The death of celebrity bombshell Anna Nicole Smith on Feb. 8, 2007 seems to have rocked much of the continent.
The media coverage that has been devoted to this event has even been compared with the days following Sept. 11. Questions and accusations are flying from every direction, and there seem to be very few answers. But when Entertainment Tonight starts doing its own ‘Investigative Report’ timing how long it would have taken Howard K. Stern to get to the crime scene, we need to question why we care.
Since Smith’s recent unexplained death, the media has focused more attention on her bizarre saga than on any other news event. The
Washingtonpost.com quotes
Think Progress as saying "Coverage of the war [is] drowned out: NBC's Nightly News devoted 14 seconds to Iraq compared to three minutes and 13 seconds to Anna Nicole. CNN referenced Anna Nicole 522% more frequently than it did Iraq. MSNBC was even worse – 708% more references to Anna Nicole than Iraq."
Between marrying 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II in 1994 and later giving birth to baby Danielynn in 2006 (paternity still uncertain), Smith has been a magnet for attention. The media has reported many intimate details about her including the possibility that she had
two implants in each breast. But media watchdogs like the aforementioned Think Progress have been asking: what was she really famous for?
Her on-screen performances left much to be desired. There were a few attempts as a producer, appearances in
Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, To the Limit, Be Cool and the failed
Anna Nicole Show, which followed her antics and her weight issues from 2002 to early 2004. During 2003 Smith also hijacked media attention when she became the spokeswoman for TrimSpa, the diet pill that helped her lose a reported 80 pounds.
Comedy shows like
Mad TV and
Saturday Night Live have found a lot of material in Smith’s tabloid lifestyle, but the Playboy Playmate seemed immune. In 2005, in an attempt to spoof Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction, Smith pulled down her dress at the MTV Australia Video Music Awards to reveal two MTV logos on her breasts. Even Jon Stewart has taken his comedic shots at Smith, recently likening the media response to a full scale coverage orgy and noting that CNN coverage of Smith lasted 90 minutes without a commercial break.
It’s been over a week since her death and it seems like the media craze is only just getting started. The situation has left enough unanswered questions about Anna Nicole to keep the media occupied for sometime still: Who is the father of her baby? Did she really freeze samples of Marshall’s sperm like
Perez Hilton reports? Where will she be buried and by whom and of course, who will inherit her fortune?
Truth is, we don’t care who the father is or who will get the money, nor do we care where she will be buried. We are saddened by her death. We’ll miss her spunk for life and her crazy antics. But please, to all media organizations worldwide, please let her rest in peace, and bring our attention back to the more pressing issues affecting the world.
