Posted on 02/08/2007 1:17:38 PM PST by NormsRevenge
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - Anna Nicole Smith, the former Playboy playmate whose bizarre life careened from marrying an octogenarian billionaire to the untimely death of her son, died Thursday after collapsing at a South 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 a hospital.
"She checked in Monday at 8 p.m. as a guest. She was due to check out tomorrow," said Danielle Giordaano, a spokeswoman for the hotel.
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 last year, the sudden death of her 20-year-old son, Daniel Smith.
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 Guess 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.
He 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 in May, the U.S. Supreme Court revived her case, ruling that she deserved another day in court in her battle with her former stepson.
The justices said only that federal courts in California could deal with her case despite a Texas state court ruling that Marshall was the sole heir to the estate.
Then, the stepson died June 20 at age 67. But the family said the court fight would continue.
Daniel Smith died Sept. 10 in his mother's hospital room in the Bahamas, just days after she gave birth to a daughter.
An American medical examiner hired by the family, Cyril Wecht, said he had methadone and two antidepressants in his system when he died. Low levels of the three drugs interacted to cause an accidental death, Wecht said.
Meanwhile, the paternity of her now 5-month-old daughter remained a matter of dispute.
She 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 divorcing two years later.
I've suspected she started "using" drugs to lose weight, but it wasn't "Trim Spa baby"..
We need to go back and see some of those interviews she did. The ones where she talked about having to go to the "poopy bathroom" all the time and was never hungry.
She said it was effects from Trim Spa, but I surmised it was either drugs or a gastric bypass...IMHO.
sw
Indeed.
One of the panelists on H&C talked about the surprise. Since nobody else has said it on this thread, I'll say it:
What surprises me most about Anna Nicole Smith dying at age 39 is that she lasted as long as she did. Her lifestyle did not bode well for a long and peaceful life, with a graceful passing at the end.
She's done drugs a lot of her life and made no secret of it.
The problem for her was her whole life was surrounded by chaos. Her entire life once she become a celebrity turned into one giant soap opera. She never did have much of a private life after she got the Guess Jeans promotional shoot.
sw
There were episodes of her E! Network show I remember seeing where she was clearly on drugs.
On a couple of pictures they've shown of her on CNN (from years ago) she's a dead ringer (no pun intended) for Nicole Brown Simpson.
Anyone know where OJ was at 8pm Eastern?
Still searching for the "real killers" on a golf course somewhere.
Me neither usually; just two photos they showed of her (pre-"bodywork") in that last half hour.
You're watching Greta aren't you?
I'm guilty as well.
Right. Greta and then I'm outta here. :0)
Larry is mad someone beat his miles in a Depend record this week bump...
"Isn't this girl now rich as all get out?"
YUP!
Anna's son is dead. She's dead. The only one left is her baby girl.
"Two mysterious deaths in the same family...a family that was likely to become very,*very* rich equals murder investigation IMO."
Yup!
Something smells here - murder.
It looks like she was murdered for her money.
That paternity suit is going to get nasty.
"Most likely Larry Birkhead.. however, the baby is still in the Bahama's and Howard K Stern signed the Birth Certificate and in the Bahama's the husband is considered the father... this is now one very rich baby and HKS is going to fight to keep from having that paternity test and losing his meal ticket. (sorry to be so blunt)."
100% agreement here!
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