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Anna Nicole Smith Died
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - Anna Nicole Smith
She was stricken while staying at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and was rushed to a hospital. Edwina Johnson, chief investigator for the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office, said the cause of death was under investigation and an autopsy would be done on Friday.
Just five months ago, Smith's 20-year-old son died suddenly in the Bahamas in what was believed to be a drug-related death.
Seminole Police Chief Charlie Tiger said a private nurse called 911 after finding Smith unresponsive in her sixth-floor room at the hotel, which is on an Indian reservation. He said Smith's bodyguard administered CPR, but she was declared dead at a hospital.
Through the '90s and into the new century, Smith was famous for being famous, a pop-culture punchline because of her up-and-down weight, her Marilyn Monroe looks, her exaggerated curves, her little-girl voice, her ditzy-blonde persona, and her over-the-top revealing outfits.
Recently, she lost a reported 69 pounds and became a spokeswoman for TrimSpa, a weight-loss supplement. On her reality show and other recent TV appearances, her speech was often slurred and she seemed out of it. Some critics said she seemed drugged-out.
Her former lawyer Lenard Leeds told the celebrity gossip Web site TMZ that Smith "always had problems with her weight going up and down, and there's no question she used alcohol." Leeds said it was no secret that "she had a very troubled life" and had "so many, many problems."
"She wanted to be like Marilyn her whole life and ironically died in a similar manner," Leeds said. Monroe died of a drug overdose at age 36 in 1962.
Her attorney Ron Rale told The Associated Press that he had talked to Smith on Tuesday or Wednesday, and she had flu symptoms and a fever and was still grieving over her son.
"Poor Anna Nicole," he said. "She's been the underdog. She's been besieged ... and she's been trying her best and nobody should have to endure what she's endured."
The Texas-born Smith was a topless dancer at strip club before she entered her photos in a search contest and made the cover of Playboy magazine in 1992. She became Playboy's playmate of the year in 1993. She was also signed to a contract with Guess jeans, appearing in TV commercials, billboards and magazine ads.
In 1994, she married 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, owner of Great Northern Oil Co. In 1992, Forbes magazine estimated his wealth at $550 million.
In a 2005 interview with ABC Smith recalled meeting Marshall at what she called a "gentleman's club' in Houston. "He had no will to live and I went over to see him," she said. "He got a little twinkle in his eyes, and he asked me to dance for him. And I did."
Marshall died in 1995 at age 90, setting off a feud with Smith's former stepson, E. Pierce Marshall, over whether she had a right to his estate.
A federal court in California awarded Smith $474 million. That was later overturned. But in May, the U.S. Supreme Court revived her case, ruling that she deserved another day in court.
The stepson died June 20 at age 67. But the family said the court fight would continue.
She starred in her own reality TV series, "The Anna Nicole Show," in 2002-04. Cameras followed her around as she sparred with her lawyer, hung out with her personal assistant and interior decorator, and cooed at her poodle, Sugar Pie. She also appeared in movies, performing a bit part in "The Hudsucker Proxy" in 1994.
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After news came of Smith's 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 a statement, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner said: "I am very saddened to learn about Anna Nicole's passing. She was a dear friend who meant a great deal to the Playboy family and to me personally."
Smith's son, 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. Last month, a Bahamas magistrate scheduled a formal inquiry into the death for March 27.
Meanwhile, the paternity of her now 5-month-old daughter remained a matter of dispute. The birth certificate lists Dannielynn's father as attorney Howard K. Stern, Smith's most recent companion. Smith's ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead was waging a legal challenge, saying he was the father.
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 No. 1 priority."
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.
"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.
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Anna Nicole Smith died Thursday at a South Florida hospital after being discovered unconscious in her hotel room.
The reality TV star, Playboy Playmate and former Guess model was 39.
She checked into the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on Monday with her lawyer and boyfriend Howard K. Stern.
Smith's private nurse called hotel workers at 1:38 p.m. and security officials went to the room, Seminole Police Chief Charlie Tiger told reporters.
Before rescue workers arrived, Smith's bodyguard performed CPR on her, he said.
She was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood at 2:10 p.m. where she died, Tiger said.
An autopsy is scheduled for Friday, according to the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office.
"We are saddened and heartbroken by my sister's death. No matter what our differences have been over the years, Anna was still our blood and she will be missed terribly," Smith's sister, Donna Hogan, said in a statement Thursday.
"She was a woman who was determined to get out of her small town in Texas and make a name for herself."
Hogan went on to say that the death of Smith's son, Daniel, last year "left her deeply saddened, a sadness she hid from everyone."
Dannielynn Hope, who Smith gave birth to a few days before Daniel died, "is now without a mother," Hogan wrote.
A life of tribulations
Earlier this week, Smith was included in a class-action lawsuit 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. (Full story)
Smith also was embroiled in a dispute over the paternity of Dannielynn Hope and suffered the death of Daniel, 20.
Larry Birkhead, an entertainment reporter and photographer who has claimed to be Dannielynn's father, will be filing an emergency order to get custody of the child, his attorney, Debra Opri, told CNN.
Smith and Stern have both said that Stern is Dannielynn's father. Stern has said the couple planned to marry, but it was unclear whether they had.
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Watch how Smith's death leaves daughter's fate undecided
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Smith's Life in Pictures
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i really think they assasinated her
first the air of the fortune than her
now the money will go back to the family
what a tragady it really goes to show you could almost have it and at the same time nothing at all
G-d determines who walks into your life....It is up to you to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay, and who you refuse to let go.
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yeah,i think someone had been playing with her. They killed her son couple months ago and now they killed her. That's sad! She was my favorite playboy girl and now she is dead
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abadani fekardam to maze khiley khooby dari out of all of them she was your favoritOriginally posted by abadani69 View Postyeah,i think someone had been playing with her. They killed her son couple months ago and now they killed her. That's sad! She was my favorite playboy girl and now she is dead
G-d determines who walks into your life....It is up to you to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay, and who you refuse to let go.
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actually after Pamela Anderson, she is the next. They are the ones back in the days,on moghei ke tu aslan vojood nadashti. Back in 80's and early 90's they were the best playboy girls. Fahimidi hala Mr.?Comment
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now thats better
G-d determines who walks into your life....It is up to you to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay, and who you refuse to let go.
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vaghty migam hichi nemifahmi vase hamine digeComment
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From her first Playboy centerfold and marriage to an 89-year-old oil tycoon to the mysterious death of her adult son, Anna Nicole Smith lived her life in a special corner of America -- the often garish world of supermarket tabloids.
Few figures in modern pop culture have garnered as much publicity as the buxom, blond Texas native, whom the media alternately painted as a bubble-headed naif and a cynical gold-digger with the soul of an adding machine.
Smith, 39, still enmeshed in disputes over the paternity of her 5-month-old daughter and the circumstances of her son's death in the Bahamian hospital where she had just given birth in September, died on Thursday in Florida.
Her sudden death bore an eerie parallel to the demise of Smith's personal idol, screen legend Marilyn Monroe, who died in 1962 at age 36. Like Monroe, Smith rose from a troubled background to gain worldwide fame as a sex symbol.
Born Vicki Lynn Hogan in Texas and abandoned by her father, she dropped out of high school and ended up working in a fried-chicken joint.
She married her first husband, Billy Wayne Smith, at age 17, had a child by him and was divorced two years later, moving to Houston where she began working in a topless bar.
It was as a stripper that she met elderly oil billionaire J. Howard Marshall. She was 26 when they married; he was 89.
By then, Smith's popularity had exploded as she became Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Year and began modeling for the fashion line Guess? She also made her film debut in the big-screen spoof "Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult."
Marshall died 14 months after they married, and Smith spent much of the following decade battling members of his family over his estate. In May 2006 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Smith could pursue her case in federal court.
In the intervening years, the tabloids chronicled Smith's wildly fluctuating weight. A somewhat bloated Smith hit cable television in 2002 with her own reality series, "The Anna Nicole Smith Show."
As the series drew to a close in 2004, Smith landed a new role as spokeswoman for the diet supplement TrimSpa and dropped much of her excess weight.
But her renewed fame turned to tragedy in September of last year when her son, Daniel, then 20, died in the Bahamas three days after Smith gave birth to her infant daughter. An inquest into his death has been set for March 27.
Smith then became embroiled in a paternity suit over the infant girl with ex-boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, who claimed to be the child's father. Smith insisted that her lawyer and husband, Howard K. Stern, was the girl's father.
Those battles and the legal dispute over her share of Marshall's fortune will presumably go on without her, and perhaps provide more fodder to the tabloids.
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The death of sassy spokeswoman Anna Nicole Smith coupled with growing doubts about TrimSpa's controversial weight-loss products may prove too much for the closely held company, marketing experts said Thursday.
"Given the double whammy of who their spokesperson was and the other tangential difficulties, I don't think they're going to come back," said Robert Passikoff, a New York brand consultant.
Anna Nicole Smith had been a spokeswoman for TrimSpa since 2003.
Passikoff said news that Smith died in Florida Thursday could spell disaster for the small business.
CNN: Reality TV star Anna Nicole Smith dies at 39
"When you mention TrimSpa, the image that came to mind was Anna Nicole Smith and that's the difficulty with being so closely tied to a celebrity," he said.
"You've just pulled the rug out from under what the brand was standing on," he added.
The former Playboy Playmate and reality TV star became a spokeswoman for TrimSpa in October 2003, after losing a reported 60 to 70 pounds.
But Smith and TrimSpa have faced repeated legal difficulties over allegations that advertisements for the weight-loss pills were misleading.
Last month, the Federal Trade Commission said it fined the marketer of TrimSpa and other over-the-counter diet drugmakers $25 million for false advertising.
The government agency said that the company's weight-control claims were not supported by scientific evidence.
"TrimSpa has some major challenges given the loss of credibility about their product and [now] losing their spokesperson," said Britt Beemer, the chairman of strategic marketing firm America's Research Group.
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It's a one-two punch and it does damage their marketing position dramatically."
TrimSpa, which is owned by privately held Goen Technologies, is based in Cedar Knolls, N.J.
TrimSpa founder Alex Goen expressed regret at her death.
"Today, Anna Nicole Smith's grief stricken and tumultuous personal life came to an end. Anna came to our company as a customer, but she departs it as a friend," Goen said in a brief statement.
"While life for Anna Nicole was not easy these past few months, she held dear her husband, Howard K. Stern, her daughter, Dannielynn Hope, her most cherished friends, beloved dogs, and finally, her work with TrimSpa," he said.
The two-paragraph statement didn't address the company's business prospects, and officials at Goen were not immediately available for further comment.Comment
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Anna Nicole Smith Died
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