Oh, What Tangled Webs We Weave…

The death of Anna Nicole Smith late last week underscores, in my mind, nothing but profound sadness on so very many levels. At very least of these is the end of a young life that excelled in open embrace of all that is wrong and harmful. And in death, Smith is and will continue to be used and abused as she was in life. She is already more famous dead than alive.



And the pack of wild dogs circle wildly their kill on a Serengeti plain.



Unlike her idol Marilyn Monroe, Smith had no identifiable talent other than her voluptuous body and sultry beauty. And Smith spent untold fortunes to create that body and market it solely for the world to admire. Yet it wasn’t her looks that made her a household word, but her trashy lifestyle constantly plastered on tabloid tv programs and magazines for us all to behold and talk about over the Monday-thru-Friday water cooler at work.



Anna Nicole Smith became infamous only through the years and years of her love affair with depravity and making sure we all watched it. We’ve watched her many years battling with renowned drug abuse. We’ve watched scenes of her passing out from alcohol and/or drugs in her limos and even sickly encouraging her dog to hump pillows on her reality tv show. We watched the decade-long legal battle between Smith and descendants for half of the estate of her billionaire husband of two years that led to the US Supreme Court and remains unresolved. We’ve watcher her constant battles with weight and binge-eating that gained her a spokesmanship for TrimSpa products that now is under suit, along with the Smith estate, for false claims of weight loss. We watched and mocked her slurring words and slitted eyes at recent MTV awards.



We reveled in the news of the birth of a daughter with at least four potential fathers now (one speculated by her sister in her soon-to-be-released book that Anna Nicole froze some of the billionaire’s sperm and the child was the result of artificial insemination). We were stunned to learn of the death of her 20-year-old son Daniel in her hospital room three days after giving birth to her daughter. And her “commitment ceremony” to Howard K. Stern seemed to exploit this infant daughter when the pictures were plastered over worldwide tabloids a mere two weeks after Daniel died and which also brought about the paternity suit by Larry Birkhead in California.



Ironically, had she lived and recuperated, we would have watched her planned visit before the Sultan of Brunei, a small oil-rich country near China and Indonesia, that is predominantly Muslim and holds a mandatory death penalty for anyone convicted there of importing controlled substances.



Smith knew better than most how trash sells in our world, and she was absolutely masterful in doing so. Before drugs wore her down, she was calculated and shrewd. Of that I have no doubt.



Her death comes not at the surprise of anyone, nor is there anyone left in her life of fast acquaintances caring enough about Anna, the person, to pick up any vestiges of what she could have been. Clearly, no one close to her, namely Howard K. Stern, has made any obvious attempts to actually help Smith in her battles. Indeed, the truth seems very far away from that.



The circumstances surround Smith’s death tell me volumes as to how she could never have found the love she so desperately sought in her life, and how the means in which she sought and tried to cope without it hastened her demise. I never thought I could be shocked by anything surrounding Anna Nicole Smith, but the events unfolding since her death have totally eclipsed any stunt she ever pulled while alive.



Smith and Stern arrived last Monday in Hollywood, FL to look for a yacht, while their financial ability to actually purchase one is at question. After all, Smith’s previous attorney raked up a bill of more than $100,000, that he has practically given up hope of ever recovering. He was replaced by her present counsel, Ron Rale.



By late Tuesday, an unidentified physician from California was called in to examine Smith and presumably treat her (or direct treatment) for flu-like symptoms. On Wednesday (when the doctor may actually have examined her), Smith was running a mid-range to high fever and was quite ill.



Traveling with Smith and Stern was Smith’s personal nurse and a personal bodyguard.



(The baby girl, Dannielynn, born just last September, was left behind in the Bahamas with the Immigration Minister Shane Gibson and his wife. Minister Gibson granted Smith residency, in an unbelievable quick manner, based upon Smith’s claim that the Bahamas mansion she and Stern were living in was a gift to her and therefore owned by her.)



According to Florida authorities’ reports to media, on Thursday, Smith’s nurse was “working” in their room on the sixth floor of the Seminole’s Hard Rock Casino and Hotel and noticed that Smith was not breathing at approximately 1:45 p.m.



What the nurse reportedly did next is rather interesting to me.



According to authorities, the nurse immediately called for the bodyguard, then she tried to reach Stern by telephone. She was unable to reach him at first, left a message and waited some 5-7 minutes for Stern to call back. Meanwhile, the bodyguard is administering CPR. The nurse either received a call from Stern or gave up waiting. After this 5-7 minute period after calling in the bodyguard to help, she finally called the hotel operator, who called 911. Emergency personnel reached Smith’s hotel room in approximately 10 minutes, intubated Smith and continued CPR.



Therefore, nearly 20 minutes lapsed between the time the nurse found her not breathing and medical help arrived. This bodyguard cannot be praised enough for his attempts, which were nothing less than exhaustive.



Upon Smith’s arrival at the hospital there at 2:45 p.m., she was immediately pronounced dead. A witness at the hospital reports seeing the ambulance arrive and watching Smith being removed from the ambulance already sealed in a bag on the gurney.



While Florida authorities were unable to clearly identify a disease or natural cause for Smith’s death in their preliminary autopsy, Smith’s own mother stated to Good Morning American Friday that she believes drugs will be the cause. Formal toxicology reports are not due for another five to six weeks for final confirmation of that belief.



What we do know since the weekend is that Anna Nicole was taking up to ten different prescription medications daily. Most of these meds were used to control pain following the two separate breast surgeries that she has undergone since her infant daughter was born last September. One was an augmentation, and the second was to repair scars from previous breast implant surgeries.



Several different media reports of hotel workers and authorities near the case have stated that Anna Nicole’s bedside at the Seminole Hotel & Casino was completely littered with a myriad of different pill bottles. Some of the bottles were empty, some half full, and they contained Vicoden, Valium, amphetamines, antibiotics…and one report insisted that a bottle of Methadone was also found in the hotel room in Florida. Some six or eight paper grocery bags of evidence were removed by police from her sixth floor hotel room on the day of her death.



Methadone, as you may recall, was the main culprit found in combination with other drugs, namely morphine, that were determined as preliminary cause of the death of Smith’s 20-year-old son Daniel. Reportedly, witnesses at the Bahamas hospital where Smith’s infant daughter was born have claimed that Smith’s lover and long-time attorney Stern not only supplied Daniel with Methadone, but flushed two capsules down the toilet immediately after they noticed Daniel was dead and found them in his pocket.



Before her body had even cooled from her death last Thursday afternoon, home videos of Smith being taken out of the hotel and placed into an ambulance, with an EMT administering CPR, were sold for a reported $500K. That same video was leaked for free on German television within hours, drastically reducing the video’s selling price in value. Anna Nicole Smith memorabilia has sold like hotcakes on Ebay throughout the weekend, selling at strong prices that before her death were without value or interest at all.



Everyone who can wants to cash in.



Less than 24 hours after Anna Nicole’s death, Zsa Zsa Gabor’s octogenarian husband also made a statement to the press professing that he had enjoyed a decade-long affair with Smith and that he was the actual father of the child.



I place this announcement of Prince Frederick’s in the category of sick humor.



Also within the first 24 hours, paternity litigant Larry Birkhead, held an emergency hearing in California courts that has ordered Smith’s body be held for ten days until briefs regarding the California court’s jurisdiction over Smith’s corpse can be presented and heard. DNA evidence was routinely obtained in Florida during Smith’s autopsy, which will be preserved for use in the paternity case and any other necessary matters.



It is important to note here that the California court clearly established jurisdiction over Smith (alive at the time) (as the location of the child’s conception in this case) to regarding her daughter’s paternity matter filed there. About six weeks ago, the court had ordered Smith, Stern and Birkhead to submit to DNA testing, which Stern has delayed by virtue of Smith’s residency having been established in the Bahamas. With Smith’s death now, it seems highly unlikely to me that this California court can retain any jurisdiction in this custody battle, at least not without the expressed permission of the Bahamas courts. In my mind, Larry Birkhead will have to file a new case in the Bahamas and probably will.



Today we see photographs, probably photoshopped, of a small bedroom refrigerator full of prescription bottles, vials of Morphine, a tall Methadone bottle, TrimSpa products and even Slim-Fast beverage cans that were reportedly taken in the Bahamas mansion where Smith was staying with Stern before and since the baby’s birth, an example of yet another trying to cash in on her death. Morphine was a notable element discovered, in autopsy, of Smith’s son, Daniel. So this photo’s intent, other than profiteering, is at question.



Over the weekend, several items have been reported missing from the mansion, including a couple of drawings of Smith. Officials have also reported that a woman has admitted to removing some of Smith’s clothing and jewelry over the last week while Smith and Stern were in Florida shopping for a yacht they planned to live on.



Where will these items surface, and by whom?



Howard K. Stern made his way back to the Bahamas in record time, without ever seeing Smith’s lifeless body, to claim possession of the infant child, as well as the Bahamas mansion that he now claims to own. He, of course, will claim ownership through his unofficial marriage to Smith and insistent paternity of Dannielynn. Stern has refused to prove the latter in DNA sampling. And recall please that Smith’s
Bahamas residency was granted based upon her claim that the mansion was a gift.



Since door locks at the mansion have been changed twice during the weekend, it took Stern obtaining a court order to gain him entrance into the mansion late Saturday with infant Dannielynn and entourage. A hearing in a Bahamas Supreme Court has been set for February 26th to determine the now “cloudy” ownership of the mansion that American developer G. Ben Thompson, a brief lover of Smith’s, stated to have only loaned to Smith and Stern to live in before and after the baby was born.



You may recall, as I do, how Thompson asked Smith and Stern to leave this very mansion several weeks ago. Undoubtedly, this request by Thompson to leave his mansion was the impetus for Smith and Stern going to Florida to buy a yacht to live on.



But now Stern claims ownership of the mansion? Well, of course he does! His lawyering skills took Anna Nicole to testify before the US Supreme Court – unheard of before! – so he certainly knows how to buy time in the courts on a myriad of levels, including keeping a home to which he has no entitlement to for as long as the courts there will allow.



Stern has had no perceivable source of income beyond his handling of Anna Nicole Smith’s affairs in the mere one year since they have been together as a couple.



Smith’s wn natural mother, Vivian Arthur, has been in the Bahamas since Saturday and is constantly accompanied by a camera crew from Good Morning America. She continues to be seen in a van at the front gates of the mansion trying to get a glimpse of her granddaughter, for whom she has emphatically stated her fear for the child’s safety. Stern has adamantly refused the grandmother’s ability to see Dannielynn, stating that he is merely following Anna Nicole’s wishes to keep the child away from her mother. Well, of course he is! Vivian Arthur is the only KNOWN blood relative of this child, regardless of her own motivations in being in the Bahamas after years of estrangement from her daughter, Anna Nicole.




Bahamas press has gone overboard in this scandal of their most infamous resident, who has been plastered over front pages there in a fully-clothed embrace between Smith and Bahamas Immigration Minister Shane Gibson lying on her bed. These obviously familiar photos are fueling even more rabidly the speculation as to how Smith was ever able to obtain residency so quickly in the island country – residency that no one else has ever been able to obtain so easily.



Five days after her death, absolutely no one has placed a claim on her lifeless body, and no one can until the courts determine who has a right to make a claim and see that she is buried.



And a five-month-old daughter is to be the pawn in a protracted series of legal battles over money for years to come. Whoever achieves custody of this child stands to inherit control of her mother’s estate and any future monies that may be bestowed to it at the end of years of court battles yet to be resolved.



The battles now and the myriad to come over paternity and custody of the infant daughter clearly reside in the Bahamas, where no US court has any jurisdiction whatsoever. Of course, the California court will ask the Bahamas to give it jurisdiction in the paternity matter of the child, but the Bahamas may very well decline. And while the child Dannielynn was born in the Bahamas, she still has not yet been registered at the Embassy as a United States citizen, to which she is entitled through her mother. This is no accident or oversight, I assure you.



I believe the quick-thinking brilliance of Howard K. Stern in choosing the Bahamas as the place for Anna Nicole to give birth, placing his name immediately on the child’s Bahamas birth certificate, being able to obtain an unprecedently quick residency for Anna Nicole, and now holing up there to shelter him from the reach of US jurisprudence will be the talk of legal circles for some time to come. It is almost plausible that he saw the handwriting on the wall, so to speak, and prepared for this very catastrophe. At very least, Stern has widened his window of control of what happens next as much as could have legally been possible.



Any claims Smith’s estate may pursue against Smith’s claimed near $500M inheritace from her brief marriage to Texas oil billionaire J. Howard Marshall, as well as in answer to the California Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reduction of the inheritance claim to a mere $89M, and also to any royalties and incomes her estate may continue to be entitled to after her death, will all be held in US courts.



I wonder what will be Anna Nicole’s legacy? Will it be merely summed up as in “looking for love in all the wrong places?” Will it be defined as the desperate search of a child from a broken home determined to become a modern-day Marilyn Monroe at any price necessary, who found fame and fortune at the hands of decades of heavy drug abuse, excessive alcohol consumption, and rampant sex with anyone who would idolize her heavily enhanced body?



And will those people closest to Anna Nicole, those who had so many opportunities and could have tried to save her, but chose instead to turn constant blind and enabling eyes her way, be held accountable for her demise and that of her son? Will, in fact, these people who claimed to love her, but never really did, be the very things which allowed and hastened her ultimate young death?



I wonder what will be the findings of the formal inquest in the Bahamas regarding the mysterious death of Daniel Smith to come next month? I wonder if the Bahamas will find that Stern played any role in Daniel’s death there? I wonder if Howard K. Stern is concerned about how the world is speculating of his role, vis-à-vis his presence during both deaths of Daniel and Anna Nicole?



I wonder how long it will take either Larry Birkhead or Vivian Arthur to file a claim that Howard K. Stern is unfit, regardless of paternity, to hold custody of this child due to his involvement in the two deaths and his perceived likelihood of trying to take estate funds away from this child, to which only she is legally entitled???



I wonder what will happen in the life of infant Dannielynn? What if no proceeds whatsoever are received by Smith’s estate, and whatever exists today is consumed in the legal battles for her guardianship? Twenty years from now, who will be in her life, and will anyone have been there offering only love and compassion from her innocent beginning? What will the effect of her mother’s life and death, her legacy of decadence, depravity and her even larger media presence since she died have upon this child? Will she feel all the more loved and treasured by the many voracious legal fights to come?



Only time will reveal its destiny for young Dannielynn. Time has run out for her mother and her half-brother.



And the pack of wild dogs circle wildly their kill on a Serengeti plain.

Timberlake and Dylan Among Early Grammy Winners

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 11 — Justin Timberlake, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, the rapper T. I. and Ike Turner were among the early victors at the 49th annual Grammy Awards, the music industry’s lovefest being held today in Los Angeles.







The Dixie Chicks received five nominations for their album “Taking the Long Road.” More Photos »
Mr. Timberlake, whose album “FutureSex/LoveSounds” (Jive) is nominated for album of the year, won best rap/sung collaboration with T. I. for “My Love.” T. I. also captured the Grammy for best rap solo performance for “What You Know.”

Mr. Dylan’s “Modern Times” (Columbia) picked up the award for best contemporary folk/Americana album, while Mr. Springsteen’s “We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions” (Columbia) was named best traditional folk album. And Mr. Turner’s “Risin’ With the Blues” (Zoho), his first album since 2001, was honored with the Grammy for best traditional blues album.

Other winners announced before the nationally broadcast show began at the Staples Center here — 97 of the 108 awards will not be televised — included OK Go, which won the Grammy for best short-form music video for its treadmill moves on the YouTube hit “Here It Goes Again.” The polkameister Jimmy Sturr and his orchestra won for best polka album, “Polka in Paradise” (Rounder). It was their 16th Grammy.

This year’s Grammy nominations had a heavy R&B and neo-soul flavor, with a dash of topical antiwar sentiment.

Mary J. Blige led with eight nominations for her unvarnished, hip-hop-tinged brand of R&B. But her album “The Breakthrough” (Geffen) did not receive a nod in the most prestigious category, album of the year. Ms. Blige, who has previously won three Grammys, has made the demand for respect a recurring songwriting motif. She emerged more than a decade ago with a style that departed from the slick R&B in vogue at the time, making her survival of a rough childhood and abusive relationships an integral part of her songs. But her nominated song in the record of the year category, “Be Without You,” testifies to a resilient relationship and perhaps a more hopeful state of affairs.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers, whose double CD “Stadium Arcadium” (Warner Brothers) was the first of the longtime group’s albums to reach No. 1, picked up the second-most nominations with six. The earliest version of the band made its debut in 1983, and its primitive mix of funk and punk-rock has made it one of the most durable commercial successes in the music business. (“Stadium Arcadium” has sold more than 1.8 million copies since its release last May.) In the process, which has included highly publicized battles with drugs and the departure (and then return) of the guitarist John Frusciante, the band has earned a modicum of critical acclaim.

The most politically charged band of the moment, the Dixie Chicks, received five nominations for their album “Taking the Long Road” (Columbia), including nods in the marquee categories of album, record and song of the year. A victory tonight at the Staples Center would provide a measure of vindication. The band has been shunned by mainstream country radio since its lead singer, Natalie Maines, made an off-the-cuff remark about President Bush to London concertgoers back in 2003. Boycotts and death threats followed Ms. Maines’s comment about the war in Iraq: “Just so you know, we are ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.”

But the band is unapologetic about what happened, as made clear by the chorus to its hit song “Not Ready to Make Nice”: “I’m not ready to make nice/I’m not ready to back down/I’m still mad as hell/And I don’t have time/To go round and round and round.”

Despite little support from country radio and disappointing concert sales, the album has sold more than 1.9 million copies. Capturing album of the year, however, will be difficult, if Grammy history is any guide. Only two country albums — Glen Campbell’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” and the soundtrack to the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” — have triumphed in that category.

Amid the melodramatic neo-soul of James Blunt (five nominations), there is also some pointed antiwar commentary in the work of other nominees. The title of Neil Young’s nominees for best rock album, “Living With War,” and best rock solo vocal performance, “Lookin’ for a Leader,” make that clear. And John Mayer’s “Waiting on the World to Change” comes at the war in a more oblique manner.

The Grammys would not be complete without a little controversy. Mr. Dylan, whose “Modern Times” garnered impressive reviews (Blender compared him to Yeats and Matisse), received no nominations in any of the most prestigious categories. Rascal Flatts’s album, although one of the best-selling of the year, was snubbed in the country album category. And Timbaland, the go-to producer of the moment and the man who guided much of Mr. Timberlake’s “FutureSex/Love Sounds” and produced “Promiscuous” for Nelly Furtado, was shut out.
Another of the year’s biggest musical influences, the hirsute producer Rick Rubin, did win the Grammy for producer of the year, but given his aversion to these sorts of record industry social gatherings, he is expected to stay clear of Staples Center tonight. Mr. Rubin, who produced nominated albums for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Dixie Chicks, as well as tracks for Mr. Timberlake’s album, has been less nimble at avoiding another uncomfortable situation: he has been at the center of a tug-of-war between two record companies. Sony BMG Music has recruited him to become co-chairman of its Columbia Records label, but his boutique label, American Recordings, is still under contract to a rival, the Warner Music Group’s Warner Brothers label.




Partial List of Grammy Award Winners (February 11, 2007) Last year’s ceremony, held on a Wednesday, bumped up against the juggernaut that is “American Idol,” and the Grammys paid the price in the ratings. Slightly more than 17 million people tuned in to the telecast, down 10 percent from the 18.8 million who watched in 2005 and the lowest tally since 1995, according to Nielsen Media Research.

In this digital-cable universe of hundreds of channels, few awards shows attract the hoopla and ratings they used to. But the Grammys have fallen more than most. They once hit a high of 51.6 million (in 1984), but even in the past decade they have reliably drawn audiences in the mid-20-million range.

Executives of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences were hoping that a little bit of the old razzle-dazzle would reverse this trend. The Police, who broke up in 1984 and have played only a handful of times since, are opening the show, a likely precursor to a full tour for the trio known for hits like “Roxanne,” “Message in a Bottle” and “Every Breath You Take.” Earth, Wind & Fire, whose funkadelic sound reached its heights in the 1970s, are to join Ms. Blige and Ludacris for a performance of “Runaway Love.” And the Recording Academy even tried to co-opt a little of the “American Idol” magic by holding a “My Grammy Moment” contest for one lucky unsigned artist to perform with Justin Timberlake during the show. Fans voted online at Yahoo Music, winnowing the finalists from 12 to 5 to 3. They are Africa Miranda, 30, of Montgomery, Ala.; Brenda Radney, 22, of Staten Island; and Robyn Troup, 18, of Houston. The winner will be announced live on the show.

But even if the casting stunts goose the ratings, the larger travails of the music business will still loom over any good vibes emanating from the festivities. Even a doubling of sales of digital albums failed to make up for the continued downward trek of CD sales. Album sales last year dropped almost 5 percent, to 588 million, following a 7 percent drop the year before, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

One worrisome trend was the decline in sales of hip-hop albums, which had been among the stronger performers in recent years. (Hip-hop acts also received little love from the Recording Academy; no rap album received a nomination in any of the major categories.)

The best-selling album of 2006 was the soundtrack to the Disney Channel movie “High School Musical,” which sold 3.7 million copies. And Daniel Powter’s song “Bad Day” was the best-selling digital song, selling more than two million copies thanks in large part to its prime positioning on “American Idol.” Neither recording received a Grammy nomination.

To be eligible for an award, a recording had to have been released between Oct 1, 2005, and Sept. 30, 2006. The winners were selected by the academy’s more than 11,000 voting members, who are recording industry professionals with creative or technical credits on at least six albums or songs.

Carrie Underwood

Carrie Underwood won the fourth season of American Idol in 2005. As a result, she earned a record contract with Arista Records and her first disc, Some Hearts (2005), has been certified platinum five times. At the 2006 Billboard Music Awards Some Hearts was recognized as the No. 1-selling album in all genres. The fastest-selling album of the 21st century spent 20 weeks at the top of the U.S. Country charts and two weeks at the top of the U.S. charts. Some Hearts has sold more copies and it has spent more time on the Billboard Top 10 than any other album from an American Idol winner.



Life has been good for the Oklahoma native since American Idol and the release of her debut album in November 2005. Some Hearts has picked up trophies from the American Music Awards, the Billboard Music Awards, the Academy of Country Music Awards, and the Country Music Association Awards, among various others. Carrie may have only just broken onto the scene, but as a singer she couldn’t have asked for a better breakthrough. Carrie spent her 2006 Christmas in Iraq where she performed on the USO Christmas Tour for soldiers. This is Carrie’s debut on AskMen.com’s Top 99 and she comes in at a very solid No. 66.


She is still going strong with her efforts to promote her album, including releasing new singles and touring. In 2007, she won two People’s Choice Awards for favorite country song and favorite female singer. She will have another big night on February 11th at the 49th Grammy Awards; she has been nominated for Best New Artist, Best Female Country Vocal Performance, Song of the Year, and Best Country Song.

Anna Nicole Smith Dies At 39

Anna Nicole Smith
Feb. 8, 2007
(CBS/AP) Anna Nicole Smith, the former Playboy playmate whose bizarre life careened from marriage to an octogenarian billionaire to the untimely death of her son, died Thursday after collapsing at a Florida hotel, one of her lawyers said.

Smith, 39, collapsed and was unresponsive while staying at the Seminole Hard Rock Cafe Hotel and Casino, said the attorney, Ron Rale. She was rushed to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Fla.

Charlie Tiger of the Seminole police said at a news conference that a private female nurse discovered Smith's body at the hotel and that a bodyguard administered CPR at 1:45 p.m.

Tiger said police received confirmation of her death at 2:49 p.m., and that the cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner.

"She checked in Monday at 8 p.m. as a guest. She was due to check out tomorrow," said Danielle Giordano, a spokeswoman for the hotel.





The past year has been a turbulent one for Smith. She was facing a paternity suit filed by her ex-boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, who claimed to be the father of her infant daughter, Dannielynn. The baby was born on Sept. 7 in the Bahamas, days before her son Daniel, 20, died suddenly of a drug overdose.

Smith had been a tabloid staple even before she became Playboy's Playmate of the Year in 1993. Readers were fascinated by her bombshell good looks, her marriage to an elderly billionaire and subsequent court fight over his estate, her weight fluctuations and the sudden death last year of her 20-year-old son.

A former topless dancer, she made her name squeezing into Guess jeans. She resembled the late actress Marilyn Monroe, a similarity played up in her magazine ads, billboards and department store displays.

In 1994, she married 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, the head of oil-based Koch Industries, which is part of a family fortune worth at least $400 million.

Marshall died in 1995, setting off a feud with her former stepson, E. Pierce Marshall, over whether she had a right to his estate.



A federal court in California awarded Smith $474 million in a complicated legal twist that began after she declared bankruptcy. That was later overturned.

But last May, the U.S. Supreme Court revived her case. The justices said only that federal courts in California could deal with her case, despite a Texas state court ruling that Marshall was the estate's sole heir.

The stepson then died in June at age 67. But the family said the court fight would continue.

In the following years, Smith had her own reality show, "The Anna Nicole Smith" show on the E! cable network.

Daniel Smith died Sept. 10 in his mother's hospital room in the Bahamas, just days after she gave birth to a daughter. A medical examiner hired by the family said he had methadone and two antidepressants in his system when he died.

Meanwhile, the paternity of her now 5-month-old daughter remained a matter of dispute.

Smith was born Vickie Lynn Hogan on Nov. 28, 1967, in Houston, one of six children of Donald Eugene and Virgie Hart Hogan.

She married Bill Smith in 1985, giving birth to Daniel before they divorced two years later.

PAMELA ANDERSON DIVORCED - TO SEEK REFUGE IN CHILE

PAMELA ANDERSON DIVORCE FINALIZED, TO SEEK REFUGE IN CHILE

(February 6, 2007) Canadian-American actress Pamela Anderson may be planning to seek refuge in Chile after her divorce from redneck rocker Kid Rock was finalized this week. After a hush trip to the country’s southern lakes region last month, Chile’s local media reported Tuesday that the blond bombshell and former Baywatch babe purchased a one acre property in Huerquehue Park on which she plans to construct a summer house.

The property, part of the Santa María de Carburgua condominium resort, is close to the beautiful, and elite, Caburgua, a resort town near the southern city of Temuco. Nearly 800 kilometers south of Chile’s capital city, Santiago, Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet has a house on the nearby lake, as does her recent presidential rival and millionaire businessman Sebastián Piñera.

Anderson, who shot to fame in the 1990’s as a Playboy playmate, Baywatch star, and “unauthorized” sex-tape vixen, made the trip to the southern cone country with her father, Barry Anderson.

“They came about a month ago,” said Hugo Solís, a local driver who drove Barry Anderson to the town center of Caburgua. “She (Pamela) didn’t want to leave the resort where they were staying. Her father seemed like a very educated, friendly person, and no one here imagined that they had so much money. I felt bad that I didn’t get to see Pam though, which, like any other man, would have made me very happy,” he concluded.

Local authorities said that the Andersons had turned down police escorts and that their principle goal was to go unnoticed, find a suitable place to relax and carry out their business.

“They were not here for very long,” said the local police chief. “The father went fishing for a bit and that’s the only time I saw him.

While Pamela’s father was seen around town, the A-list star known for B-list endeavors was not spotted publicly and spent her time reading and enjoying the countryside.

Alfonso Sarabia, a Caburgua local who for 16 years has transported high profile people on his boat, The Titanic, said that the town was very happy for their new neighbor. “The father first passed himself as an ordinary tourist, but when we found out who he was, we felt very happy that they had decided to come and buy a house in this part of the world,” he said. “Imagine that we will all be “Pamilita’s” neighbors! All of Chile will envy us.”

Sarabia told Chile’s Las Ultimas Noticias tabloid that he had helped Pamela onto his boat. “She’s precious, but simple, just like any other woman,” he added.

Sarabia said that Anderson was just one of many famous people to grace The Titanic with their presence. “The other day President Michelle Bachelet was on the boat transporting material to fix up her house here. Piñera has been on the boat several times too,” he said. “I can’t tell you all the names of the people that ride my boat. I remember a lot of gringo actors and singers, but I prefer the Chilean artists…I also like the Frei family members (referring to the family of two former Chilean presidents).”

While Anderson’s new digs were dubbed in Chile’s press as “exclusive,” a similar one-acre lot can be had for as little as US$50,000 according to an executive at Río Baker Investments, the company in-charge of the project. The executive added that they had offices in California and boasted many other exclusive clients.

Chile’s south, known for its beauty as well as its isolation, is frequently visited by many international celebrities who seek to escape the limelight by traveling to the end of the world. Visitors to Chile’s south can head to the famed town of Pucón, visit thermal spas and beaches, climb volcanoes, ski, and visit the Patagonia.

A US mag has revealed that Britney Spears might be gay.

Is Britney gay?



In Touch Weekly claims Britney has been secretly having sex with women long before her split from Hubby Kevin Federline in November.

Rap music producer Omar "Iceman" Sharif, a friend of K Fed, revealed:

"Britney was into threesomes and girls."

An unnamed insider, close to the couple while they were married the insider, backed up this story, saying:

"I heard about her being with girls at least 20 times while they were married."

Another friend told the mag that Kevin planned to use tales of her hard partying and sexual activity in the couple’s custody battle.

"She has told Kevin more than once that she is sexually attracted to women and men equally," they said. "He wants to show that she's not such an angel after all."

We just hope Brit gets judged on whether or not she's a good mum, and not her sexual orientation.

FUCK YOU !!!

FUCK YOU !!!

Heidi from 'The Hills' shows her stuff

She's not old enough to appear on the cover, but Heidi from The Hills gets to act slutty inside the new issue of Stuff magazine. There are eight pages of the almost-naked 20-year-old in the March issue, and thanks to Us Weekly, a brainy interview (with a TMZ-ish headline, MTV's Heidi Montag shows off her own hills) to go along with it: "I was definitely nervous about this shoot. It is my first big spread in any magazine and it was a very sexual photo shoot. I wore different swimsuits and outfits. The most provocative photos were either the ones in the pool where I am splashing around in the water, or the poses on the bearskin rug. I definitely had a lot of fun doing it. "They said they couldn't put me on the cover until I was 21. I guess advertisers don't like young girls being on the cover. I do think it is unfair that I didn't get the cover because of my age, but I understand, and it gives me something to look forward to when I turn 21." Heidi says her cheap display contains a message to teenage girls everywhere. The message... an "Inside Heidi" surprise... and more from the photo shoot... after the jump...

Tara Conner had her first interview out of rehab with the "Today" show’s Matt Lauer.

The newly rehabilitated Tara Conner, who almost lost her Miss USA title because of her wild partying, alluded to child abuse telling Lauer someone had "betrayed" her as a little girl. Conner went on to admit, "I have done cocaine, yeah."

Donald Trump had allowed Conner to keep her title, publicly offering her a "second chance." However, former Miss USA, Susie Castillo is not as forgiving as The Donald. After scandals which included heavy drinking, drug abuse and racy photos, Castillo thinks Conner should not be allowed to corrupt the pageant’s image.

"Whether you like it or not, you’re a role model. It’s not the job of Miss USA to be in rehab," Castillo told the Feb/March issue of Complex magazine. "Other girls worked hard to give [the title] a positive name, and it’s going to be tarnished for a very long time now."

PRICELESS !!

This Picture is Fake No Doubt !

I'M SURE SHE HAS LITTLE MORE CLASS

F*ck

What the F*ck !!!

Gwen Stefani at 2007 NRJ Awards

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Gwen Stefani looked great and glam at the 2007 NRJ Awards (NRJ is a French radio station) held at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France.

Spears & Federline Extend Custody Agreement

Britney Spears and Kevin Federline have extended their child custody agreement after agreeing a schedule for visits with their sons. Federline's attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, confirms custody terms his client and Spears agreed upon at the beginning of last month will continue. Spears has agreed to let her estranged husband have physical custody of the boys every Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon at her home. Under the arrangement, the pop star will be allowed to be present for her husband's playtime with his kids - but she won't be able to prevent him from seeing the boys, aged one and four months. Spears and Federline split in November.


Britney Spears and Kevin Federline have extended their child custody agreement after agreeing a schedule for visits with their sons. Federline's attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, confirms custody terms his client and Spears agreed upon at the beginning of last month will continue. Spears has agreed to let her estranged husband have physical custody of the boys every Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon at her home. Under the arrangement, the pop star will be allowed to be present for her husband's playtime with his kids - but she won't be able to prevent him from seeing the boys, aged one and four months. Spears and Federline split in November.