One year ago, I had to write an obituary for Anna Nicole Smith (she was, obviously, still living). I pasted what I had here, along with, again obviously, the true circumstances of her death.
Anna Nicole Smith, actress and former Playmate of the Year, died Thursday after being discovered unconscious in her hotel room in South Florida. She was 39.
Smith, born Vickie Lynn Hogan, made headlines recently due to her marriage to a very senior citizen, a bitter court battle, some significant weight gain, and proof that she isn't the brightest woman to grace the E! channel.
In her early 20s, Smith worked as an exotic dancer where she met wheelchair-bound, oil tycoon billionaire J. Howard Marshall, who reportedly paid for a cosmetic surgery to enhance her breasts (she insisted on having two implants inserted into each breast).
Smith was first on the cover of Playboy in 1992, earning her a contract to replace supermodel Claudia Schiffer in a Guess? jeans ad campaign. Tall, full-figured and blonde, Smith’s idol was Marilyn Monroe. Smith reached her peak when she was crowned 1993’s Playmate of the Year and became a Guess? Model.
But after a controversial marriage to 89-year-old Marshall in 1994 (she was 26), Smith developed a propensity for pills and alcohol and became the topic of choice for late-night hosts’ jokes. By several accounts, Smith had numerous relationships on the side during the marriage, including bodybuilder Clay Spires, actors Scott Baio and Rikki Lee Travolta.
But Smith also had suppossedly had relations with women, including Maria Antonia Cerrato who Smith allegedly proposed to on several occassions. Her most recent relationship was with Howard K. Stern, who claims to be the father of her 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn Hope.
After Marshall’s death in August 1995, Smith took on his son, E. Pierce Marshall, for half of her deceased husband’s $1.6 billion estate. Even though Marshall’s trust and will were updated weeks after their marriage, he did not include her in either. The case actually lasted longer than their marriage, with one judge awarding Smith $475 million, another awarding $88.5 million.
Smith’s career stalled during the 90s, with her acting in “The Hudsucker Proxy” and “Naked Gun 33 1/3” earning her a relegation to low-budget soft-core porn movies such as “Skyscraper.”
In 2002, the E! cable television channel gave Smith her own show that focused on her personal and private life. While the show’s debut was the highest rating show on the network, ratings progressively dropped with each passing episode. Critics blasted it, some saying it was so bad it deserved pity. Before the second season, producers of the show demanded that Smith drop some weight before shooting began, and with the help of TrimSpa, a supplement that claims to block fat from entering the body, Smith trimmed 80 pounds off and became a spokeswoman for the supplement. Smith, however, no longer has a TV audience: the show was canceled in February 2004 due to “creative differences.”
In November 2004, Smith was a presenter at the American Music Awards, her cryptic, murmured comments about her body and TrimSpa earning her attention in the tabloids, who speculated she was under the influence of pills or another substance. Smith’s representatives said she was in pain due to a series of grueling workouts and couldn’t read the prompter well because she is near-sighted and wasn’t wearing contact lenses.
Also, in March 2005, Smith spoofed Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction at the MTV Australia Video Music Awards when she pulled down her dress to reveal both breasts, each covered with the MTV logo.
While some have characterized Smith as irresponsible, senseless, gold-digging, and stupid, among other things, she gained a following, one that constantly found her in the spotlight and one that will treasure the life she lived, no matter how strange or absurd it was.
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