deaths," and her story will be added to the annals of untimely celebrity passings, alongside the likes of Heath Ledger and her one-time prom date, Jonathan Brandis. But to those who knew and loved her, Murphy's passing is more than just another Hollywood tragedy, more than just another name for the list, and seeing her name alongside the others will provide no consolation.

LAPD Investigate Death Of Brittany Murphy [LATimes]
Brittany Murphy Body To Be Autopsied [Radar Online]
Actress Brittany Murphy Dead At 32 [LATimes]
Brittany Murphy Dies [TMZ]
Brittany Murphy's Husband Rushed To Hospital [TMZ]
Twilight: New Moon Actress Replaces Brittany Murphy, Who Was "Not Fired" From Movie [Vancouver Sun]
The Fix [Salon]
A Night Out With Brittany Murphy And Ashton Kutcher [NYTimes]
Brittany Murphy's Diva Behavior [Boston Globe]
Brittany Murphy May Have Married Her Husband So He Could Get Green Card [The Insider]
Jane Getting The Kinks Out In Memoir? [NYDN]

Update: The Hollywood Reporter is confirming Murphy's death, citing "multiple sources." The Wrap is also citing confirmation from the L.A. coroner's office.

We've cobbled together a look at Murphy's life - and more details on her untimely death - here.

The documentary portrays the last six months of Shiloh's life as full of challenges and triumphs, and was kind of excruciating to watch, knowing the way it was going end. The lesson Shiloh's caring family drew from her life was to appreciate each day as if it were the last, a lesson that, along with celebration of Shiloh's enthusiasm for life, excuses somewhat the kind of exploitative nature of this special. In the clip above, Shiloh's family and friends flood a church a week after her death for a tearful and loving memorial service.

Earlier: Saying Goodbye To "Mermaid Girl" Shiloh Pepin
"Mermaid Girl" Shiloh Pepin Dies At Age 10
"Mermaid Girl" Shiloh Pepin Appears On Oprah

Details of Kim's death are still emerging. This morning, Paris Match wrote that sources inside the police investigation say the model left a suicide note. Fellow gossip title Le Parisien stated that "multiple sources" are saying that Kim's father, a Samsung executive, does not believe his daughter killed herself. Kim's mother flew to Paris on Friday, and her father arrived in the city today. An autopsy is to be performed tomorrow — standard police procedure for violent deaths — and the pathologist's findings may be known as soon as the end of this week.

Friends of the young model are also speaking to the press. Several people told the Telegraph that Kim, in the words of reporter Kim Willshire, "had become fed up with modeling and its demands, considering her life was too frenetic and incompatible with forming the sort of long-term relationship she hankered for." Another anonymous friend said Kim would sometimes dodge her agency's calls in order to carve out some time for herself. One of Kim's former agents said, "She was an excellent model, but she used to say she had hard times off the job."

But the richest source of information on Daul Kim remains her blog. The temptation of recent posts that referenced feeling "mad depressed and overworked," a poem that reads in part, "i just know / the more i gain / the more lonely it is," and, most of all, the fact that her last post was titled "say hi to forever," has apparently been too much for major news sources to resist. These mostly quote selectively, ignoring the fact that Kim said she felt depressed and overworked in Seoul and was happy to be leaving for Paris, that Kim titled virtually all of her posts with "say hi to..." and that the post in question was just a YouTube clip of one of her favorite house DJ's tracks, and that in her poem, the lines about feeling lonely were followed directly by lines about falling in love. "but when people grow together," wrote Kim, "its something that is not easy but is nice / and that is something."

It's probably a good thing Kim died in Paris, not in New York, or else we'd have to contend with Geraldo Rivera's opinions of her verse, and television cameras filming the removal of her body, as we were treated to last year, when 20-year-old Kazakh model Ruslana Korshunova jumped to her death in the financial district.

It's understandable that reporters would look to a blog for insight into its author's mind when the author is no longer available for questioning, but it should be done in such a way that the excerpts accurately reflect the whole. Kim often wrote about being busy, yes, and sometimes seemed lonely — but she also wrote about loving Milan Kundera, Klaus Kinski, and Boy George, joked about how she would make a good wife one day, and posted pictures of her paintings. (She had a solo show in Seoul in 2007.) In one of her earliest posts to I Like To Fork Myself, she wrote mock-seriously about ending her life, and then immediately followed up: "KIDDING. I'm fine. Just tired." The overwhelming impression given in her blog wasn't that of a depressive lost soul crying out for help in post after tragically ignored post: it was of a smart young woman with an interesting life, managing bewildering array of responsibilities with a wickedly dark sense of humor. And some issues with insomnia. Not everything in her life should now be re-evaluated in light of her death. To try and turn it all into a series of "signs" diminishes the person that she was.

While it's natural that her next of kin would want to put a stop to quoting out of context, Kim's words have already been featured in articles published from here to Australia. The "I know I'm like a ghost" quote, the "mad depressed and overworked" quote, they're out there. They will be repeated from article to article, from broadsheet to broadsheet to tabloid to tabloid, until all context is erased. Ending access to Kim's blog, while it may tamp down interest in the short term, in essence only serves to deny interested parties a chance to glimpse the wider context of Kim's life. Or at least to see her life as she wished it to be understood. While of course, in the case of a 20-year-old's death, there are no parties more "interested" than her actual family, blogging was evidently important to Kim — she found time to write sometimes several times daily, even as she traveled to three or four countries in a week — and in my opinion, it would be a shame if the record of her life Kim chose to publish were to go permanently dark after her death.

I Like To Fork Myself [Official Site]
Daul Kim: Model 'Had Become Fed Up With Work' [Telegraph]
Daul Kim, La Jolie Fleur S'est Fanée [Paris Match]
Daul Kim S'est-Elle Vraiment Suicidée? [20Minutes.fr]
Enquête Relancée Après Le Suicide Du Mannequin Daul Kim [Le Parisien]
I Know I'm Like A Ghost: A Cry For Help Before Dying [Sydney Morning Herald]

Earlier: 5 Fashion Model Blogs That Are Actually Interesting

Mermaid Girl showcased how Shiloh handled her condition, both mentally and physically, while Mermaid Girl: A New Chapter celebrated her 10th birthday, which extraordinary considering that doctors didn't expect her to live beyond infancy. Shiloh also made an amusing appearance on an episode of Oprah earlier this year. In the clip above, Shiloh talks about sirenomelia and her inspiring outlook on life.

Earlier: "Mermaid Girl" Shiloh Pepin Appears On Oprah

Earlier: "Mermaid Girl" Shiloh Pepin Appears On Oprah

[Image via Oprah.com]

Before his apparent relapse, AM had been sober for 11 years, and his family has given consent to MTV to air the show, hoping that it will help others not meet the same fate as AM. In a statement, his family has said:

After careful consideration we have decided to air the show. Adam felt strongly that by doing this series he could help other addicts who were at a crisis point to get sober. Adam was fully aware that if it were not for his own sobriety he never would have achieved the level of success and happiness he had found. Helping people in their recovery was a huge part of Adam's life. It is our hope through airing this show that people will get to see the side of Adam that we knew and loved, not just the celebrity DJ, but the honest and caring person who gave so much of himself to help others.

How many people have watched Dirty Dancing since Patrick Swayze passed away on Monday? The film has a certain fan base made up of women in their 20s and 30s who were enthralled, at a young age, with its salaciousness, and grew up to appreciate the subversive nature of its storyline of a back alley abortion, thus making Dirty Dancing a pop-cultural touchstone for a new generation of feminists who like to like dancing, but also care about injustice and choice.

In the clip below, from the 20th anniversary edition of the Dirty Dancing DVD, Patrick Swayze discusses how the movie inspired his life, and made him appreciate his wife even more. You've got to love that love story.

Related: Dirty Dancing, Feminist Masterpiece [The Guardian]

This combination of hard and soft — vulnerable and tough — seems to sum up Patrick Swayze as a person, and as an actor. His dad was a rodeo cowboy; his mom was a dance instructor, and his roles — from Roadhouse to The Outsiders to Dirty Dancing to Ghost and Point Break — always seemed to highlight the two sides of his spirit; the rough-around-the-edges dude with a heart of gold. (Jennifer Grey called him a "real cowboy with a tender heart.")

When it came to living with cancer, Swayze told Barbara Walters during a televised interview that he wasn't interested in pursuing experimental treatments. He thought if he were to "spend so much time chasing staying alive," he wouldn't be able to enjoy the time he had left. "I want to live," he said.

In 1985, Swayze starred in the TV miniseries North And South, playing a conflicted Southern soldier. According to the New York Times, he talked to the Associated Press about his character, saying: "People don't identify with victims. They identify with people who have the world come down on their heads and who fight to survive."

More memories of Patrick Swayze below.

Patrick Swayze, Star of ‘Dirty Dancing,' Dies at 57 [NY Times]
Jennifer Grey: I Remember Being in Patrick Swayze's Arms [People]