Hubby Blames Studio for Brittany Murphy's Death, Plans to Sue

Simon Monjack believes wife's firing from Happy Feet sequel increased her stress and triggered heart attack

Whenever tragedy strikes, someone's always to blame, especially in Hollywood.

Brittany Murphy died suddenly Dec. 20, and her husband feels someone has to pay.

Although the official cause of death has yet to be announced pending toxicology test results, Simon Monjack is ready to point fingers at Warner Bros., which fired the 32-year-old actress from the sequel to Happy Feet just two weeks before her death.

"They killed her," he tells The Daily Beast.

And now, Monjack says, he's just days away from filing a wrongful-death lawsuit against the studio.

Both Monjack and the starlet's mother, Sharon, insist Murphy had a heart attack directly caused by the stress of being released from the animated film, which left her "devastated."

It didn't help that one month beforehand, Murphy was let go from The Caller so the moviemakers could go to the greener pastures of New Moon's resident reject, Rachelle Lefevre. Murphy's ouster was reportedly due to her and Monjack being difficult on the Puerto Rico set.

But he insists the so-called difficulty was merely him protecting his wife.

"Reports about the Puerto Rican set are fantasy," he insists. "I was never, ever drunk there. What I did do was demand they follow union rules and after she worked 12-hour days, six days a week, that she get the breaks she was entitled to…Warner Bros. relied on conjecture and hearsay about the Puerto Rico film for why they cancelled Brittany's role in Happy Feet. You're disposable as an actress or actor."