Celebrities took to their keyboards and, in 140 characters or less, responded in a natural – yet somehow uncomfortable – display on Twitter.

Ashton Kutcher actually dated Brittany Murphy.   Here’s his twitter message:

Ashton Kutcher on Brittany Murphy via Twitter

So, kind of cool to see Ashton’s acknowledgement, but also kind of…shallow.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s nicely written with sincerity and all, but this is all Brittany gets from someone who dated her?  He did dedicate two tweets to her, so I suppose that’s something.

Alyssa Milano worked with Brittany once.  Only once and it was six years ago, which may explain why she spells Brittany as Brittney.

Alyssa Milano on Brittany Murphy via Twitter

Russell Simmons met Brittany a really long time ago, before she was even famous.  That’s probably why he spelled her name wrong.

Russell Simmons on Brittany Murphy via Twitter

I’m all for Twitter, all for eliminating the line between celebrity beings and human beings.  So, on the one hand, it’s encouraging to see the rich and famous speaking out on their own terms.  On the other hand, though, it seems disrespectful to spell her name wrong.   Not typo wrong, but  can’t-be-bothered-to-look-it-up wrong.  At least Kim Kardashian is honest about what Brittany Murphy meant to her (while still spelling her name wrong):

Kim Kardashian on Brittany Murphy via Twitter

I much prefer when celebrities make typos like us regular people.  You can tell  Shaquille O’Neal heard the news and just twittered this simple message in reaction.  Name spelled correctly?  Check.  Natural typos?  Check. The Real Shaq, keepin’ it real:

Shaq on Brittany Murphy via Twitter

Like Shaq, Alicia Silverstone seemed to twitter her simple, natural reaction.  Silverstone starred in Clueless with Brittany Murphy.

Alicia Silverstone on Brittany Murphy via Twitter

The following twitter messages also felt genuine on first read.  The celeb twitterers seemed to put more thought into who Brittany Murphy was, and what her death means.  They gave the impression they actually knew her, creating a sense of intimacy with these few short words.

Peter Facinelli on Brittany Murphy

Fred Durst on Brittany Murphy via Twitter

But, here’s the thing: on re-reads, those messages lose their power.  Twitter is about impulse and initial reaction; messages are of the moment and not necessarily meant to stand the test of time.  Sometimes, though, they do.   Without doubt,  the most memorable Brittany Murphy twitter message came from a most surprising source, one who many thought would have been the subject of this kind of news rather than a twitterer of it:  Lindsay Lohan.

Lindsay Lohan on Brittany Murphy via Twitter

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To quote South Park, “And…it’s gone….”

Might want to get the photo of Elliott as Murphy out of there guys.

But even more interesting is that if you go to the SNL page right now, the full episode that was hosted by Blake Lively on December 5th (with musical performance by Rihanna) is gone from the queue. It skips from 12/12/09 with Taylor Lautner to 11/21/09 with Joseph Gordon Levitt.

A little awkward, wouldn’t you say? Just disappearing an entire episode? No sign yet of whether or not they’ll post the whole episode with the Murphy bit edited out. The Hulu policy for SNL is that, “Episodes will be posted Sunday afternoons and are available for 17 days.” Technically I’d think that would mean the entire episode would be coming down on December 23rd, but there are some episodes (#6 and #7) that are up there longer than the 17 day timeframe.

So, I guess SNL got the message from angry Brittany Murphy fans pretty quickly that keeping up the video was out of bounds. This offers an interesting case of the PR problems in the digital age. In the past, it used to be that if something was below board, you could edit it out of the re-run. In the ‘everything goes online’ era, it’s potentially there in perpetuity (if anyone cares) to remind people what a jerk you might have been.

Image via Wikipedia

The latest word from the Associated Press is that Brittany Murphy may have died of ‘natural causes.’

Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said Murphy apparently collapsed in the bathroom, and authorities were looking into her medical history.

An official cause of death may not be determined for some time, since toxicology tests will be required, but “it appears to be natural,” Winter said. He said an autopsy was planned for Monday or Tuesday.

Winter said Murphy’s family was cooperating with the coroner’s investigation but would not be releasing a public statement Sunday. He said funeral arrangements have not been announced.

via News from The Associated Press.

TMZ had added the detail earlier this afternoon that while husband Simon Monjack did not want an autopsy to be performed, that had been shot down. And Murphy’s mother may have told paramedics that her daughter had diabetes. The toxicology test will ultimately determine whether or not the prescriptions she was on played any kind of role in her cardiac arrest

Over at Gawker, Foster Kamer has an interesting recap of Monjack’s history and his marriage to Murphy.

File this under ‘a little too close to home.’ Saturday Night Live featured a segment with Abby Elliott playing a somewhat incoherent, and very full of herself Brittany Murphy during a December 5th segment of Weekend Update with Seth Meyers (the Blake Lively/Rihanna episode):

It’s kind of interesting to note that both Elliott, the daughter of comedian-loved-by-other-comedians Chris Elliott, and Murphy did voices on Mike Judge’s ‘King of the Hill.’ Was there some sort of personal animus between the two that led to Elliott’s impersonation of Murphy? Anyways, that’s one less impersonation she’ll be able to provide to the show.

In the aftermath of Murphy’s death via apparent cardiac arrest, this is looking sort of extra-unkind. As a condolence gift to Murphy’s family, perhaps SNL and Hulu ought to pull this clip down.

Brittany Murphy, 1977-2009. (Image via Wikipedia)

While filmdom fans and writers are still gathering news about the unexpected death of actress Brittany Murphy today, they are recounting the up-and-down career and past successes of the doe-eyed woman with the unique speaking style and attention-grabbing voice — something akin to baby talk fed through 80-grit sandpaper.

And while the career of the former child actor had, at times, more twists than straightaways after she burst onto the national scene in the 1995 film “Clueless,” it was that unmistakable voice that gave Murphy her longest-running and, perhaps, most memorable role: Luanne Platter on Fox’s animated “King of the Hill.”

As the voice of Luanne for the show’s entire 13-year run, Murphy brought naiveté and cluelessness to the role of Hank Hill’s live-in niece, a girl whose mother was serving time for stabbing her father — an incident that sent the trusting girl into the arms of many, many men in search of a replacement family.

Luanne was apt to believe any slick line handed to her and follow any scheme that came down the Texas highway. But despite her dangerously simple intellect, this failed beautician school student and one-time member of the Communist Party (their candidate was the most handsome) also had a gift to make people happy — exemplified best by her Christian puppet show, The Manger Babies:

It was Murphy’s voice that gave Luanne life — and gave Luanne a sweetness of heart and spirit that made the character more than just a caricature of a ditzy country bumpkin. Luanne could have been simple, but Murphy’s trusting voice made her surprisingly deep. That was always part of the joy of watching “King of the Hill;” its cartoon characters were more full-bodied and full-blooded than most live-action sitcoms — and Murphy ably fit in the cast.

Brittany Murphy — and the spirit of Luanne Platter she brought to life — will be missed.

Over on Google, it’s a little bit better. Brittany Murphy is on top, but ‘Britney Murphy’ is not far below it:

At least everyone is spelling ‘Murphy’ correctly.

Bing, meanwhile, won’t let us under the hood, but if you look down at the bottom of their homepage, you can see that Microsoft’s decision engine is still trying to decide on this morning’s news instead of this afternoon’s hot trending story:

A long long time ago in True/Slant history, I blogged about how most Americans would probably die of swine flu because they didn’t know how to spell it – they were Googling ‘Swine flue.’ Looks like it’s happening again. One nation, under G-d, with liberty and misspellings of proper nouns for all.

Image via Wikipedia

TMZ is reporting that actress Brittany Murphy, who starred in “Clueless,” “Girl, Interrupted,” “Eight Mile,” and “Riding in Cars with Boys,” died after suffering a cardiac arrest in Los Angeles early Sunday morning. She was 32.

Read more:

Dish Rag

People

Us Weekly

Brittany Murphy in Beverly HIlls in March 2008 (David Livingston/Getty)

TMZ is reporting that actress Brittany Murphy, a leading lady in so many big films, has passed away this Sunday morning of an apparent cardiac arrest. Dead on arrival at the hospital, they say, and watch for this story to get uglier:

Brittany Murphy died early this morning after she went into full cardiac arrest and could not be revived, multiple sources tell TMZ.

She was 32.

A 911 call was made at 8:00 AM from a home in Los Angeles that is listed as belonging to her husband, Simon Monjack, the Los Angeles City Fire Department tells TMZ.

We're told Murphy was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

via Brittany Murphy Dies | TMZ.com.

Murphy played a tragic character in so many of her films – The Dead Girl, Girl, Interrupted, Don’t Say a Word, Drop Dead Gorgeous, 8 Mile, recently Deadline – so it’s a shame to see her candle snuffed out so young in her life She’s also got a couple of films in post-production according to IMDB, so we’re going to be hearing more about this story for a very long time.

Update: 2:55 pm – It turns out that the tabs and TMZ have had their eyes on Murphy and her husband Simon Monjack for some time. While Murphy apparently either quit or was fired from the set of a film in Puerto Rico in November, Monjack reportedly stopped breathing on an airplane and was rushed to a hospital from LAX, according to TMZ. USWeekly reported that Monjack had a criminal record and had in fact been arrested for overstaying a tourist visa, leading to some to refer to him as ‘con-jack.’ Monjack is a screenwriter whose credits include the film ‘Factory Girl,’ which centered on Andy Warhol’s Factory art collective in New York. This is only going to get worse.

3:03 PM – RadarOnline confirms that Brittany Murphy died this morning in LA of a cardiac arrest, adds that the coroner has been asked to take custody of the body from Cedars Sinai.

3:19 PM – LA Times is now reporting confirmation that Brittany Murphy has died as well (E-mail alert, no web link yet).

Former co-star in ‘Just Married’ and one-time boyfriend Ashton Kutcher, tweets his condolonces to Murphy and family:

The Wrap also clarifies the cause of death:

Barrows said cardiac arrest could mean any number of things, and was not an indication of the cause of death.

3:37 pm – Grim update from TMZ that Murphy was discovered unconscious in the shower by her mother.

Developing…