"Gone But Never Forgotten" is the rallying cry coming from devoted fans of the lovely Brittany Murphy who would have turned 33 this week.
They plan to remember their fallen idol on Wednesday, Nov. 10th, the actress' first birthday since her death last December, by visiting and decorating her grave at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills.
I spoke with two fans, Wendy & Lisa, who have visited Brittany's grave, decorating it with flowers, glitter and other tokens of love, regularly since December as a way to cope with the loss of the young lady they admire.
"Her death was unnecessary and we miss her so much, it's just so painful," Wendy told me.
The ladies have mounted an online awareness campaign to get other fans involved in remember Brittany's special day by creating a dedicated Facebook page and a Twitter account@Brittany33Bday.
There, they're asking other fans to bring flowers, balloons "or whatever your heart desires" to her grave that day. Fans who can't make it in person are being encouraged to order floral tributes from the Forest Lawn Flower Shop.
They plan to photograph the tributes and share details of their day at Forest Lawn online afterward.
"We've followed what's happened to items being left for Michael Jackson by his fans at Forest Lawn Glendale," Wendy said, referring to reports that gifts were being trashed.
"We're going to document the items and then take things that might be in danger of being thrown out home with us and make sure they go to the family," she added.
Brittany marker decorated by fans (Image courtesy of Lisa & Wendy)
The family she's been referring too, who has been in contact with grieving fans to share their sorrow, is Brittany's father, Angelo Bertollotti, who has relocated from Florida to Los Angeles so that he can visit her grave, too.
After Brittany's funeral and burial, which Angelo was not invited to attend by Brittany's mother and husband, he visited Forest Lawn but was denied information about where here grave was located.
He said he was told that his name wasn't on the approved guest list and only immediate family could be given information. His name as her father was left off her death certificate, adding further insult to injury. It's an error he has since worked to correct.
He was finally able to visit for the first time in February 2009 after fans forwarded him directions provided by AGH and bringing Inside Edition along to document any further trouble. There was none and he has since had no issue visiting his daughter's grave.
"I'm very grateful for the devotion of her fans and the idea to remember her birthday is very touching," Angelo told me during a recent telephone conversation.
"It means so much to me, that she's remembered. I want her fans to know how much I appreciate all they have done at the cemetery in the past year." he added, noting that he's run into a few of her fans at the cemetery when he visits, including a lady who traveled from Ireland.
"I'm still not over [her death] and I probably never will be, but the love her fans show her is very comforting," he said.
Angelo told me that he has not been in contact with his ex-wife, Brittany's mom, Sharon Murphy. "I don't know where she is, or if she is even in Los Angeles," he said. Nor did he speak with Britany's husband, Simon Monjack, who died in May and is buried next to Brittany.
Under gray skies on an unusually cold and rainy May day in Southern California, Simon Monjack was buried this afternoon as he wished, next to his wife, actress Brittany Murphy, at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills.
RadarOnline.comreports that approximately 75 family and friends bid farewell to Simon, including his mother-in-law, Sharon Murphy, after a private Orthodox Jewish funeral held at 3pm today in the cemetery's Chapel of the Hills, the same church where Brittany's funeral was held five months ago on Christmas Eve.
After the service, his grave reflected the Jewish burial mound tradition.
White roses on Brittany's recently marked grave (Image Courtesy Anonymous)
Simon died Sunday from apparent natural causes related to a heart condition. Results from an autopsy performed earlier this week are pending.
TMZ published today audio of the 911 call Sharon placed when she discovered Simon unconscious and not breathing in the master bedroom of the home she continued to share with her son-in-law after her daughter's death. Sadly reminiscent of the call she placed when she found Brittany in the master bedroom bathroom five months ago.
The 911 operator's attitude and treatment of Sharon is taken to task in the comments section as being too abrassive and downright rude.
Assistant Chief LA County Coroner Ed Winter was briefly interviewed on-scene the night of Simon's death, video courtesy Hollywood.tv:
RadarOnline.com reports that Simon Monjack will be laid to rest next to his wife, Brittany Murphy, tomorrow after a private funeral set to begin at 3pm. Details here.
Simon passed away on May 23rd in the home he and Brittany shared with her mother Sharon, from apparent natural causes, pending autopsy results. His rep has stated that Simon was scheduled for heart surgery this fall.
Brittany, who passed away in December, was laid to rest at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hillson Christmas Eve. Her grave was just marked two weeks ago. Thank you to my dear friend, Jayne Osborne of The Adipocere Society, for sharing her photo from her visit with Brittany on May 15th.
Say what you will about Simon (and boy tongues continue to wag) but, for me, this is just a very sad epilogue to this couple's story. I wonder, too, if his grave will be guest-list vistitation only like Brittany's was. We shall see.
Rest in peace, Simon.
Visit Simon's official website, which includes his photography of Brittany, here.
Recent interview with Simon regarding death of Corey Haim, drug rumors, coping with grief and the status of The Brittany Murphy Foundation, courtesy of WhatUNeed.tv:
As reported here last week, Angelo Bertolotti, father of actress Brittany Murphy, was told in no uncertain terms that he was not allowed to visit her grave when he showed up at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills on Monday, February 15.
News of the diss originally broke on the IMDB Brittany Murphy message board that same day, where outraged fans quickly mobilized to get the story out and to try to help the heartbroken Mr. B. gain access and a sense of closure.
Two Murphy fans in particular, who had visited and decorated her grave with flowers, heart confetti, photos and glitter on Valentine's Day, alerted the Bertolotti family to an article I had published last month in tribute to Brittany which included directions on how to find her final resting place.
Mr. B. returned to FLHH two days later armed with parental love and determination, to say a final goodbye to his daughter and to leave a memento at her grave site. This time he brought along Inside Edition chief correspondent Jim Moret and a camera crew, and FLHH did not stop him.
Here's Inside Edition's exclusive coverage, which aired today:
Heartfelt condolences to Mr. B and his circle of family and friends for their loss.
Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills is now offering parting gifts when they target you as a celebrity grave hunter and give you the heave-ho. Classy privacy policy cards, suitable for framing. Like this one that my friend Shelly and I got yesterday when we visited, and were asked to leave, the grave site area of Brittany Murphy.
Apparently we got further than Brittany's father, Angelo Bertolotti,
84, though. He's in town and was reportedly given the bum's rush at the front
gate when he, too, visited Forest Lawn yesterday at approximately 3pm.
"He phoned home in tears," a close Bertolotti family friend told me.
They explained that Mr. B. arrived to the cemetery office and identified himself, then asked for her location.
Denied.
Why?
Not only is he not on the Simon Monjack-Sharon Murphy approved guest list, he heads their list of people permanently banned, I'm told.
This aspect of the story is developing. Let's just say that he has since been given directions.
Further update 2/16/2010:Mr. B.'s son Anthony made a follow up call to Forest Lawn today and related that he was told "only immediate family members" were allowed to visit Brittany's grave. When informed that a father and brother constitute 'immediate family' he was still denied permission to visit and a location, the family friend explained.
This is just another slap in the face to Mr. B., who has "remained stoic" to this point, I'm told. RadarOnline reported how he was not invited to the funeral, and his name under "Father" was left off Brittany's death certificate, replaced with "Unknown." See document here, courtesy of E! Online.
Update 2/17/2010: Mr. B. got to visit his daughter's grave today. Watch Inside Edition 2/18. YAY! :))
In the meantime, it was great to see that Brittany's unmarked grave was adorned with Valentine's Day love, including flowers, butterflies, glitter and outlined in heart-shaped confetti. (Note: FL sources tell me it takes 6-8 weeks for a marker to be installed once it is ordered, and they could not confirm for me whether anything had been ordered for Brittany to-date.)
Interesting to note that the majority of these offerings were left by two caring ladies who tell me that they did this out of love and respect, despite not being on the approved visitor list. Because that's what you do in a cemetery, how you grieve, how you remember the dead -- normally.
"If it's only left up to the approved people to leave flowers and decorate, her grave would be pretty desolate," one of the ladies told me.
Not sure which, if any, were left by Approved People. Maybe they were busy cleaning up this mess, as reported by storybreaker TMZ. See more info at People.com. Not judging, just sayin. Thank you fans for being there to mark the day.
Shelly and I had been at the site for about ten minutes before a security guard (a Lyle Lovett lookalike-but-younger-and-cuter if I ever saw one) pulled up in his Forest Lawn issued truck and blue blazer, parked and approached us.
We told him up front that we knew about, but were not on the guest list, but that I had worked with Brittany (true, remember The Torkelsons?) and were paying respects. "You're not taking pictures are you," he asked in an I-know-you-were-but-I'm-giving-you-the-benefit tone, then asked us to move along.
Which we did. Over to nearby Lil Chris Baker. I wanted to show Shelly an example of the latest memorial marker craze: large, laser etched bronze tablets, his was closest.
That didn't sit well with Officer Lovett who then hiked up the hill after us, labeled us "obvious celebrity grave hunters," handed Shelly the card and asked us to leave the property -- which we did without further incident.
In all fairness, the man was just doing his job and was courteous albeit no-nonsense when giving us the boot.
Sad though. In the end, isn't it all about the love?
2009 seemed to be the year of heartbreaking celebrity deaths, capped off in late December with a true shocker.
One month ago today, lovable, energetic actress Brittany Murphy, 32, died after collapsing in the bathroom of the Hollywood Hills home that she shared with her husband of two years, photographerSimon Monjack, and mother, Sharon Murphy.
She was pronounced dead of apparent natural causes at 10:04am on December 20, 2009 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after attempts to revive her failed. An autopsy was performed (against Simon's wishes but in accordance with the law) at the Los Angeles Department of the Coroner. Foul play was not suspected. A final ruling on her cause of death is expected from the coroner within the next few weeks, after routine toxicology and tissue tests are completed. (Update 2/4/2010: Her death was ruled an accident caused by a combination of pneumonia, an iron deficiency and multiple legal drug intoxication ~ CNN.)
In an interview published today by the Associated Press, Simon and Sharon expressed dismay over "outright fabrications" in the press that point to drug abuse and an eating disorder. According to Simon, Brittany had a common heart conditon known as mitral valve prolapse where a heart
valve fails to properly close, but that her doctors did not consider it life-threatening.
Regardless, Sharon revealed that her daughter indeed had a fear of dying, and that now waiting for official answers as to why she died has been, not surprisingly, a torturous ordeal.
Brittany's funeral was held four days after her death, on Christmas Eve, at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills. Her family stated that the date was chosen because Christmas was her favorite holiday. The service was held at the cemetery's Church of the Hills, yards away from the grave of cinema cowboy and Christmastime icon, Gene "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" Autry.
The service was a well-publicized private event with only about 20 people on the guest list. Not the place I wanted to be, holiday or not, but I was asked to help cover story for the New York Post, so off I went.
Mourners began arriving about a half hour before the appointed 3pm service start time, and the celebration of her life got underway shortly after. Aside from several police cars driving around the property and Forest Lawn security personnel stationed outside the church, activity at the cemetery appeared somewhat normal, including several other burial services and visitors placing wreaths and other decorations on graves.
While news cameras and press photographers camped out at the entrance, my friends Jayne Osborne and Mark Masek, author of Hollywood Remains To Be Seen, arrived and helped me to pass the time logging the arrivals from inside the property. We stationed ourselves in the section across the street from the church, near the grave that holds a portion of the cremated remains of INXS frontman, Michael Hutchence. A pair of obvious paparrazi were camped out in a tinted-window vehicle nearby, and were eventually booted out by police.
Brittany was buried around sunset as the service moved graveside, in the Bright Eternity section, Lot 7402, Grave 1. Earlier in the day I hung out near that location and witnessed a cemetery crew preparing the ground. There I talked to some people who were visiting loved ones, and no one seemed aware that the fresh grave was for Brittany until a 4x4 zoomed up to the curb, driven by a man who whipped out a camera with a gigantic lens and shot off a round of about six pictures. "Someone should call the police," a woman visiting her father commented with disgust.
Not wishing to make enemies or offend anyone, I kept my little digital camera in my purse and slinked up to the top of the hilled section, where I sat undisturbed for about 30 minutes. These were the images I was able to capture for this story, showing the vault that would eventually hold her casket:
I returned to Forest Lawn two days later, on December 26, joined by my friend, Walter Acuña, and found her fresh grave adorned with flowers left from the funeral and patchwork sod typical of a new gravesite. The small yellow poinsettia plant was my own contribution to the floral tributes, purchased on my way to the cemetery from one of the roadside sellers.
Another new grave above Brittany had been prepared for a burial that morning. In fact, the hearse and caravan arrived while I was taking photos, so I scooted away. Death goes on.
Would you like to pay respect to Brittany, too? Here's directions:
Bright Eternity is located toward the back of the cemetery, near Lincoln Terrace. Upon entering the main gates, drive straight ahead. At the first stop sign, you will see the Church of the Hills on the left. Stay on Memorial Drive and continue past the Old North Church until you come to the Court of Liberty which features a statue of George Washington. Before you come to Lincoln Terrace and the Hall of Liberty, turn right, on to Lane Bell Blue. Bright Eternity will be on your left side, Murmuring Trees section wil be on your right.
Brittany's grave is between a marble bench and a statue of a woman with a baby, which I found heart-achingly touching considering that one of her goals for the new year was to start a family. Look for the ground marker 7402. Her grave is to its immediate right.
This past Sunday, I joined my friends Karen Fogerty, Luis Mata and his nephew, Matt, on another exploration of Forest Lawn before the predicted rain storm this week. When we visited Brittany we found two floral gifts, one appears to be the yellow poinsettia I had left earlier, in not too bad of shape. Someone had also left a framed photograph from "Breakfast at Tiffany's" - an apparent nod to Brittany's performance in the 2006 romantic comedy "Love And Other Disasters" in which her character is obsessed with Audrey Hepburn.
That day we also got a chance to peek inside the Church of the Hills where her service had taken place. It was set up for a memorial service that afternoon but the attendant was kind enough to allow us a few minutes to look around. Here's what it looks like when you walk in the front doors:
The other night I caught "Summer Catch" on the HBO Family Channel, in which Brittany appeared in a supporting role opposite Freddie Prinze Jr. back in 2001. A film now noteworthy to grave hunting triva buffs because Freddie's dad, comedian and "Chico and the Man" television star Freddie Prinze, was entombed in the Courts of Remembrance very near this church back in 1977.
A public memorial is currently being planned by Simon and Sharon for the end of February, at which time they will also officially launch the Brittany Murphy
Foundation, a charitable organization aimed at supporting causes she believed in, particulary arts education
for children.
For further reading, photographs and documentation about Brittany's death, check out my friend Scott Michaels' report on Findadeath.com.
I enjoy spending time exploring cemeteries, reading and photographing headstones of celebrities and civilians alike, and learning about the lives and deaths of these so-called "permanent residents" of the graveyards and mausoleums. This blog chronicles those experiences.
One of the cemeteries I'm most interested in these days is Grand View Memorial Park in Glendale, Calif. I wrote about its legal problems for the LA Daily News' community hub, ValleyNews.com from August 2006 to December 2008, when Valley News ceased operations. In response to reader requests to have one central source of information, I created and continue to maintain Grand View Memorial Park (dot) Info.
"We've gotten a front-row seat to all the twists and turns
taking place at the beleaguered cemetery, Grand View Memorial Park, from an intrepid citizen journalist named Lisa Burks." ~ Jason Kandel, ValleyNews.com Editor, 12/28/2006
