Anna Nicole Smith
I am sitting here on a cold, rainy Saturday night writing this and trying to come to grips with the death of Anna Nicole Smith. It is not easy. Whenever a young person dies, it is always a tragedy. Young ones are dying every day in the war in Iraq, but hours of prime time television are not spent analyzing their lives. But Anna Nicole was, in a very real way, a kindred spirit. I was at an Oscar party some years back when Anna asked a photographer friend, David Keeler, if she could get some shots with me. We camped it up for the camera, spoofing glamour girl poses. I'll be posting the photos tomorrow. All but one have never been seen before. We ran into each other many other times, often at the Playboy Mansion, and it was always a fun occasion. I was to have gone tonight to the Mardi Gras party and the Mansion, but I declined. I am too upset to go out.
Watching the news coverage, the photos and video tape, it's hard to realize that she is gone, lying in a morgue drawer, cold, quiet, and still. She can no longer be hurt by the terrible things written about her on gossip blogs and in tabloids. It is the same old story: scandalous things are written about the blonde so-called sex goddess. When she dies, oh gee, everyone is sorry.
It is not unusual that a beautiful, blonde glamour girl is snuffed out in her prime. It is unusual that one survives into her "senior" years.
I went back to my 1987 book "Playing the Field" to recall a paragraph I wrote back then, which is still relevant twenty years later.
"There is a history of calamitous and violent deaths among the glamour girls that boggles the mind and chills the blood, especially if you're one of the few survivors.
Thelma Todd, Jean Harlow, Carole Lombard, Francis Farmer, Carole Landis, Veronica Lake, Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable, Joi Lansing, Cleo Moore, Jayne Mansfield, Barbara Ruick, Leigh Snowdon, Barbara Nichols, Barbara Peyton, Marilyn Maxwell, Marie McDonald, Marie Wilson, Diana Dors, Sharon Tate, Inger Stevens, and Dorothy Stratton were all, in varying degrees, famous, blonde, beautiful, and billed as sex goddesses of their respective eras. Most of them did not live to see fifty-five."
You can add Anna Nicole's name to the list. She lived fast and large, but didn't have a bad bone in her body. She wore her passions on her sleeve and tried so very hard to find love and happiness. Like so many on that list, she gave off a bright light. And in the light she burned out much too soon.
Peace, Anna Nicole. Sleep well and flights of angels sing you to your rest. |
