People: Brittany Murphy, Frank Zappa
Published 3:13 pm Tuesday, December 21, 2010
The Los Angeles County coroner’s office said it has completed an autopsy of Brittany Murphy on Monday but will defer releasing a cause of death until after toxicology tests are complete. It says there was no evidence of trauma to Murphy’s body.
Murphy died Sunday after collapsing in the bathroom of her Hollywood Hills home. The 32-year-old appeared in films such as “Clueless,” “8 Mile” and “Girl, Interrupted.”
Assistant chief coroner Ed Winter said her family told coroner’s investigators she had been suffering from flu-like symptoms in the days before her death. Earlier in the day, he said the death appeared to be from natural causes.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where Murphy was pronounced dead, said she died of cardiac arrest.
Baltimore’s mayor has declared a Frank Zappa Day on the birthday of the late rocker and native son.
Mayor Sheila Dixon declared the special day Monday. The eccentric musician was born in Baltimore on Dec. 21, 1940. He died in 1993.
Last week, Baltimore’s public art commission decided that it will erect a bust of Zappa outside a public library.
The bust was given to Baltimore by fans of Zappa from Lithuania, where his music was popular among the avant-garde in the early 1990s. A similar bust is a tourist attraction in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital.
A California appeals court on Monday rejected Roman Polanski’s bid to have his 32-year-old sex case dismissed, but cited grave concerns over possible judicial and prosecutorial misconduct.
The California 2nd District Court of Appeal announced it had denied the petition, with justices saying they are “deeply concerned” about the probable misconduct by a now-deceased judge and a retired prosecutor who advised him.
The appeals court faulted Polanski for fleeing the country rather than seeking legal remedies. But it also said repeatedly it is time for the case to be over.
Polanski is under house arrest at his Swiss chalet.
Polanski fled the United States in 1978 on the eve of sentencing; he had pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful sexual contact with Samantha Geimer. Polanski was accused of plying the teen with champagne and part of a Quaalude pill, then raping her during a modeling shoot at Jack Nicholson’s house in 1977.
Associated Press
