Gary Coleman's ex-wife seeks control of estate

The ex-wife of Gary Coleman filed a petition Thursday in a Utah court to be appointed as the special administrator of the former child actor's estate, The Associated Press reports.

The petition filed in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, said even though Coleman and Shannon Price were divorced in 2008, she is still his common law wife and that she should be the one to make funeral arrangements.

Price referred to Coleman as her husband when she called 911 on May 26, saying the actor had fallen and was bleeding severely from the back of his head.

Coleman died May 28 after suffering a brain hemorrhage and his last-known will names friend and former manager Dion Mial as his estate's executor.

Coleman said in the 1999 will that he wanted to be remembered in a wake conducted by people who had no financial ties to the star of the sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes." Coleman met Price in 2005 on the set of the movie "Church Ball." The couple married in 2007 and divorced the next year.

The documents said Price and Coleman lived together at his Santaquin home until his death, maintained joint bank accounts and had sexual relations.

Coleman was still conscious when he was taken to a hospital in Provo, but slipped into unconsciousness the next day and was placed on life support. Price - named in an advanced health care directive - ordered that he be taken off it.