Wow, you just never know, do you? I was sitting here at the computer, messing around. I usually leave CNN.com open, just so I can check news every so often. But lately, there have not been any big headlines, other than the weather. Michele, the other Pop Culture blogger had just sent me an email. As I went to open it, a friend IMed me a message that said “OMG Anna Nicole Smith? Yikes.” I was like “What?” then Michele’s email opened telling me about Anna Nicole. One of Hollywood’s favorite oddball dames died today at the age of 39. I was in shocked. Anna Nicole has done a lot to shock us in the past, so when she did something shocking by normal standards, people rarely flinch anymore. But, I can truly say I did not expect this.
Anna has been in the news quite a bit in the last few years. If you don’t know the complete history, let me fill you in. Anna Nicole was a teen in Texas (she was Vickie Lynn then) when she married fast food coworker Billy Wayne Smith. That marriage didn’t last long, but it did produce Anna Nicole’s son Daniel. After the couple separated, Anna Nicole set out for Hollywood seeking fortune and fame. She found both, but one has to question whether she ever really found happiness.
She was Playboy’s 1993 Playmate of the Year. In 1994, she married Texas oilman Howard Marshall II, whom she had met while working as a topless dancer. What really raised eyebrows were that she was 26 and he was 89. He died the next year, which set off legal battles over his fortune that was still ongoing when she died. At one point, she was awarded $474 million, but then that was later overturned. She put on weight during the legal battles, telling Larry King that to hear in court that she never loved her husband and only married him for his money made her depressed. VH1 featured a reality show about her, but often reality for her seemed to be sad and bizarre.
At 5”11”, her weight ballooned from 140 to 224 until she lost 69 pounds by taking the Trimspa diet pill in 2003. Everyone thought she was back. She became the spokesperson for Trimspa and starred in a new movie. She announced she was pregnant in July 2006 and on September 7, she gave birth to a daughter, whose father was unidentified. She was in the Bahamas, apparently trying to avoid a paternity test that a former boyfriend was demanding. Anna Nicole has since said that her longtime lawyer and confidant, Howard K. Stern, was the father and the two married in an unofficial ceremony weeks after the baby was born.
A mere three days after the birth of her daughter, 20 year old Daniel was found dead in his mother’s hospital room, where she remained to recover from a c-section. A medical examiner said his body contained lethal doses of Zoloft, Lexapro, and methadone. The rumor has been that some of the drugs were obtained from his mother or Howard, as he only had a prescription for the Zoloft. His death is still under investigation. Anna Nicole named her daughter Dannielynn in his memory.
Today, Anna Nicole was found unconscious in her room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. She was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. So what happened to this sad beauty? There are some rumors that she had had a high fever the night before. Was her body weak from the weight gain then loss due to drugs? Could she have been depressed – either regular or postpartum – and overdosed?
No matter what happened, I guess it was just her time to go. People loved her looks because she resembled Marilyn Monroe, but it seems in more ways than one. Like I said, she found fame and fortune, but we cannot be sure she ever found happiness and even if she did, it was certainly peppered with sorrow the last six months.