Front Row Dress Circle

American actress Brittany Murphy has died today from a reported heart attack at the age of 32. According to reports, her mother Sharon Murphy discovered her daughter unconscious in the shower. Paramedics determined that Brittany was in full cardiac arrest and administered CPR. They continued mouth-to-mouth as they sped to Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre but Brittany was pronounced dead on arrival at 10.04 a.m.

Speculation immediately began surrounding the cause of Brittany’s sudden death from cardiac arrest which is the same cause of Michael Jackson’s death in June. Police are still investigating the singer’s apparent dependency on prescription drugs. Today, Murphy’s friends said they feared that she died in a similar way to Jackson and Hollywood insiders said she had a long running problem with prescription drugs.

One source said: “We have been very worried that something like this was about to happen. Brittany has been living life on the edge. She definitely had a drug problem and we have all begged her to seek help. Sadly our words fell on deaf ears.”…

Another added that Murphy, who just over a month ago celebrated her 32nd birthday, had struggled to beat a prescription drug problem since becoming hooked on painkillers after undergoing a series of plastic surgery procedures. It was also claimed that the drugs she was using included Vicodin - a painkiller Michael Jackson was also known to abuse.

Brittany is also said to have suffered from eating disorders in the past which can cause weakness in the heart muscle and heart attack is a common cause of death for anorexics i.e Karen Carpenter in the 80’s.

Whatever the cause of this young woman’s death it is a tragedy for her family and admirers - she was too young for such a fate.

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It has been a hell of a journey this year for one ordinary woman who set out in February from her little council house in a Scottish town to travel to the Big Smoke to try her chance in a major talent contest. When Susan Boyle left her home that morning she wore a dress she had bought for her nephews wedding and with a packed lunch in her bag she made her way to London for the auditions of Britain’s Got Talent just hoping that the judges would like her voice.

And did they ever !

Today, just eleven months later, Susan can buy dresses from the top designers - if she cares to - has eaten in the top restaurants in New York City, has met the worlds most famous celebrities and counts them among her fans. She has endured as many highs and lows in just a few months as most stars do in several years - and she has come out a winner, a true Pro. When she stood on that stage back in February she told the sceptical judges and a sniggering audience that her dream was to be as famous as Elaine Paige - nobody is sniggering any more as Susan has realised that dream by singing on stage beside her idol. And in her own television show!

A few months ago I wrote about how Susan would handle her new found fame, how she represented the hopes and dreams of many ordinary people everywhere and how she is living proof that glamour and talent in a woman do not necessarily have to go together. Susan became as famous for her ordinary appearance as she did for her incredible voice - the glamour came later and doesn’t she look great?

Susan is proof that wonderful things can happen to the most ordinary of us - and that if you have a special talent and believe in yourself it is never too late to find success. How we define success is arbitrary - finding personal happiness and realising your dreams, no matter how small they are, is the greatest success of all. Well done SuBo!

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It sure is - the British public, those of them who had more than enough money to waste on phone-in votes and the minimum amount of brains to be able to dial the number - failed in their attempt to get rid of Katie Price from the show I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. Katie ‘walked’ of her own free will and good for her; after being a better sport than anyone would have imagined and completing six out of the seven bushtucker trials she decided enough was enough and it was time to give some of the other suckers a chance at all the free publicity Katie’s so-called ‘critics’ have willingly given her.

She showed viewers that she is still the up-for-it goer that she was when she appeared in the same show back in 2003. It’s an older and wiser Katie these days - she did not behave the way the nay-sayers all predicted and stayed away from any eligible males in the camp. Not that there were any - but the last time she dabbled with a male camp-mate she got saddled with a worm of a male who turned out to be a gold-digger and traitor. She’s well rid of Peter Andre that’s for sure.

She was good viewing while it lasted and offered a valuable opportunity to show my children how bullying can take different guises and how it can happen even to celebrities - but given British society these days such hatred and spite is not uncommon among members of the public.

I had to laugh when she and Kim Woodburn tried to eat the kangaroo testicles and fish eyes - their retching was hilarious even though it must have been awful for them, but when Katie had to eat the fried flies (as pictured above) I truly gagged and could not look. We Aussies have a full-on hate thing going with flies of any kind.

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