Faded

I was taking Jason to a friend's house when it came over the radio that Brittany Murphy died today. I always feel a bit strange when effected by the death of someone I didn't know and never met. How is it possible to feel like I've lost a friend I never had in the first place?

A lot of celebrities have died this year. But none of them touched me like Brittany Murphy's death. Michael Jackson was a living legend; how can one even begin to relate to that? Patrick Swayze and Farrah Fawcett were both icons; symbols but also very human. Heath Ledger was a rising star.

They were all in unique positions, which unless one had shared the experience, it would be very difficult to identify with. Perhaps it's because she began her career playing the weird, unattractive best friend (Boy Meets World, Clueless). Everyone I'm sure has felt like that, bottom of the rung. But how many of us have felt on top of the world?

After losing weight and bleaching her hair, it seemed as though her career was taking a turn for the better with her fantastic performance in Don't Say A Word. A role not many would have been able to pull off. But then came movies like Just Married and Uptown Girls. Movies written by the numbers, passionless and empty. Movies that were far below the great talent she possessed. Movies that she or her manager probably thought would make her the next Sandra Bullock. Unfortunately they accomplished the opposite and her career spiraled into cinematic obscurity.

Perhaps it is this quality that made her more accessible; someone I could identify with. Even in the movies she headlined, she always seemed to be forced to take second chair to co stars like Ashton Kutcher and Dakota Fanning. She wasn't a star but a very talented actress who was in a few high profile films. An artist, not a celebrity. A real human being and not an image. Tangible. Someone like you or me.