Gary didn’t want anyone to pull the plug
In case the Gary Coleman story wasn’t complicated enough already, at least two new legal documents have emerged that shed light onto the actor’s wishes for his healthcare and estate. In one, a medical directive filed in 2006, Gary specifically indicated that he wanted his life prolonged“as long as possible within the limits of generally accepted health care standards.” He did not check the the choice “not to prolong life,” meaning he probably wouldn’t have agreed with his ex wife’s twisted reasoning for pulling the plug on him after just 24 hours. Radar Online has an interview with one Gary’s lawyers, who claims that both Todd Bridges and Gary’s ex manager, Dion Mial, begged Shannon not to pull the plug on him. She of course didn’t listen to their pleas.

Gary had a third will, leaving everything to his girlfriend before Price
As Radar Online reported last week, Coleman had a third will, and the details have just been released. In 2005 he filed a will in which he named a girlfriend he was living with at the time, Anny Gray, as executor and heir. The date of the will falls in between a 1999 will in which he named former manager Dion Mial executor and a 2006 will that was amended with a handwritten note from Gary leaving everything to his then-wife, Shannon Price. The 2006 will was unsigned and was not notarized, meaning that will and the handwritten addendum/codicil may be invalid. What’s more is that by divorcing Shannon Gary may have also legally rendered the codicil invalid. In light of the new will, Mial has withdrawn his petition to be named executor.

Coleman’s relationship with Anna Gray
Gray was living with Coleman in 2005, and he named her the CEO of his corporation. A friend of Coleman’s states that Anna was “like the mother hen to Gary” and that they were platonic friends. Anna’s lawyer asserts that they “had a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship for quite a while.”

Coleman’s friend explains that when Coleman met Price, she muscled in and forced Gray out of the home. “When Shannon moved in, the relationship got difficult because Shannon didn’t like the fact that there was somebody else in his life. And, of course, he sided with [Shannon], and Anna was asked to leave.” Gray’s lawyer claims that Coleman was afraid of Price, but that “as much as I am lead to believe that Shannon would cause Gary harm and that he feared her, I don’t think there is any evidence to prove that she caused it.”

Cause of death released
Coleman’s body did undergo an autopsy, despite earlier claims by his ex manager, Dion Mial, that Price was working to block one. The cause of death has been released, and it’s been determined a “closed head injury,” caused by a fall and complicated by “chronic renal failure.” Shannon Price is listed as Gary’s wife although she divorced him in 2008.

Cremation plans for Gary
There has been no funeral yet for Coleman due to the various parties fighting over his estate. A court ruled in a hearing attended by Shannon Price yesterday that Coleman should be cremated, as per his wishes, by Wednesday. This is to allow Gray time enough to travel from Oregon to Utah to see him. Gray’s attorney explained that “She’s attached to him. She cared about him. She just wants to see him again.”

Shannon Price continues to fight for the estate
Meanwhile Shannon Price is continuing the fight for Coleman’s estate. She has allegedly removed almost everything from the home she shared with him, except for his clothing and bed. She was also seen taking legal documents. Gray’s lawyer plans to file a restraining order against Price, and tells Radar Online that her objectives are obvious:

“I would not have cared one bit if she went into his house and took her personal things, but I understand… nothing is left in the home beyond Gary’s bed and his clothing.

“That is completely disrespectful and a further indication of what her objectives are.”

Price is working to have herself declared Coleman’s common law wife so that she can secure rights to his estate. While he was generally considered broke, he’s eligible for a pension that could run into the millions. His estate will also have licensing rights to his image. Price has already earned $10,000 for selling a photo of herself posing with Gary while he was on his deathbed.

Photos of Price at yesterday’s hearing in Provo, UT from Deseret Morning News via Radar Online

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Gary Coleman’s adoptive parents were on The Today Show this morning, and they seemed like such nice, normal people, especially in comparison to the cold evil bitch that was living with Gary when he had that “accident” that resulted in his death. Sue and Willie Coleman haven’t seen their son Gary in over 20 years, but you could tell they loved him and to me they seemed genuinely upset that he was gone.

The Colemans explained that they heard that their son Gary had an accident well before Shannon Price called them about it. A few days later she left them a rude, detached message in which she said “Thank you for your interest… my brother is handling the arrangements.” In their Today Show interview, they tentatively discussed the rumors that Shannon had a hand in their son’s death, saying they weren’t pointing fingers, and called the deathbed photos “disturbing.” Gary’s mom gave Shannon the benefit of the doubt, though, and said she didn’t know if the photos were taken with the intention of selling them. The two also denied the story that they’d stolen Gary’s earnings as a child. We’ll have more on that in a moment. Here’s E! Online’s recap, with more at the source.

The Colemans, who adopted Gary when he was just four days old, said they heard about his son’s initial fall and hospitalization while visiting family in Arkansas. They were never contacted by Shannon or anyone connected with their son and after some serious researching—Sue phoned up the Provo Sheriff’s Department to ask them to get Price to phone them with news—they finally received a message. Albeit not for several days.

“She called and left a message—the strangest message I have heard in my life,” Willie said. “When someone is hurting like we were at that time, to leave a message like, ‘Listen, OK, hi, this is Shannon Price. Thanks for your interest. If you need more information, my brother is handling the arrangements.’”

And while fingers were almost instantly pointed at Price for any number of issues connected to his death—his initial fall, the deathbed photos, the battle for his remains—the Colemans have not and will not lob any such accusations. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t looking for answers.

“The first information we got was that there was an accident, 911 was called and he was taken to the hospital,” Sue said. “We want to know what kind of an accident.

“I can’t say we actually know everything [now], but I do feel a bit better because we got a report from the coroner that said there was no foul play, so that did make us feel a lot better.”

As for those deathbed photos, like the rest of humanity, the Colemans thought them absolutely abhorrent.

“That was disturbing. I don’t know if that was her intentions in the beginning when she was taking those pictures,” Sue said, going on to say that she hoped profit wasn’t at the forefront of Price’s mind when she first posed for the camera.

However, the Colemans also note that they don’t blame Price for his death because, whether he was with or not (and incidentally, they were thrilled when the duo tied the knot since it meant Gary would have a “companion” and “not be alone”), his death was in some ways, inevitable.

“His body had come to the point when it had reached the epitome of his sickness,” Willie said. “He was on dialysis. Eventually that was gonna lead to a shutdown…We’re not pointing fingers.”

As for why their relationship deteriorated—while there have been brief interludes of contact, most recently at the start of the decade, they have been estranged for several decades—that’s one area where the Colemans are pointing fingers.

“Outside interference,” Willie said. “Influence.”

Both parents dismissed the notion that his adoption was kept secret or a source of tension, at least on their side, saying that they told Gary when he was five years old that he was adopted.

“He was told, he did not want to deal with it and he asked us to please not discuss it,” Sue said. “And we didn’t.”

She said Gary regularly saw a psychiatrist, and they brought it up during a session, though were once again shot down. “He never ever came to us and said ‘Why, how, who,’ anything. If he had, we would definitely have tried.”

Incidentally, it’s when Gary’s so-called confidantes took over the responsibility of taking Gary to therapy (or not, as the case may be) that “this whole thing blew out of proportion.”

“All of this is nonsense, all of this is untrue. Everything that’s been said about us is untrue.”

Of the lawsuit Gary filed against his parents, accusing them of stealing millions from him, the Colemans have always denied the accusations yet never held his actions against him.

“I don’t know, he wanted to be his own man,” Sue said. “As far as the money goes, we would never have taken money from him. We weren’t raised that way.”

The Colemans, who kept a room in their house for Gary throughout their estrangement in the hopes that he would one day return or have a change of heart, also addressed Bridges’ recent comments that “there was a reason” for the decades-long estrangement.

“I don’t know what Todd’s perception of us is and at this point it really doesn’t matter,” Sue said. “As far as the document goes, I have no idea what that is. As far as I know, the two of them didn’t have any close communication for years there. It seems that just since—

“The book…,” Willie interjected, referring to Bridges’ new memoir, and the publicity he’s since gained from inserting himself into the story.

“Since [Gary] has passed on, that this relationship has seemed to be closer,” Sue finished.

And while everyone else seems to be fighting to insert themselves into Coleman’s inheritance, don’t expect his parents to enter the fray. Asked directly if they had any plans to fight the will, Sue responded:

“Not at all, not at all. Why would we? There’s enough going on. There’s enough disrespect toward him with all this going on, we would not be a part of that.”

[From E! Online]

The truth expert at Eyes for Lies reviewed this video of the Colemans, and she’s not convinced that they didn’t steal Gary’s money, as he sued them for back in 1989. She writes that they’re playing innocent and that “I suspect these two have convinced themselves that they didn’t ”steal’ anything from their son. People who do things that are questionable often have selective memories or go into denial, because, after all, who wants to remember ‘their ugly’?

I believe Gary had valid reasons for cutting off his parents for 20 years. He felt so strongly he left them out of his will entirely and specifically.” (Eyes has more on this story and why she’s not buying their excuses.)

Poor Gary. He had parents who stole his money, but they still seem like they cared way more about him than the wife who sold his deathbed pictures and wants to get ahold of his pension. He was taken advantage of his entire life. Even the friend who is speaking out on his behalf has a book to sell, although if anyone seems like they’re telling the truth in this scenario, it’s Todd Bridges.

Yesterday we took a break from covering the Gary Coleman story because frankly I was disgusted with it. The details are horrific and point, at the very least, to a non-grieving ex wife with absolutely no sympathy or regard for a man who she pulled the plug on. Shannon Price coldly sold a photo of the man she supposed loved lying dead and helpless on his hospital bed and is granting interviews in which she seems to have only disdain for Gary. At the worst she murdered him in a scheme to take over his future earnings and the licensing rights to his image.

Price is of course pressing on with her claims to Gary’s estate. He may have been broke, but like Michael Jackson his name and pension are worth enough money to ensure that she never has to work again. There’s a battle brewing between Price and the executor of a 1999 will from Gary, his former manager Dion Mial. Price has produced a supposed handwritten 2007 addendum/codicil to a different 2006 will in which Gary names Price as his sole heir. The statement even includes an over the top declaration by Gary of how much he loved Price, which sounds to me like it was coerced. Gary never signed or notarized the 2006 will, though. (Note: People incorrectly reports in their coverage that it’s a 2007 will. The will is from 2006, according to TMZ. The handwritten addendum is from 2007, and was signed by Gary, but not notarized.) The codicil could also be invalid due to the fact that Gary and Shannon were legally divorced in 2008.

Of course Shannon is unrelenting, and is trying to declare herself Gary’s common law wife. Funeral details are still pending given all these unresolved legal issues. Shannon’s rep is giving ridiculous statements about how her client is supposedly all broken up over the fact that she can’t properly deal with the remains of the guy she took off life support without a second though. I hope she gets her ass handed to her in court.

The National Enquirer is reporting in their print edition that Shannon regularly physically and emotionally abused Gary and that they were divorced in 2008 due to an affair she was having with a local mechanic. Shannon started freeloading off Gary again and moved back in with him once that relationship ended.

A lot of you have wondered why there has been no official investigation into Gary’s death. Cops tell Radar Online that foul play has not been ruled out, but that it’s not suspected either. Officially, the investigation is still open, but unless there’s evidence pointing to Shannon as a suspect it’s doubtful that anything will come of that. The executor of Gary’s 1999 will, Dion Mial, tells Radar that he can’t get an autopsy on Gary’s body and that “Shannon Price is responsible for blocking any investigation”.

Shannon Price has achieved her objective and has sold photos of her posing next to a helpless Gary Coleman in the hospital while he’s hooked up to life support. That photo is on the f’ing COVER of The Globe, something that I hope prompts a massive boycott of the cheapest, most vile rag on the market. I don’t think even the now defunct News of the World would stoop to this level.

I am not telling you where I saw this image or linking to it, it’s frankly that disturbing. The thing is, this photo will be out on supermarket stands for the next week. It should come with a severe warning but it’s going to be out there for everyone, including little kids, to see. It frankly makes me want to cry and throw up at the same time. I still feel sick to my stomach.

This woman is despicable and the lowest form of trash. I hope that the judge ultimately presiding over Gary’s estate will hear all about this and ensure that she doesn’t get access to a dime of his money. That poor man – not to mention his friends and family! That’s got to break their hearts that Price put this picture out there.

Radar Online has some interviews with Gary’s ex costar, Todd Bridges. In one, Bridges discusses the deathbed photos and says “That’s insane. I could never imagine doing that… I would never be that mad at somebody to ever do something so dreadful and horrible to them.” Shannon’s rep has admitted that her client posed for the photos, but claims she never “intended” for them to be released. She didn’t intend for them to get out until the money was right. I heard that she’s asking more for the one where Gary is actually dead.

Update: Popeater reports that Price was paid just $10,000 for these pictures by The Globe. She sold out her husband’s last minutes for $10k.

Header photo from 1999. Photo below from 2008. Credit: PRPhotos

A lot of you have wondered why Gary Coleman’s evil ex wife was so eager to get her greedy mitts on his estate, considering that he was broke. We may have the answer from Coleman’s former co-star, Todd Bridges. Bridges revealed to Radar Online that he will personally receive separate monthly pension from the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists Unions that are worth $13,000 a month from when he’s 55 up until his death. It’s unclear what amount would go to Gary’s estate or survivors, but Bridges estimates that it would be substantially more than the $156,000 a year he’s entitled to as Gary made about twice as much as he did on Diff’rent Strokes. “[Gary] may have died with no money, but his pension is huge.” He added that “a pension never ends when a person dies. It goes to the next person… in the will” and explained that when a person passes away the estate can get the entire pension at once.

Bridges assures us that Gary’s money will go to charity, but that might not be his choice. His ex manager Dion Mia, who he named in 1999 as the executor, and his ex wife, Shannon Price, are currently battling over control of the late actor’s estate. Fortunately Gary had the sense to divorce Shannon in 2008 and she may have no legal rights despite being named in a 2007 addendum/codicil to the will as his new executor. According to Bridges, Dion is a trustworthy guy and will ensure that Gary’s money is donated as he wished.

Licensing for Gary’s image could be worth millions
E! Online has more on Gary’s worth, and they quote a lawyer who explains that the licensing rights to Gary’s image may be worth a mint. “There may be some value to the rights over his likeness going forward. And his estate will still own that as an asset. This is the entertainment business; that value could be in the millions.” Gary hated his “What’choo talkin’ bout” catchphrase, I remember him grumbling about it on The Surreal Life. If his ex Shannon Price gets hold of his estate, we may be looking at talking Arnold Jackson dolls and Gary’s diminutive avatar as an extra in video games. The rights to Gary’s image, as well as his pension, should provide plenty of motivation for Price to fight to be named the main beneficiary. It also sounds like she had enough reasons to pull the plug on the guy sooner rather than later.

Third will has been uncovered
After I wrote this story and was just about to publish it, Radar reported that a third will has been uncovered that’s more recent than the 1999 will and is not the handwritten codicil naming Price as Gary’s beneficiary. How much do you want to bet the new will just happened to be in Shannon’s possession until it was uncovered? Radar claims that it “was created by a lawyer and it’s substantially different from the 1999 will… [it] should be filed within a couple of weeks at the latest.” What took so long for this new will to come out? Did Shannon have to get help writing it?

Yesterday we saw two more interviews with Gary Coleman’s scary ex, Shannon Price, who has been cashing in on his death by shopping paid interviews in the $50,000 range. Price also reportedly sold photos of Gary taken in the hospital for at least five figures. She’s even said to be charging more for a photo taken after Gary was dead. This is despite the fact that Shannon claimed she was looking out for Gary’s interests and that she wasn’t going to have a funeral in order to honor his wishes. “He didn’t want people to see him that way… so I’m going to do what he wants.”

It’s obvious that Price is a disturbed individual who is plotting ways to profit off her husbands death. She’s also scheming to inherit whatever he had left. She said on Entertainment Tonight that she had a more recent will from Gary than the one from 1999 held by his former manager, and that of course “he wanted me to have everything.” A handwritten 2007 addendum to the earlier will does exist, according to Radar Online. However a lawyer for the executor states that the statement from Gary leaving everything to Shannon is invalid now that they’re divorced.

As RadarOnline.com revealed, the Diff’rent Strokes star left behind two wills: an original he authored in 1999 and a second, leaving everything to Shannon Price, the 24-year-old who is weathering a storm of controversy in the wake of her ex-husband’s death. The second will is actually a hand-written codicil.

Utah attorney Kent Alderman — who represents Dion Mial, the man named as the executor of Coleman’s estate — has claimed the hand-written codicil, written in 2007, is invalid because Price and Coleman later divorced.

“The act of getting divorced would revoke that will,” Utah attorney Stephen J. Buhler told RadarOnline.com.

“Unless she [Shannon] could show something that stated he [Gary] intended to leave everything to her even after the divorce, the will is null and void.”

“If they just had something handwritten, they probably did not think about the consequences later if they should get divorced.”

Mial is named as executor of Coleman’s 1999 will and stands to benefit substantially because of a trust provision, which his lawyer Kent Alderman tells RadarOnline.com stands as the valid will.

“It’s at least a presumption that once you get divorced you don’t intend on leaving everything to that person anymore,” Buhler concluded.

Shannon appeared on Good Morning America Monday saying her and Gary had intended to remarry, but never did.

[From Radar Online]

Radar has some follow-ups to this story, with a claim from Shannon’s rep that she was “double crossed” by the executor after she paid his legal bills to help fight a challenge by Gary’s parents to the late actor’s now-canceled funeral in Utah. Shannon now claims to be locked out of her home, with a vague accusation that the executor is responsible. It sounds like she’s grasping at straws in an attempt to discredit the guy who stands to inherit the money she considers hers.

Shannon is of course fighting for her right to milk Gary’s estate dry after she’s done dancing on his corpse. Her rep tells Radar that “We have a retained a high-profile attorney. We have enough documentation that shows that everything will go to Shannon.” I hope the judge that presides over this case has a chance to watch some of the interviews that Shannon granted after Gary’s death. There’s no question that she regarded him as little more than a cash machine. Thank goodness Gary had the sense to divorce her, but it’s a shame that he never kicked her out of the house. His life may have depended on it.

Price’s ET interview. Her GMA interview is below

Gary Coleman’s ex wife, Shannon Price, couldn’t get her story straight in her 911 call about how Gary sustained the head wound that ultimately resulted in his death. Now she can’t get her story straight about why she pulled him off of life support after just 24 hours. She gave three different reasons in a taped interview made just a day after his death, saying first that doctors told her surgery was too risky, then that Coleman would be a vegetable after they operated, then that doctors said that Gary’s heart was too weak.

She told TMZ “The doctors told us that even if they did surgery on [Gary], he would have died, he would have bled to death during the surgery. They said that even if they did take a chunk out of his brain he would not be the same. He would basically be like Mohammed Ali… he would have died sooner or later anyway from that… he wouldn’t have made it anyway, his heart would have just given out.”

Contradicts self again on why she pulled the plug
So which was it? According to a new interview with ET (above) which will air in multiple parts, doctors told her she had to pull life support right away because Gary’s heart was going to give out. She said “They were like, ‘you need to do this soon,’ because they were like ‘I don’t even think his heart is gonna make it overnight.’ They thought his heart would stop overnight.” That makes the least sense out of all the excuses she gave. If you pull life support the heart stops working anyway, so there would be no urgency to take him off life support if his heart was going to give out. Either way, the poor guy is dead.

Then on Good Morning America she gave yet another story, saying “The doctors advised me that it was grim… he went into cardiac arrest as well. The doctors said this was the best thing for him.” That’s not the same story she told ET.

Price also laughably claimed that taking Gary off life support was the hardest decision she’d ever made and that she didn’t want to do it so soon. So why did she, then? Because his heart was going to give out, or because it already did?

Claims to have a new will from Gary
On ET she claimed to have another will from Gary and added that “he wanted me to have everything.” Price contradicted herself when she was asked if Gary had any assets. She said he wasn’t broke but that they did have financial problems. Late last week, a will from 1997 1999 emerged that was held by Gary’s former business manager. Unfortunately Radar Online reports that there is yet another will that was just unearthed that was drawn up in 2007, which may support Shannon’s version. Shannon and Gary were married in August, 2007. They were divorced in 2008, but Shannon told both ET and GMA that they considered that a mistake and were about to renew their vows.

Changes her story on whether Gary wanted a funeral
In an earlier interview with TMZ, Shannon asked fans to help chip in to pay for his funeral, which she said she couldn’t afford. A funeral was originally planned in Utah, where Shannon and Gary were living, for last Saturday. It was canceled in light of a legal challenge from Gary’s estranged parents that was ultimately dropped.

On ET Shannon completely changed her story. She claimed that Gary wanted to be cremated and added “Gary didn’t want a funeral, he didn’t want a viewing, he didn’t want people to see him that way. Gary’s my best interest right now [sic] so I’m going to do what he wants.”

Gary’s death photos have been sold by Shannon
If Gary didn’t want to be seen that way, then why is this bitch selling photos of his dead body to the press? TMZ reports that Shannon has already brokered a deal with a major outlet for the photos, for which she was allegedly asking at least five figures.

Arrives at Good Morning America interview in a wheelchair
Price was also on Good Morning America defending herself. She arrived at her pre-taped GMA interview in a wheelchair and tried to play the sympathy card by claiming she could “barely get around.” At one point she stopped the interview, saying she was afraid she was going to have a seizure. She used this same flimsy excuse during the 911 call for not dealing with the blood. She still dealt with the blood, though, and described Gary’s head wound to the operator, as Eyes for Lies pointed out.

Lies about being with Gary during the 911 call
Price claimed on GMA that she was with Gary “the whole time” while she was on the phone with 911. That’s not true at all, because she left the room and had to be asked to return to Gary.

On contacting Gary’s parents
“My brother called them, and talked to the mother and was like ‘if you have any questions, let me know.’ And she really didn’t say anything.”

Maybe Gary’s mother didn’t say anything because she had just been informed that her 42 year-old son was dead and she was still in shock from it.

It’s hard to document all the ways that Shannon Price is contradicting herself, and sh*tting on Gary’s memory. It’s clear that Gary’s death is probably the best thing that’s happened to her in some time, and that she may even have been waiting anxiously for it. Whether or not she helped hasten it we may never know, but she surely is capitalizing on it. Price may be making money with this interviews but she’s not doing her public image any favors. She comes across as one mean, cold bitch.

I didn’t want to title this story “Gary Coleman death photos for sale,” but that’s basically what it is. We heard from Gary’s ex wife, Shannon Price, that she was broke and needed money to pay for Gary’s funeral, which was to be held last weekend but was canceled in light of a legal challenge from his family followed by the emergence of a will from 1999. The late actor’s funeral is now pending, with Coleman’s former manager stepping in on his behalf to state that Price cannot hold a funeral or take control of Coleman’s assets. The executor noted that Price has “absolutely no rights or authority, with regard to the disposition of Gary’s remains, services, estate management.”

On the 911 tape and in subsequent interviews posted on TMZ, Price seemed to have absolutely no empathy for Gary and was very matter of fact about both his supposed accident and her decision to pull the plug after only one day on life support. She also went on at length about how she loved to spend money in Vegas and get pampered. That’s a curious topic for a woman who just lost the ex she was living with and still refers to as her husband.

Now TMZ reports that some photos have emerged of Coleman in the hospital on life support, and right after he was taken off support and was already dead. Given how Price has reacted so far, and the fact that only immediate family and hospital personnel would be allowed in the room, she’s the primary suspect as the source. (Price had an advance healthcare directive from Coleman that allowed her to make medical decisions for him, even though they were divorced at the time of his “accident”.) The photos are being shopped for around five figures:

TMZ has learned a series of photos of Gary Coleman in the hospital are being shopped around to the media — and in one of the photos … Gary is already dead.

We’ve seen one of the photos and declined to even look at the rest. In the pic, Gary is in the hospital, his eyes are closed and he is hooked up to a ventilation machine. It is not a pleasant sight.

The person selling the photos claims to have four photos — the one we were shown was taken about an hour before he died. The final photo was taken after he was taken off life support.

Asking price is in the low five figures.

[From CNN]

That just makes my stomach turn. This guy was taken advantage of by being put into show business as a small child, and he never got over that. He ended up married to a woman who was so cold and unfeeling she (probably) is taking advantage of him in death too. You know he would hate that, and it’s doubtful his 1999 will contains a provision for blocking photos of him in the media after he died. Who would imagine that a loved one would stoop that f’ing low?

Adding credence to the assumption that Shannon is the one selling the photos, she’s also trying to sell a video tour of the home where Coleman died, and is asking up to $50,000 for video interviews, according to Radar Online.

Photo below thanks to TMZ

I thought that after Gary Coleman died we’d mourn the loss of a child actor who lived a hard knock life and that would be the end of the story. Instead there are all these legal and ethical issues surrounding his death and estate. The circumstances of his death seem suspicious, especially in light of the very callous way his ex wife described Gary’s bleeding head wound to the 911 operator. She was more concerned with having to deal with the sight of blood than helping her dying husband.

Yesterday we saw an eye-opening video with Gary’s ex, Shannon Price, defending her decision to pull life support after just one day and denying that she had any hand in his accident. It was unconvincing to say the least, especially in light of the fact that Price seemed to care less about what happened to Gary than one might care about a pet. She wasn’t broken up about his death at all.

TMZ has more videos with Price, taken just one day after Gary’s death. She’s even worse in the follow-up segments and goes on at length about how she loved to spend money in Vegas and the fact that she has no money to pay for the actor’s funeral. Price asks fans to chip in to pay for the funeral. In another video, she declares that Gary wasn’t like Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears because he didn’t party all the time. Then she says she respected the fact that Gary didn’t want to hang out with other celebrities as they have issues. Whatever happened to Gary, he was not surrounded by people who gave a sh*t about him. This woman is vile and was probably using Gary for his money and status.

There’s news that Gary’s parents, who were estranged from him for his entire adult life, want possession of his body so they can properly bury their son. Gary sued his parents in 1989 for allegedly stealing his earnings from Diff’rent Strokes, something they deny and blame on a business manager. They now have filed a probate action, meaning they want a court to decide what to do with the body and whatever was left of Gary’s estate. Along with the probate action, they issued an ominous statement that “they’ve heard the rumors” without specifying exactly what they heard.

Since Shannon Price divorced Gary in 2008, the Colemans may be able to bury Gary in their hometown of Illinois, depending on what the courts decide. Gary’s funeral in Utah, where he was living with Shannon, was scheduled for Saturday. Shannon can’t pay for it anyway and probably doesn’t care what happens to Gary’s body as long as she can keep the plasma TV and that car he gave her. She’s probably long spent whatever was left of his money considering that she bitched to TMZ that she was broke.

There may be a solution to all of the issues over Gary’s estate and burial. His old costar, Todd Bridges, claims to have paperwork containing Coleman’s wishes as to how his death and estate be handled. It presumably cuts his parents out entirely. Bridges explained to ET:

“[A friend of mine and I] have paperwork, and we’ll bring it out soon, that will show what his wishes were and what he wanted,” Bridges said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. “There’s a big fight going on with his parents and some other people involved, and after we bring this paperwork out, everybody’s going to shut up…”

Gary had certain wishes [to exclude his parents]. I’m not going to go against a dying man’s wishes,” Bridges continued. “There’s a reason why he didn’t speak to them for 23 years…”

Bridges, meanwhile, said that his former pal had recently had heart surgery, in addition to a history of kidney problems and seizures, and asked fans to remember Coleman kindly, despite his sometimes troubled adulthood.

“Imagine having major health problems. Imagine getting ripped off of all your money. Imagine being raised in a household where he wasn’t taught how to love himself or to love others around him,” said Bridges. “So when he hit the world at an adult age, he wasn’t prepared.”

[From E! Online]

Even with this new paperwork from Bridges, it sounds like this battle is far from over. I hope we don’t see more of Shannon Price unless she’s being hauled in for questioning, though. She is one scary individual.

Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges are shown in 2006. Gary is shown alone in the header in 2008. Those photos credit: WENN.com. Other photos are screencaps from videos available on TMZ.com

TMZ has a new interview with Shannon Price, Gary Coleman’s ex wife and the only person in the home when Gary suffered a massive head wound that was ultimately fatal. The interview is frankly disturbing as Shannon is visibly angry and defiant and doesn’t seem at all broken up over Gary’s death. We’ve heard the 911 tape, in which Shannon couldn’t deal with the fact that there was all this blood in the house and kept making excuses for why she couldn’t help Gary or drive him to the hospital. According to Shannon, she was upstairs when she asked Gary to go downstairs and make her some food. She heard a thud, went downstairs to check on him, and was confronted with all this blood that she couldn’t handle. The way she described it to the 911 operator didn’t add up to me, because she first claimed she had asked him to make her some food, then added that he just got home. She even changed her wording at one point. She said “I just saw my – I had my husband go make me something downstairs. He just got home, I heard this big bang. I went downstairs, blood everywhere. I don’t know if he’s ok.” It’s possible it all happened like that and she was in shock and couldn’t remember. It’s just that she was so concerned about herself on the tape that it seemed suspicious.

Anyway Shannon tells TMZ on tape that she didn’t push Gary. As TMZ points out in their coverage, no one accused Shannon of pushing Gary so it’s hard to know how she’s coming up with that. She’s kind of scary to me, sneering and saying “I was upstairs. He was downstairs. How am I going to push him?… Why would I want to hurt my husband?” There’s a real defiance in her tone, and it’s possible she’s just super pissed off that anyone is accusing her of having a hand in Gary’s death. Anger is a natural response to being accused unfairly, but it’s weird to me that she’s asking why she would want to hurt her husband instead of saying something simple like “I loved Gary, I would never hurt him.” I’ve read that you have to watch out for people who ask another question instead of answering a question directly.

When Shannon described why she decided to take Gary off life support, she was completely matter of fact and very cold about it. She said “the doctors told us that even if they did surgery on [Gary], he would have died, he would have bled to death during the surgery. They said that even if they did take a chunk out of his brain he would not be the same. He would basically be like Mohammed Ali… he would have died sooner or later anyway from that.”

Shannon claims her motivation in speaking out is to defend herself against speculation that she both hurt Gary and took him off life support too early. She explained “He wouldn’t have made it anyway, his heart would have just given out. I don’t want people to sit there and think I’m a bitch and I didn’t care about him… Be in my situation. I mean look what happened with Terri Schiavo. I always think of her case… Gary was gone. His eyes were dilated.”

As for why she’s grateful to Gary, she explained “He’s done a lot for me. He bought me a car, which he chose to do. Which I never asked him for. I thought that was very sweet of him to do that.”

The only thing that Shannon can come up with that’s nice to say about Gary is that he bought her a car? It doesn’t seem like she cared for Gary all that much or is in mourning over his death.

I asked the truth expert at Eyes for Lies to review the video. She told me via e-mail that “[Shannon] gives off indications that she is could be psychopathic — she has no idea what empathy is!! Gary doesn’t matter at all. She doesn’t miss him, feel bad for him — heck he would have just been a vegetable, if they did surgery. He just wouldn’t have been the same! She is one of the coldest people I’ve ever seen.” Here is a link to Eyes’ full review of the interview. She calls Shannon, “cold, cunning, and creepy” and adds “she is very off and needs to be looked at with a magnifying glass.”