Poor Anna Nicole!

I know the blogosphere is chattering away at the (not surprising) untimely death of Anna Nicole Smith, and since I'm now part of the blogosphere myself, I guess I can chatter away, too.

I always kinda liked Anna Nicole's style. Not her style per say, that is--she did project an aura we uncharitably call trashy and I've never found trash to be particularly appealing. But I always admired her perseverance and her grit. She took the only thing she felt she had going for herself--her looks--and spun that one single trait into money and fame. In that, she followed in the footsteps of many illustrious women throughout history, including the Empress Theodora, Madame de Pompadour, Anne Boleyn, and Eva Peron just to name a few. You can argue that these ladies left a more positive mark upon history than Anna Nicole does (if she leaves a mark at all) but that's not the point--the point is they all used their beauty and their bodies to get to the top. You could argue that those infamous ladies of history had no choice--they lived in a time when women weren't valued for much other than their bodies--today we have other options. But Anna Nicole wanted fame and fortune, and apparently she had a clear eyed understanding of where her talents lay (which is more than many of us can say, remaining eternally deluded about our prospects). Anna Nicole's talents did not lend themselves to discovering the cure for cancer, or winning an Oscar, or solving the Mideast Peace Problem. She knew what she had to do and she did it.

Of course, she married that Texian for his money, but surely he knew that a twenty six year old woman wasn't going to marry an eighty nine year old guy for anything else--as I am concerned she earned that cash fair and square. He got a gorgeous attentive wife and she got a rich man. What's not fair in that?

Sure, her life after the Texian's death was a train wreck, but again--can you blame the lady for cashing in? No one was calling to offer her a UN ambassadorship or a scholarship to Harvard. She took the opportunities that came her way and ran with them. Clearly, she didn't want to go back to that trailer park--I can't say that I would have wanted to go back either. Would you?

Obviously, Anna Nicole had many problems, and in the coming weeks the full extent of these problems will be revealed, no doubt. And I suspect these details are not going to do anything to burnish her tarnished image. No matter. I still have to applaud her determination to hold on to what she had achieved through a combination of shameless outrageousness and beauty-and I wish her story had had a happier ending.

Bon voyage, Anna Nicole!