STRANGER IN DEATH

Smith with her daughter, Dannielynn Hope, and Howard K Stern (Smith's most recent companion). Dannielynn's birth certificate list Stern as the father but her ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead is waging a legal challenge.

One-time Playboy cover girl Anna Nicole Smith lived a flamboyant life. But her sudden death is her hotel room on Thursday is controversial even by her own rather high standards

Smith liked to compare herself to the Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe, and maybe she was right. She was certainly blond and buxom and if the blanket coverage of her death on Thursday by television news channels was any indications, she was also an icon of our strange, celebrity obsessed times.

Smith death ended a six-month period that was extremely weird even by her own high standards.

It was just last September that the news anchors were reporting that smith had given birth to a baby girl in the Bahamas.

Smith, whose career in recent years centered around a reality TV show highlighting her weight gains and losses, was reportedly overjoyed at the birth.

But the celebration turned to tragedy when her son Daniel, 20, flew into visit her and mysteriously collapsed and died in her hotel room.

Pathologists now believe that the cause of death was a lethal combination of antidepressants and over the counter drugs.

If that drama wasn't enough, a paternity battle quickly broke between her lawyer and companion Howard K Stern and her ex-boyfriend, entertainment Photojournalist Larry Birkhead, who Steadfastly maintained his contention that he was the baby's father and filed a lawsuit to challenge paternity.

Scandal of course was nothing new to Smith, who was born Vickie Lynn Hogan in Houston, Texas on November 28, 1967.

Her father and mother divorced before she was two years old and her childhood dream was to be next Marilyn Monroe. She was married at age 17 to a 16 year old cook at the small time diner where they both worked. She gave birth to a son in 1986 and after working at WalMart and Red Lobster she took a job at a strip club to support herself and her young son.

It was while working at Gigi's strip club in Houston Texas that she met the octogenarian oil tycoon Howard Marshall, who courted her for two years as she broke into exotic modelling and was named Playboy's Playmate of the year in 1993.

She then secured a lucrative contract to replace supermodel Cluadia Schiffer as the star of a guess? Jeans and campaign. She married Marshall in June 1994 when she was 26 and he was 89. Most people Believed that she married him for his money. But though she reportedly never lived with him, Smith maintained she loved her husband and that age did not matter to her.

Marshall died in August 1995 after 14 months of marriage, sparking a bitter battle for his 1.6 billion dollar fortune between Smith and his son E Pierce Marshall.

The complicated case reached as high as the US Supreme court but remained unresolved at the time of her death.

Unable to access the cash left by her late husband, and after several critically panned movie, by 2002 she jumped on the reality TV show bandwagon with a show that highlighted her bizarre antics and battles with her weight.

She also became a spokeswoman for diet regimen TrimSpa, which helped her lose 36 kg and regain her trim shape from the 1990s.

David Granoff, Smith's former publicist, told MSNBC that he was "sad, but not shocked" by Smith's death. he added that there was "Just no spark in her any more."

WAS DEATH DUE TO DRUG ABUSE?

Anna Nicole Smith dead after collapsing at a hotel on Thursday. She was 39 An autopsy was scheduled for Friday to determine the cause of death, Which was quickly linked by some commentators to reports of drug abuse and came at a time of grief and fresh legal wrangles for Smith.

She was stricken while staying at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and was rushed to a hospital yesterday. Edwina Johnson chief investigator for the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office, said the cause of death was under investigation.

The hotel told reporters Smith had checked in on Monday and was scheduled to leave on Friday. Her five-month-old daughter was not with her and sources said the child was being cared for in the Bahamas.

Anna Nicole Smith at awards show



Anna Nicole Smith lashes out at her mother