Brittany Murphy to be laid to rest in Christmas Eve service at same LA cemetery as Michael Jackson

By Chris Johnson

Brittany Murphy will be laid to rest in the Los Angeles Hollywood Hills

Tragic Brittany Murphy will be laid to rest on Christmas Eve in the same cemetery as Michael Jackson.

Insiders say a funeral for the actress - who died on Sunday at the age of 32 - will take place tomorrow at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Los Angeles Hollywood Hills.


The service is listed as 'strictly private'. According to reports, Murphy's body has now arrived at the cemetery in preparation for the service.

The Clueless star died on Sunday morning after collapsing at her Los Angeles home and suffering a cardiac arrest.

Her father Angelo Bertolotti is not invited to her funeral, RadarOnline.com reported.

Bertolotti had been estranged from Brittany and her mother for the past eight years.

He told the website he was too sad to attend even if he had been invited.

'I just don’t want to see that happen, I just want to remember her alive,' he said.
But he added he will go and visit her grave. 'I’ll wait about a month to go out there,' he said.

Bertolotti is struggling to comprehend the sudden passing of his daughter.

'She had health problems, that was a fact, but nothing that I thought would come to this,' he said.

News of her funeral comes as pictures emerged of the actress on the set of what will be her last film - psychological thriller Abandoned.

In the movie, which she only finished shooting in the late summer, Murphy, 32, stars as Mary Walsh, a woman who believes her husband has vanished and is fighting not only to find him but to counter threats to her own life and sanity.

Meanwhile producers behind another movie the actress was set to star in have decided to recast her role.

Shrinking Charlotte producer Darren VanCleave has told celebrity website TMZ that he has decided to forge ahead with the project, and will dedicate the movie to the late actress.

VanCleave hasn't thought about who will be replacing Murphy yet, with the film put on hold until the new year.

Shrinking Charlotte is romantic comedy about three single men who stalk and date a woman in therapy in order to learn about honesty, fate, and eventually love. It was expected to be released in 2010.


The Forest Lawn Memorial Park, located in the Los Angeles Hollywood Hills


It emerged on Tuesday that ten different types of medication were found on Murphy's bedside table by an officer from Los Angeles County Coroner's department, according to reports.

The discovery fuelled concerns her death may have been caused by an addiction to over-the-counter pills.

The bottles were in several different names including Miss Murphy, her mother Sharon and her husband, British director Simon Monjack.

They contained anti-depressants, anti-convulsants, anti-inflammatories and antibiotics.

A post-mortem examination was carried out on Monday but it will take several weeks before the results of toxicology and neurological tests are revealed.

But Mr Monjack, who was questioned about his wife's death yesterday, insisted she had not died of a drugs overdose and revealed they planned to start a family next year


A newly released picture shows Murphy on the set of her last movie, Abandoned


Michael Jackson, who died in June, was also laid to rest at the Forest Lawn Park


'She was an only child,' he said. 'She wanted a baby. Her dream next year was to have a child, and we talked about how he or she would look. She'd say, "They'd better have your eyes and lips and my hair".'

Although he initially opposed a post-mortem examination, he was over-ruled by the coroner.

'My initial reaction to the autopsy was they are going to cut her open,' Mr Monjack said. 'I could not bear it. That would break her mother but we realised we needed to know.'

In an interview with U.S. magazine People, he revealed his wife of almost three years had suffered from a heart murmur, which causes fatigue, dizziness and irregular heartbeats.

The condition is not life threatening and she was not taking any medication to treat it. The actress had also been suffering from laryngitis in the days leading up to her death.

'She was on herbal remedies that wouldn't speed up her heart,' Mr Monjack said. 'There was nothing here that could endanger her; there was prescription medication in the house for her female time and some cough syrup. That was it.'


source: dailymail