Movie executives at Warner Brothers are firing back at "false, reprehensible, and defamatory" accusations levelled at them by actress Brittany Murphy's widower.
Producer Simon Monjack has hinted he's planning to file a wrongful-death suit against the movie studio bosses for allegedly firing the actress from Happy Feet 2 two weeks before her death.
He claims she suffered a heart attack as a result of stress related to being let go from the project.
Monjack recently told TheDailyBeast.com, "They killed her... She was devastated.
"All she wanted to do was to make movies. She was waiting for the role that would revive her career, waiting for the call from Penny Marshall or Gary Fleder, people she had worked with before, that they might remember how talented an actress she was and call with a new magical role."
But a Warner Brothers representative tells U.S. news show Access Hollywood that studio bosses aren't taking Monjack's accusations lightly: "Any claim that Warner Bros. Pictures was somehow responsible for Brittany Murphy's tragic death is demonstrably false, reprehensible, and defamatory.
"Despite press reports to the contrary, Warner Bros. Pictures and Ms. Murphy never entered into any deal for Happy Feet 2."