Anna Nicole (5 Stars)

True Stories #8

Name: Anna Nicole Smith

Lived: 28 November 1967 – 8 February 2007

Film dates: 1975 to 2007 (death), mostly 1987 to 2007

Film made in 2013

This is the third of Mary Harron's three biopics about controversial women. Unlike her other films, "Anna Nicole" (also called "The Anna Nicole Story") was only made for television. I put the word "only" in italics, because it has all the quality of a full feature film.

It's interesting to contrast Anna Nicole Smith with Bettie Page. They were both women from poor beginnings who made their living by capitalising on their looks. Both women became Playboy centerfolds. That's where the similarities end. Bettie Page was innocent, but Anna Nicole was sexual. Bettie was a good girl, not even drinking alcohol, but Anna Nicole binged on drink and drugs.

Anna Nicole's birth name was Vicky Lynn Hogan. She became Vicky Lynn Smith through marriage when she was 17. She became Vicky Lynn Marshall through her second marriage when she was 26. Anna Nicole was her stage name, and she retained the surname Smith as part of her stage name for her whole life.

Anna Nicole (it doesn't seem right to call her Anna) was divorced when she was 19. That's when her life of fame began. Her mother refused to take her back, so she had to fend for herself and her baby boy Danny. Rather than modelling, she became a stripper. She had only moderate success, so she had a boob job. When asked by the surgeon whether she wanted peaches, grapefruits or melons, she replied that she wanted bowling balls. That was the right choice. Men like big breasts. This led to her appearance in Playboy and her sporadic modelling assignments.

Anna Nicole was fascinated by Marilyn Monroe, ever since she found a copy of the first issue of Playboy under her parents' bed. Wow! That would be worth a fortune today. After her boob job, Anna Nicole wore clothing and make up to make herself look like a busty version of Marilyn Monroe. Her second husband even bought Marilyn Monroe's former house for her.

In 1992 she met the billionaire J. Howard Marshall, and she married him 18 months later. She was 26, and he was 89. Was it for love or money? She said she loved him, but her actions didn't back up her words. She had a one-night stand with another man the day after her wedding. Her husband died 14 months later. Before his death his son tricked him into signing a document giving him complete control over his father's wealth. There was a legal battle that lasted 11 years, and Anna Nicole never received a single dollar from his inheritance. That was mean. She could at least have been given a million dollars as an out-of-court settlement. The lawyers probably earned more than that.

Anna Nicole had several contracts as models for fashion companies. She couldn't keep them. She was a liability, because she was repeatedly drunk in public.

As the years went by she put on weight and her modelling contracts stopped. She shared a house with her son and her lawyer Howard Stern (not to be confused with the celebrity with the same name). He was more than a lawyer to her. He was a faithful friend, and he managed her fading career. He arranged for her to star in a reality show called "The Anna Nicole Show". The media suspected that they were lovers, but there was no romantic or sexual involvement.

Anna Nicole's final years were tragic. She had a second baby, a daughter. In the film we see that it was a one-night stand with a photographer, but the father's identity wasn't revealed until years after her death. Danny died of an acciental drug overdose while visiting his mother in hospital, three days after his sister's birth. Five months later Anna Nicole also died from a drug overdose. Officially it was classified as an accidental death, but it was possibly a suicide. What is definite is that her drug usage increased drastically after her son's death.

I was never a fan of Anna Nicole Smith. I admit that I found her physically attractive. There were many nude photos of her on the Internet in the late 1990's. They're probably still there today. In her later years she was a ridiculous comical figure. I watched a few episodes of "The Anna Nicole Show" with my wife. I only remember one episode in which she wanted to lose weight. She invited three cooks to her house to make a healthy meal for her. She ate all three meals, one after the other, to test them.

I only bought this DVD because I like Mary Harron's films, not because of any interest in Anna Nicole Smith. As a biopic, this is an excellent film. It tells the viewer all the relevant details about Anna Nicole's life, and it makes us feel sympathetic with this tragic, broken women.

P.S. In my last review I said I didn't know what drugs she was taking. I obviously wasn't paying attention. They're named in the film as Xanax, quaaludes and Dom (STP).

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