Her face gleamed from giant billboards on Sunset Boulevard, but the person sitting across from me on the bed was barely recognizable in those glossy images.
Anna Nicole Smith, who wore pink polka dot pajamas and had her platinum blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail, might have been world famous as Guess Jeans Girl and Playboy Playmate of 1993, but she had lingering concerns.
As we chatted into the wee hours of the morning, Anna wanted to talk about her “obsession” with Marilyn Monroe and her belief that the film icon was “haunting” her.
The fact that we were sitting in Monroe’s former home in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles – which Anna’s billionaire friend J Howard Marshall had rented for her (they would be married the following year) – only reinforced the model’s belief that Marilyn ” took the lead”. them from the spirit world.
“I feel like she’s here with me, like she’s stalking me in the most beautiful way,” Anna said, staring at one of the many posters of Marilyn hanging on the walls of her bedroom.
“I feel like anything that’s going to happen to me is going to happen. ‘It’s not something I can control.’
Anna Nicole Smith is pictured on the runway at New York Fashion Week 2004.
Anna Nicole Smith, a former Playboy Playmate of the Year, is pictured with her husband, Texas oil billionaire J Howard Marshall
Anna’s meteoric rise and tragic fall – she died of a drug overdose in 2007 at the age of 39 – has been well documented, turned into an opera and is now being followed in a new Netflix documentary entitled Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me’ is the second most popular show in the UK.
Netflix touted it as her definitive story, but to someone who knew Anna, it felt frighteningly exploitative.
The documentary claims to contain “new” revelations about Anna’s alleged rape by her father and includes interviews with so-called friends – including a woman who claims she and Anna had a long-standing lesbian relationship.
However, one of Anna’s lovers, Larry Birkhead, who had a daughter named Dannielynn, now 16, with her, slammed Netflix last night, saying: “We declined participation as I didn’t want my daughter to be in a hugely underrated cesspool of a project wanted to have.” her mother, where people were allowed to invent things and rewrite history.”
Birkhead, who is directing his own film about the woman he calls “the love of my life,” added, “Anna deserved better and that day will come.”
It’s hard not to agree with him. As I watched the Netflix show, I wondered how many of the respondents — a random uncle, a woman who danced alongside Anna at a Houston strip club — actually knew her? After all, Netflix — not least with The Crown — is in shape when it comes to inventing narratives about real people’s lives.
The New York Times critic called the documentary “simple” and accused the filmmakers of “lurid voyeurism.”
I met Anna Nicole in the 1990s. She conquered the Hollywood scene and quickly became the hottest It girl in town. She has been on the front page of newspapers and magazines around the world and there has been an insatiable appetite to learn all about her.
The rise and tragic fall of Anna Nicole Smith has been well documented, turned into an opera and is now being retold in a new Netflix documentary. She is pictured with her husband J Howard Marshall
Anna Nicole Smith died of a drug overdose in 2007 at the age of 39. Her story is now being retold in a new Netflix documentary entitled Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me
Anna Nicole Smith is pictured on her wedding day to Texas billionaire J Howard Marshall in 1994. She is pictured with her son Daniel
Netflix’s portrayal of a manipulative jerk who uses men to get ahead doesn’t sit well with the woman I knew.
As a West Coast correspondent for a major British newspaper, I interviewed Anna several times, took her to dinner (she always ordered only steamed spinach) and occasionally visited her at home. First in the “Marilyn House” and later in a relatively modest bungalow in Bel Air, which she bought after marrying 89-year-old, wheelchair-bound oil magnate J Howard Marshall in 1994 at the age of 26.
There have been unforgettable photoshoots where she turned up – often hours late – bleary-eyed from partying the previous night. But when you point a camera at her, she instantly “comes to life”.
When people ask me who is the most beautiful celebrity I’ve met in three decades here in Los Angeles, I always respond with surprise when I don’t answer Angelina Jolie or Catherine Zeta-Jones, but Anna Nicole Smith.
In person, without makeup, she was pretty. But in front of the camera, she had this magical “X” factor. She was luminous. She also had tons of street smarts. Netflix chronicles her transformation from the small town of Mexia, Texas, where she was born a humble Vickie Lynn Hogan, into a Hollywood bombshell, portraying her as a victim of abuse, poverty, men, rapacious Hollywood agents and the press.
But the Anna I remember was not a victim – she knew what she wanted and would do anything to get it.
She loved Dolly Parton’s famous quote: “I’m not offended by the jokes about stupid blondes because I know I’m not stupid — and I’m not blonde either.”
Anna was guided by her idol Marilyn. She once said, ‘I just feel a connection to Marilyn Monroe.’ I just love her.’
In 1994, at the age of 26, Anna Nicole Smith married 89-year-old, wheelchair-bound oil tycoon J Howard Marshall
Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me (pictured) is currently the second most popular Netflix series in the UK
Anna Nicole Smith puts her head in her hands in footage from the new Netflix series Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me
She was smart, sassy and curvaceous at a time when “heroin chic” models like Kate Moss ruled the fashion runways. Like Monroe, she suffered from prescription drug issues that began after multiple breast augmentation surgeries.
One memorable evening she told me that her left breast was leaking silicone and she was in pain. She said, “I think she exploded.” Within days, she had another operation and was prescribed more painkillers.
Nevertheless, Anna was funny, spirited and nobody was stupid. I visited her hometown of Mexia, a godforsaken place in the middle of nowhere about 90 minutes south of Dallas. I spoke briefly to Billy Smith, her first husband and father of her son Daniel, who met her while they both worked at the local fast food restaurant Jim’s Krispy Fried Chicken.
Billy said he never stopped loving her and that Anna “always had big dreams”. He never wanted to hold her back.
When Anna dissolved her marriage and moved to Houston — and then Los Angeles — she took Daniel with her.
When I told her I’d been to Mexia, she winked at me and said in her Texan tone, “Bet you know why I left so quickly?”
Daniel was the love of her life and she was a devoted mother. She would tell me, “I want to give Daniel everything I never had.”
I woke up at 5am one morning after accidentally falling asleep at her house. Daniel was up too and asked for toasted frozen waffles, which I was happy to make for him.
When Anna came into the kitchen, she asked him if he had thanked me and told him to draw me a picture as a “real” thank you.
She insisted on good manners. Daniel addressed every woman as “ma’am” and every man as “sir.”
Smith and Marshall – both dressed all in white – wed in 1994 at the White Dove Wedding Chapel in Texas
Anna Nicole Smith and her husband J. Howard Marshall are pictured in front of a Christmas tree in 1995, shortly before Marshall’s death
Anna Nicole Smith first rose to fame as a pin-up girl in the ’90s after having worked in photo shoots for Playboy and Guess
Sure, Anna had her problems. It was obvious that she was taking pills. There were containers of painkillers by her bed and in her bathroom. Late at night she spoke slurred. But she never neglected her son.
Daniel was always immaculately dressed. She let him clean his bedroom, although he was usually found in hers. He slept in her bed well into his early teens, which may sound strange, but wasn’t the case when they were seen together. They were devoted to each other. She called him her “little protector”.
When Anna got emotional it was Daniel who sat next to her with a box of tissues and put his arms around her. She has told me more than once that Daniel is her life.
Sometimes she cried, especially after the champagne or chardonnay had flowed freely. No matter what drama was going on in her life (and there was a lot of it), she dried her tears and said, “I have to be strong for Daniel.” He needs me. I love my boy.’ Even when she spoke about her ‘psychic’ connection to Marilyn Monroe (which I never quite understood), she said, ‘I can’t leave.’ I would never leave Daniel and he would never leave me.’
There are moments in the Netflix documentary that stunned me. A woman who gives her name only as “Missy” claims she had a long-standing lesbian relationship with Anna and says they lived together as a couple and raised Daniel together.
Of course, that could be true, but it’s strange that in the hundreds of interviews she gave and the hours she spent with friends, Anna never mentioned this person.
Anna was never afraid to talk about sex. She’s never been ashamed to talk about her sexual accomplishments, and has openly said she’s “experimented” with girls. But she preferred men.
We once went to a famous celebrity restaurant, Le Dome, on Sunset Boulevard. As we entered the dining room, a waiter carrying a tray of drinks was so transfixed that he jumped straight onto the back of an empty chair and dropped everything.
Wherever she went, all eyes were on her. She knew it and she loved it.
I remember a party at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy mansion. The patio was full of beautiful girls, including I think Pamela Anderson, then at the height of her Baywatch fame.
Netflix has touted the documentary as Smith’s definitive story. The former Playboy model can be seen in footage from the show with her arms outstretched
Smith smiles for the camera in footage from the new Netflix documentary series Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me
When Anna, 1.70 meters tall – and even taller with the high heels she was wearing – stormed in, everything went quiet. Hefner immediately walked over to greet her and stayed with her for the rest of the night.
When she married J. Howard Marshall in 1994, the jokes were brutal. On the Netflix show, Anna is accused of spending lavishly on his credit cards. Sure she did.
But I really believe that their love for each other was real. After Marshall’s death, she sobbed uncontrollably for weeks.
I remember asking her why she loved him: “He’s the only man who never wanted anything from me.” He’s the nicest man I’ve ever met. He never hurt me.’
Her greatest regret is that Marshall died before adopting Daniel, which he had promised.
For the rest of her life, she was embroiled in a bitter court battle over Marshall’s $2 billion fortune, which she ultimately lost.
I lost touch with Anna in the late 1990s when she had her own reality TV show, a precursor to shows like The Kardashians. But as her drug problem worsened, her work began to suffer and her career dwindled.
She became pregnant by Larry Birkhead, a handsome photographer, but then fled LA to the Bahamas with her attorney Howard Stern, who said her flight was intended to escape the relentless paparazzi.
Anna Nicole Smith died in February 2007 at the age of 39 from an accidental drug overdose. She is pictured in 2004
One of Anna’s lovers, Larry Birkhead, who had a daughter Dannielynn, now 16, with him, criticized the Netflix series last night (pictured is a still from the show).
Netflix released its series Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me, which is currently the second most popular show
At the time, Daniel was 20 years old and had appeared on some of his mother’s TV shows. His half-sister Dannielynn was born on September 7, 2006.
While visiting his mother and her newborn, Daniel died of an accidental methadone and antidepressant overdose three days after Dannielynn was born.
I remember hoping against hope that Dannielynn’s birth would give Anna the strength to survive Daniel’s death. Unfortunately this was not the case. Anna fell into depression and addiction and died on February 8, 2007 from an accidental drug overdose. She was 39 years old. Marilyn Monroe was 36 when she died of an overdose.
I regret that I never took a picture with Anna, but that was before iPhones and selfies. In any case, it didn’t feel appropriate for me as a friend.
Looking at pictures of Dannielynn today — who was raised by her father Larry in Kentucky, away from the Hollywood lights — it’s hard to imagine that the vivacious woman I met never celebrated her 40th birthday.
Anna Nicole Smith’s greatest tragedy is that after having the daughter she longed for, she lost the son she could not live without.
It is a tragedy that Netflix brutally belittles a complicated woman and very proud mother by treating her as a “guardian” who married an octogenarian billionaire.