A nice little video I came across...

Anna Nicole Smith

I normally don't get into celebrity worship very much. All the Tom Cruise hoopla last year made my ass tired, for instance, and I reacted to today's news that Britney Spears has had her 2nd child with the thought, "What? Already? She was pregnant again?" I've also gotten into the habit of automatically giving a one-star rating to any picture of Paris Hilton that shows up in Yahoo's "Most Viewed Photos" page (unless she's wearing something especially slutty), just because I am so sick of seeing her damn picture everywhere.

Anna Nicole Smith is another thing though. I find myself sympathizing with her years-long legal battle to claim the inheritance that ought to be rightfully hers--this is actually consistent with a number of my beliefs: 1) A man, including a billionaire-tycoon, ought to be able to marry a young, beautiful stripper if he so chooses (and if she's willing, obviously); 2) He ought to have the right to bequeath his money to her, without having to worry about greedy relatives interfering after his death; and 3) One of the basic implications of the opposition in this legal battle is that there's something illegitimate about Smith's position, primarily because she was a young, beautiful stripper at the time of the marriage. This is wrong, because there is nothing wrong with being a young, beautiful stripper. In fact, I tend to consider it a rather noble profession.

So, when I read yesterday morning that Smith's 20-year-old son had suddenly died, while visiting her in the hospital three days after the birth of her daughter, I have to admit I felt a bit saddened by that news. I mean, hasn't she had to struggle enough already, without something like this happening? I was particularly affected by the widely circulated photo of her kissing her son. (Yes, the first thing I noticed in the photo was the dress she's wearing. And then I found myself wondering what it would be like to have a hottie like Anna Nicole Smith as my mother. And then I actually read the story.) It's easy to see how happy she is in that picture, and how much she must have loved him. This is a tragedy, plain and simple, and my heart goes out to her.

And now, it has been discovered that the death was not of natural causes, and that there's a possibility that criminal charges might be filed. Apparently, the authorities discovered that there had been a third person in the room. It appears that some type of drug overdose was involved.

What I worry about, though, is that priggish commentators will manage to include Smith herself in the circle of blame surrounding this death, even though she was apparently sleeping at the time, and even though the very idea that she would harm her beloved son in any way is not only preposterous, but offensive. But, she was a stripper and a gold digger and a porn model (in the ridiculous conservative fantasy world wherein Playboy pictorials constitute "pornography"), so obviously she couldn't have been a decent mother, right? That's the sort of bullshit "reasoning" that I am hoping not to see in the upcoming weeks. I've learned not to be optimistic about that, though. There are all too many people who will never pass up the opportunity to blame a person with Smith's history for pretty much any bad thing that occurs. So, at this point, I will wait and see, and hope that I turn out to be wrong.