Brittany Murphy's husband, screenwriter Simon Monjack, was the cause of her firing last month from a movie project being filmed in Puerto Rico at the time, according to a Hollywood Reporter columnist.

Director Michael Z. Gordon, who had hired Murphy for an upcoming project, told Roger Friedman that producers on the Puerto Rican shoot tried to warn him about her husband, Simon Monjack, who some have referred to as “Conjack.” Gordon said they told him that “Monjack came on the set inebriated. The producers wanted to keep him away. Brittany of course defended him. And so she was let go.”

Two other producers, who were not named, described Monjack as “a con man” and “a dangerous guy.” Friedman also reports that Monjack apparently had money troubles, had been evicted from a New York apartment, and was arrested one month prior to his 2007 marriage to Murphy because his visa had expired.

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