Yes, it is possible to be both a bereaved widower AND a scam artist: Meet Simon Monjack
By claire daniel — Written on Feb 15, 2010
Yes, it is possible to be both a bereaved widower AND a bit of a scam artist: Meet Simon Monjack.
He's the man who sued Hollywood for Brittany, claiming that "they" broke her already-fragile heart by ignoring her talent and marginalizing her success. Unfortunately, autopsy results proved otherwise: Brittany Murphy Died From "Drug Intoxication"
He also set up The Brittany Murphy Foundation, a "charitable organization" that would fund arts education for children in his late wife's honor and under her good name.
Turns out the foundation, which has been soliticing funds since last month, isn't really a foundation at all. As TMZ discovered, the foundation is not registered as a charity with the IRS or the state of California, as required by law. Oops.
After the TMZ story broke the website went down for maintenance, but now this is up:
Dear friends,
We began the Brittany Murphy Foundation to honor Brittany's wishes and to give her family, friends, and fans a way of keeping her legacy alive. In an effort to get the foundation off the ground quickly, we established it as a private foundation with plans to apply for nonprofit status down the road. However, after some thought, we have decided instead to wait until we have our nonprofit status approved before proceeding to ensure that we can truly honor Brittany's charitable desires. Any donations made up until this point will be returned until we have all our paperwork solidified.
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We would like to thank the thousands of people who have reached out with kind words of love and support; you have made the hardest journey a little bit easier.
We hope you will bear with us and check back regularly for updates on the foundation. We hope to have it back up and running as soon as possible.
If you have any questions or want to write to us, please feel free to email us at info@brittanymurphyfoundation.org.
With love and sincere gratitude,
Sharon Murphy and Simon Monjack
For a man with an IQ higher than Einstein, it's hard to believe that this is something that he just overlooked. But then again, even Albert Einstein could forget