Brittany Murphy Foundation Not a Real Charity

According to the website, the Brittany Murphy Foundation "is dedicated to arts education for children, as well as supporting the USO and cancer research." But according to TMZ, they are doing no such thing.

The foundation was created by her widower, Simon Monjak and Murphy's mother, Sharon Murphy, and the website has been taking donations for a few weeks. As if that wasn't shady enough, the screenwriter had planned a launch event for the non-charity. He was asking that individuals donate $1,000 and corporations donate $10,000 to attend the event to honor the late actress.

Just days before the event, it was mysteriously postponed supposedly due to an illness in the family. Despite insisting that the launch was just postponed, almost two weeks later, there have been no news rescheduling. And now TMZ is reporting that the foundation was never really real to begin with.

Apparently, the foundation has yet to be registered with the IRS and the state of California. According to California Secretary of State's office this has not happened and according to the IRS, the foundation has not filed for a non-profit license. Technically, if a foundation is soliciting donations without all the paperwork, it must disclose the fact that it is not a registered non-profit organization. The website had no such statement.

After being contacted for comment, the foundation shut down the site for maintenance and it has not been put back up since. So what to make of this whole mess?

One explanation could be that perhaps they are behind on getting all the paperwork approved. This could certainly explain the delay of the launch until they were fully registered. However, that still doesn't explain why there is absolutely no record of the Brittany Murphy Foundation or filing at the IRS.

A more sinister possibility is that Monjak intended to scam unknowing philanthropists of their money in the name of his late wife. As terrible as that sounds, it doesn't seem unlikely considering he does not fit the profile of a loving grieving husband. Since her death, he has been on every TV talk show and magazine that would hear him out and the foundation could just be another way to cash in.

No matter how this situation shakes out, everyone can agree that this is certainly not the way to honor someone's memory. Even the studio that is releasing her last movie comes off as less money-hungry and disrespectful. The president of Anchor Bay Entertainment, the studio distributing the film, is quoted as saying "It was important to Anchor Bay that the timing of this release be right, because we're sensitive to such a tragic loss. However, we also recognize that Brittany's fans will want to see her amazing work."

The psychological thriller is called "Abandoned" and is slated for release in the US this summer. As for the off-screen drama, there are certainly more twists and turns to come. But I would maybe shy away from donating any money to anything created by Monjak.