Mother Plans to Sue City Over Fatal Blaze

STAMFORD -- The mother of three daughters killed in a Christmas morning house fire in December plans to sue the city, officials said Thursday.



Joseph Capalbo, Stamford's legal affairs director, confirmed that a Massachusetts attorney representing Madonna Badger sent a notice of intent to sue via certified mail to the city legal department and the town clerk Thursday. Capalbo said he could not comment on the contents of the notice because he hadn't seen it.



The notice was sent by Frank Corso, a personal injury attorney with offices in Boston and Rehoboth, Mass., who declined to comment Thursday afternoon.



"I'm unable to talk to you right now," Corso said, before hanging up.



Badger lost her parents and three daughters -- 9-year-old Lily and 7-year-old twins Sarah and Grace -- on Dec. 25 when a raging fire tore through her 116-year-old, three-story home on Shippan Point, an affluent waterfront community on Long Island Sound.



The notice from Badger adds to the growing collection of legal matters arising from the fatal fire.



Last month, attorneys for Matthew Badger, the estranged husband of Madonna Badger, filed a notice of intent to sue city officials for negligence in their inspections of the home before the fire. The notice further alleged that city building officials intentionally destroyed evidence when they demolished what was left of Madonna Badger's home a day after the fire.



At the time, Capalbo rebutted the claims in Matthew Badger's notice to sue and called the allegations "baseless and without merit."



In late April, an insurance company covering contractor Michael Borcina's company, Tiberias Construction, filed a lawsuit asking a New York state judge to release it from defending lawsuits and paying claims related to the fire because of alleged misrepresentations on his applications and yearly reports.



An initial investigation revealed the fire began after Borcina, a friend of Madonna Badger, cleaned out the fireplace shortly after 3 a.m., placing embers in a bag and leaving them inside a new mudroom, or just outside in an enclosed trash bin.



Borcina and Madonna Badger escaped the fire. The three girls and Madonna Badger's mother, Pauline Johnson, died from smoke inhalation. Her father, Lomer Johnson, died from blunt head trauma suffered in a fall outside a second-floor window and onto the roof.



Police and fire officials described the blaze as accidental and said no arrests were anticipated, but State's Attorney David Cohen has been reviewing an investigation of the fire since February and will make the decision whether criminal charges are filed.



A demolition crew tore the house down on Dec. 26. City Chief Building Official Robert DeMarco inspected what was left of the home with Stamford Fire Marshal Barry Callahan before declaring the building unsafe and issuing the order to have it razed.



DeMarco has said he checked with the city fire marshal's office before ordering the demolition.

It's Official: Chaz Bono Gets Legal Name (and Gender) Change

(PEOPLE.com) -- A year after undergoing a sex change, Chaz Bono is now legally a man.

A Santa Monica, Calif., judge granted the political and social activist's petition for a gender and name change Thursday, according to a spokesperson for the Transgender Law Center, which represented Bono.

"Chaz couldn't be happier," said Kristina Wertz, legal director for the Transgender Law Center. "This is an important step in his transition and will allow him to change a variety of his identity documents to show who he truly is."

Born Chastity Bono to famous parents Cher and Sonny Bono, Chaz started the female-to-male sex change March 2009, shortly after his 40th birthday.

"It's hard for me to articulate how this feels -- when you've lived your whole life in a body and having everybody relate to you as something you don't feel," Bono, 41,told PEOPLE back in December. "When that finally gets righted, it's just amazing. I finally get to live my life the way I've always wanted to."

Brittany Murphy's Husband May Not Be In Will

NY Daily News- Actress Brittany Murphy's husband Simon Monjack may not be included in the 32-year-old actress's will, according to new reports.

Murphy, who died Sunday morning after suffering cardiac arrest in her Los Angeles home, had drafted a will before she married Monjack in 2007, reports TMZ.com.

The will leaves Murphy's entire estate to her mother, Sharon Murphy, according to TMZ.com.

It was not immediately clear of the will had ever been amended to include her husband.

Just one day after the actress' shocking death, Monjack told Access Hollywood, "My world was destroyed."

He said Sunday was just "a regular day," and though Murphy had seen a doctor about laryngitis, Monjack attributed her sickness to exhaustion from filming two movies this year.

According to TMZ, notes written by an investigator from the L.A. County Coroner's office state that Murphy had a history of hypoglycemia and was hospitalized in April 2009 for low blood sugar while working on a film in Oregon.

The actress had also been complaining of shortness of breath and severe abdominal pain" for seven to 10 days before she died.

The actress is said to have gone into the bathroom at around 7:30 a.m. and shut the door.

"[Her mother] Sharon went into the bathroom because she had been in there a long time," Monjack said. "Her mom screamed for me and I ran. Then called 911."

According to the notes, Murphy's mother called 911 and Monjack "attempted to revive the decedent by placing her in the shower and running the water.

"The decedent remained unresponsive and purged her stomach contents prior to the arrival of the paramedics."

Sadly, the actress was "without signs of life" by the time paramedics arrived.

The L.A. County Coroner's office, however, has discovered a surprising amount of prescription medications in Murphy's home.

Some were reportedly prescribed to Murphy, and others to Monjack and her mother, Sharon.

Among them were Topamax (an anti-seizure med that also prevents migraines), Methylprednisolone (anti-inflammatory), Fluoxetine (depression med), Klonopin (anxiety med), Carbamazepinean (treats Diabetic symptoms, as well as bipolar med) Ativan (anxiety med), Vicoprofen (pain reliever), Propranolol (for hypertension, used to prevent heart attacks), Biaxin (antibiotic), Hydrocodone (pain med) and miscellaneous vitamins.

Many of the bottles were reportedly found empty.