[UPDATED] Gawker Asks: Who is Simon Monjack? Well, Here’s What He Wants You to Know

Simon Monjack, Brittany Murphy

This question is the first domino in a series that will fall all over your news cycle for the next week or so, friendo: Who is Simon Monjack, husband of the late Brittany Murphy, and why didn’t he want an autopsy done on his newly-deceased, 32-year-old actress wife?

Only Monjack can answer the question about the autopsy (EDIT: a commenter noted that Monjack, as a Jew, may simply have objected to an autopsy for faith-based reasons. However, even this article on Jews and autopsies, written from an Orthodox perspective, stated that the Jewish prohibition against autopsies is “not absolute.” Reform Judaism, in fact, permits autopsies as long as they increase medical knowledge or help relieve suffering). We do have a bit of what the Internet has yielded on Monjack, aside from the litany of accusations and allegations listed by Gawker’s Foster Kamer in his comprehensive breakdown of Web commentary about Monjack’s sketchiness made on a variety of gossip blogs over the last 4 years or so.

Who does Simon Monjack want you to think he is, then? Well, let’s go to MySpace, the ultimate home of all things sketchy on the Web:

I am professional photographer/ filmmaker/ writer /composer living and working in Los Angeles with my wife, the wonderfully talented actress/ musician, Brittany Murphy. I can speak for her in the fact that we both aspire to make great art and hope to be seen as artists as well as unique and talented human beings.

Simon Monjack, via the MySpace profile he last logged into in April of 2008, wanted you to know he was married to Brittany Murphy.

Monjack embraced social networking up till 2008. He even opened an account on Friendster, which was, by then, about as dead as a site like that could get. And on Friendster, Monjack wrote:

I am professional photographer/ filmmaker/ writer /composer living and working in Los Angeles with my wife, the wonderfully talented actress/ musician, Brittany Murphy. I also work closely with charities such as Amnesty International and I have a $250,000 ballet scholarship that helps underprivileged children dance. We both aspire to make great art and enjoy life!

Clearly, Simon Monjack wanted people to know one thing for sure – he was married to Brittany Murphy, dammit.

Now, on his minimal Twitter account – just a handful of posts, again, made in the Spring of 2008, Monjack didn’t mention BRITTANY MURPHY directly, but his profile pic certainly made it clear: SIMON MONJACK WAS MARRIED TO BRITTANY MURPHY.

Monjack also had a mostly unused profile on Buzznet.com. There he clearly was attempting to establish his own, independent identity from his younger, famous wife, a profile worthy of a man involved in the production of movies like Factory Girl and Two Days, Nine Lives, which you’ve never heard of (maybe Factory Girl, but I doubt it) and are the ONLY credits listed for Monjack on his IMDB profile.

Well, maybe not that clearly, since there was a nice photo on the Buzznet profile that made one thing clear: SIMON MONJACK WAS MARRIED TO BRITTANY MOTHERFUCKING MURPHY.

Even a colleague like Kathy Najimy, who clearly had great regard and affection for Brittany Murphy, went so far as to admit on Twitter that Murphy was “a talented angel who got hooked up with [the] wrong people.”

Was Najimy referring to Simon Monjack? Is it even fair to begin scrutinizing the man now, when he may simply be a grieving husband?

Perhaps. Negative mentions of Monjack by relatively trustworthy sources go back to at least 2004. In June of that year the New York Post mentioned Monjack in the context of his relationship with Alexandra Kerry, the daughter of Senator and then presidential candidate John Kerry:

THINGS are heating up between presidential hopeful John Kerry’s filmmaker daughter Alexandra (above) and well-traveled Brit producer Simon Monjack . Last month, we reported the pair hooked up at the Cannes film fest, where Alexandra was photographed in a see-through dress. Now we’re told Monjack, whom some accuse of padding his resume, is producing Alexandra’s next movie. Their growing intimacy has some Kerry supporters worried that Monjack’s colorful pastmay come back to haunt the candidate if the affair gets serious.

Emphasis was added.

Then there is this, from late May of 2007, shortly after Brittany Murphy and Monjack married, in an unusually low-key ceremony – the source is the British World Entertainment News Network:

Actress BRITTANY MURPHY’s new British husband faces deportation after outstaying his work visa, according to U.S. reports.

The JUST MARRIED star stunned Hollywood when she wed producer SIMON MONJACK earlier this month (May07) and now U.S. tabloid the National Enquirer has exposed the Brit as an illegal visitor.

A spokesperson for ICE was quoted as saying Monjack had overstayed his visa and was in danger of being deported.

Perhaps Foster Kamer put it best when writing about Simon Monjack for Gawker:

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Murphy was reportedly diabetic, and that may or may not have had something to do with the circumstances surrounding her death. But Monjack’s about to enter a world of unprecedented scrutiny.

Based on the public record where Monjack is concerned, Web-based gossip aside, that scrutiny may be well-deserved. Add in Monjack’s own record of pointedly hooking up with high-profile women of means as well as his obvious desire to link himself in Web profiles with his talented wife and you have a guy who will have to go through this fire no matter what really happened to Brittany Murphy.

UPDATE

Monjack’s formal answer to questions about who he is can be found here: SimonMonjackPhotography.com. From his bio page:

Simon Monjack has been at the cutting edge of art, fashion and film for two decades and on two continents.  From being one of the key players in the burgeoning BritArt scene (being responsible for Damien Hirst’s first gallery show) in London to establishing, owning and running the seminal media company New-Jack Productions in New York.  Simon has been a behind the scenes player making major waves with his keen eye for talent and unparalleled vision for pop culture and the time and space it inhabits.

As a filmmaker Simon’s critically acclaimed first feature opened to reviews like ‘a brilliant debut’ at the Cannes Film Festival, before he went on to co-write and produce the cult film Factory Girl about the Warhol ’60s.  Simon has photographed for dozens of magazines across Europe and in the US including Flaunt and Vogue this year alone and the list of celebrities he has captured with his unique lens is never ending.  Simon is known as a fashion photographer with an eye for composition and an understanding of beauty that starts with discovering talent and ends with the perfection of a moment, dress, look or captivating eyes that form the iconoclastic body of work he has produced.

Monjack’s favorite subject appeared to be (understandably) his wife, as screencaps from the site show below:

Further info on Simon Monjack’s past – if it is relevant at all – can be found at Roger Friedman’s Showbiz411. Friedman details some of Monjack’s past financial dealings, most notably problems Monjack has had with ex-wife Simone Bienne, a British TV personality whom Monjack married in Las Vegas in 2001 (they later divorced in the United Kingdom).

[Gawker, TMZ, OMG]