Female Beauty

Speculation was rampant on the internet today after the sudden and mysterious death of former Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith, who died on Thursday, February 8, 2007, after collapsing at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Florida. She was found “unconscious and unresponsive” by a private nurse in her sixth floor hotel room said Seminole Police Chief Charlie Tiger. The chief said Anna Nicole’s bodyguard administered CPR until the arrival of paramedics, then was rushed to the Hollywood Memorial Regional Hospital where she was pronounced dead. Her shocking death at age 39 comes only 5 months after the death of her 20-year-old son, Daniel, in Nassau.”I can confirm that she is deceased. It’s as shocking to me as to you guys,” Smith’s lawyer, Ronald Rale, told Reuters. “I don’t know anything further.” Edwina Johnson, chief investigator of the Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office, said the cause of death was under investigation and an autopsy would be done on Friday.

Born Vickie Lynn Hogan on November 28, 1967 in the small Texas town of Mexia — about 90 miles south of Dallas – one of six children of Donald Eugene and Virgie Hart Hogan, she was raised by her mother, a police officer. She married her 16-year-old boyfriend, Bill Smith, in 1985, quitting high school after 11th grade. After her husband became abusive following the birth of Daniel, Smith left, supporting herself as a waitress and in a discount store. The couple divorced in 1987.

Vickie Lynn was working as a topless dancer in Houston, Texas, when she made her first appearance in Playboy after submitting her photos in a search. The magazine put her on the cover in March 1992 and made her Playmate of the Month in May. In 1993 she was named Playmate of the Year. Not long after, she appeared in ads for Guess jeans and had a small part in the movie “The Hudsucker Proxy.” That led to appearances in several movies, including “Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult” in 1994.

“She had something magic,” Paul Marciano, CEO of Guess jeans, told CNN. “People still ask me about Anna Nicole.” Marciano said he was the one who changed Smith’s name. “I did not like Vickie Smith,” he said.

In June 1994, Anna Nicole, then 26, married Texas oil baron J. Howard Marshall II, 89, a wheelchair-bound tycoon whom she met while working as a dancer. According to People magazine, after their wedding at Houston’s White Dove Wedding Chapel, Smith kissed her husband and told him, “Bye, darling, I’m off to Greece.” Marshall, who was worth $1.6 billion, died 14 months later. The lack of a prenuptial agreement set off a huge, 12-year legal battle between Smith and Marshall’s son, E. Pierce Marshall.

At first, Smith was evicted from the Marshall ranch and her money — a $50,000 monthly allowance — was cut off. She filed for bankruptcy in 1999. Then, in 2000, Smith won a $474 million judgment, but that was scrapped when a Texas state court ruled that Pierce Marshall was the sole heir. But the U.S. Supreme Court then ruled that Smith could pursue her fight in federal court. Pierce Marshall, 67, died in June. The Marshall family said at the time they would continue the legal battle over the fortune. Last February, she attended U.S. Supreme Court arguments over her claim to a portion of her late husband’s billion-dollar fortune. The justices unanimously decided in her favor in May. Upon hearing of her death, G. Eric Brunstad Jr., the lawyer who represented Marshall, said in a statement: “We’re very shocked by the news and extend the deepest condolences to her family.”

In 2002, Smith launched a reality television program, “The Anna Nicole Show,” on the E! Entertainment network. At one point, the show — featuring Smith, Stern, Daniel Smith and Anna Nicole Smith’s Prozac-laced dog, Sugarpie, was the network’s highest-rated program.

On September 7 last year she gave birth to a daughter, Dannielynn Hope, at a hospital in the Bahamas. Three days later her 20-year-old son, Daniel, died of an apparent mix of antidepressants and other drugs in Smith’s hospital room. Pathologist Cyril Wecht, who obtained test results from a Pennsylvania laboratory, told CNN that Daniel Smith died from a combination of methadone along with antidepressants Lexapro and Zoloft.

Later that month, Smith’s attorney, Howard K. Stern, told CNN’s “Larry King Live,” that he was Dannielynn’s father and that he and Anna Nicole planned to marry. “Based on the timing of when the baby was born, there really is no doubt in either of our minds,” Stern said. But entertainment reporter and photographer Larry Birkhead also claimed he was the girl’s father, saying in a statement given to CNN that Smith had told him he was the father. Birkhead had waged a legal fight to determine the child’s paternity, attempting to have a DNA test done. Debra Opri, the attorney who filed his paternity suit, said Birkhead “is devastated. He is inconsolable, and we are taking steps now to protect the DNA testing of the child. The child is our number one priority.”

On Tuesday, Smith was included in a class-action suit against a company, TrimSpa, for which she had worked as a spokesperson. TrimSpa makes a product it claims leads to substantial weight loss. The lawsuit alleges the marketing of the product, TrimSpa X32, was false or misleading. Smith had battled with her weight for years but had slimmed down recently, losing 69lbs.

“From my professional exposure to Anna Nicole, I can say she was always personable, down to earth and driven. All in all, a joy to have as a client,” said Wayne Munroe, her Bahamian lawyer who has overseen the aftermath of her son’s mysterious death in Nassau.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 8th, 2007 at 3:09 pm and is filed under Celebrity Children, Celebrity News, Gossip, Health, Personality, Sexual Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.