I never paid much attention to Anna Nicole Smith. She was just another celebrity without portfolio running headlong towards tragedy. I didn’t like or dislike her. Her persona and her antics were more pathetic to me than entertaining. I don’t believe I ever saw any of her show. I remember seeing an ad for it one time and wondering what on earth would be entertaining about watching a real-life human being self-destruct in such a pathetic public manner.

I didn’t see the humor. I understand it had the same kind of attraction that causes us to slow down and look at a wreck or why we are fascinated with news and pictures of disasters. I understand that. But I still didn’t find it funny, just sad.

Access Hollywood tries to explains it:

Our Fascination With Anna Nicole

NEW YORK (February 8, 2007) — Anybody who arrived from Mars and wanted to know what all the fuss was over this Anna Nicole Smith would do well to watch just one clip: her appearance at the 2004 American Music Awards.

Prancing onstage in a tight-fitting black gown that showcased her cleavage — which was, as all else about her, larger than life — she grabbed your attention. Her looks were outlandish, but there was beauty beneath the excess.

And then she spoke. “Like my body?” she asked, tracing her fingers over her breasts. Her slurred words spilled out dangerously. She was clearly very high on something, and you wondered if she would survive, literally.

It was hard to watch. And, of course, harder not to.

Scant hours after news emerged of her death Thursday at age 39, many people were hard pressed to describe what exactly Anna Nicole Smith was. Actress? Model? Reality star? Rich widow?

“I don’t know exactly what she did,” said talk show host Joy Behar, hearing the news over the phone. And yet, trying to put her finger on why we watched this strange woman over the years, she came up with two things: Dysfunction. And beauty.

“No question, she was beautiful,” said Behar, of ABC’s “The View.” “We know people like to watch dysfunction. But beauty gives you something extra to look at. Dysfunction and beauty: Now that’s something to watch.”

There were two news events concerning Anna Nicole that I did pay attention to. One just happened to be on when I was vegetating in front of the TV one day. It was a story about her case to get a portion of her deceased husband’s estate. The fact that her case was being heard by the Supreme Court was portrayed with amazement. Anna Nicole Smith was going to testify in front of the Supreme Court. Everyone seemed to think that was hilarious. I watched the video tape she had made of herself with her generations older husband and realized there was a lot more to this woman than the perpetual joke she was portrayed to be.

She played the dumb white-trash blond to perfection, but there was nothing dumb about her. She had her very bright, very savvy, very old, very physically ill, very mentally alert, very wealthy husband on tape promising her an inheritance. Yes, I thought, there is more to this woman than the persona she uses to keep herself in the gossip magazines.

The other news item I happened to see was an interview Greta Van Susteren did with her. They were sitting in some outside cafe and chatting. During the course of the interview it became obvious that Anna Nicole knew and understood exactly what her entertainment value was. She also understood the price she was paying for being Anna Nicole Smith. I was again struck by the fact that there was nothing dumb about this ‘dumb blond’. I saw that she understood fully that in order to keep her fans, she had to continue to be the disaster of a person on which she had built her celebrity.

When asked about how she dealt with the constant ridicule she replied that she didn’t care that people laughed at her. They could laugh all they want because she was the one who was getting the last laugh. Her face belied her assertions of confidence.

At one point in that interview she talked about her loneliness. She talked about being surrounded by people, but no one that truly cared about her, they only cared about what she could do for them. Greta asked her who her best friend was and she responded that it was her lawyer. Greta commented that seemed odd, to call her lawyer her best friend. With a strained smile on her face, Anna Nicole replied that they had known each other for many years and ‘you see, that goes back to the lonely part’.

Following her death today there have been numerous people coming out of the woodwork to comment. One comedian made the statement that he was saddened by her death because she was great joke material and once someone dies it changes how you can joke about them. He said he’d have to change his material. Others stated she had died of a drug overdose as though that had already been established. I heard some talking heads commenting that they guessed that means they won’t be able to get the DNA testing done to prove her baby’s paternity now.

It made me sad that not all, but so many people who had comments about her death only seemed to see her death in terms of how it affected them.

The battle over who will be the trustee of her baby’s millions is the biological father of her baby will continue. Just three days after the new baby was born Anna Nicole’s son died mysteriously and now, just five months later, so has Anna Nicole. There is now no one between the baby and half a billion dollars. There won’t be any shortage of people willing to take guardianship of the baby.

A poor girl from Texas did whatever she had to do to become rich and famous. Even more, she ended up with a half a billion dollar fortune. She was a shewed businesswoman and publicist. She was beautiful and flamboyant. She was more beautiful when she wasn’t flamboyant.

As I was watching the goings on today I found myself wondering, was it worth it?

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Anna Nicole’s self-destruction was an object of amusement right up until the last moments or hours of her life. Someone snapped a picture of her lying face down on the floor of the hotel with a pitcher and ice splayed out around her. As always, with an audience watching. (click on picture to enlarge)

Planck’s Constant has photos (NSFW) and a brief biography.

More at: Alabama Improper, 7.62m Justice, Hot Air

Donna Schoenrock (Quiet Reverie) was a fan and here she explains the allure of Anna Nicole Smith.

UPDATE: Beth at MVRWC has an update on the autopsy results. The Median Sib