First off, I should say I have mixed feelings about the media circus that the circumstances surrounding Brittany Murphy's death continue to drag out (although, of course, compared to Michael or even Heath, it's more like a media small-town-summer-carnival-with-maybe-one-sketchy-looking-ride). I am obviously a diehard Clueless fan, but even aside from that, I think she had some pretty incredible performances in some really fantastic movies (anything co-starring Ashton Kutcher notwithstanding), and always seemed like a likeable, sweet Irish-Italian girl who came from genuinely tough circumstances to make it big.


I also think things got pretty shady for her, between the eating disorder and drug allegations and her marriage to Brit Simon Monjack, who, let's face it, no one had really heard of until Brittany died in December. I want wholeheartedly to give darling Brittany the benefit of the doubt about the whole "natural causes" thing, and for her family to be allowed to mourn her in privacy.

But this is the Internet, and besides, if the message that comes out of all this is to tell young girls 'Oh hey, not eating and doing cocaine, etc. might kill you,' that seems like a pretty solid statement to promote.

So on that note, the latest shady developments, courtesy of TMZ and Perez:

Assistant coroner Ed Winter from the LA Coroner's office spoke with both Monjack and Brittany's mother Sharon (both of whom were reported to be cooperative) after a source reported that a guy was coming to Murphy's house on a weekly basis dropping off manila envelopes addressed to "Lola", the contents of which were as-of-yet unidentified prescription meds.

Even more puzzling, there's no record of Brittany having visited a doctor in the months before her death...although she apparently had several medical conditions and experienced serious abdominal pain days before she died.