Blonde Ambition (17 page)

   Soon after, Anna Nicole Smith created a company called Hot Smoochie Lips, Inc., which was run by Howard K. Stern. The company was shut down after the California Franchise Tax Board determined it owed more than $30,000 in back taxes. Howard also made numerous on-camera appearances on E!'s and did several television and interview appearances with her.

   For the record, according to his own court testimony, the most Howard has made as Anna's attorney since 2002 was during his participation in Anna's reality show. He was paid $12,500 or less a year for his involvement on the show. By 2006, he has said, he had no job, "I was with Anna." He never charged her for legal expenses, but she paid for his apartment in Santa Monica, his clothes, his shoes, and gave him money, and, according to Stern, even let him sign her checks. During the court testimony in Florida, thirty-eight-year-old Howard also said that his parents have been giving him money.

   It was while Anna was entrenched in the legal battles that she decided she needed to start making money again, so she started hitting the pavement once more. Anna told
Entertain
ment Weekly
: "I finally got to a point where I could work again. I was like, hmmm, I love cameras. So, why not? Let's go for it." With this,
The Anna Nicole Show
was created, and in 2002, Anna's reality television debut premiered on the E! Entertainment Television. According to
Entertainment Weekly
, "the show's August debut scored 7.6 million viewers, marking E!'s best numbers ever and the best debut for a reality show in cable history." Executive vice president of E!, Mark Sonnenberg, said in a

2002
Entertainment Weekly
story that ''there's a circus atmosphere that will attract people [to
The Anna Nicole Show
]. Here's a single mother who's been struggling to make it while taking on the rich and powerful to make a better life for her and her son. She's also a grieving widow. When you watch and spend time with her, she's very captivating.''

   
The Anna Nicole Show
was promoted as "it's not supposed to be funny, it just is." During its two-season run,
The Anna Nicole
Show
chronicled the infamous model's life, detailing such activities as trips to the dentist and driving lessons. Everything, from eating contests to bringing home the ashes of her late husband J. Howard Marshall, was captured on camera.

   Along with Anna, Howard K. Stern "served as a kind of valet," according to the
Seattle Times
. "Stern is continually fetching things. Smith sits while he brings her food from the buffet, and then she complains he didn't bring everything she wanted. He carries her bags and smiles when, at one point, she shoves him. His shirt is always untucked, his eyes too eager. He often totes her small dog, Sugar Pie."

   Also included on the show were Anna's son Daniel (who didn't seem to appreciate the cameras around), her interior designer Bobby Trendy, and her assistant Kim (who got a tattoo of Anna on her arm).

   One of the most interesting aspects of the show is Anna's struggle with her weight. According to
TIME
magazine, "Smith's weight increased during her inheritance case; she became addicted to painkillers and had a bout of depression." During the show's run, "Smith's five-bedroom, 4,700-sq.-ft. rented house in the San Fernando Valley is stocked with a Costco's worth of Kraft Easy Mac, pizza-flavored Pringles, Handi-Snacks and Cheetos."

   Anna's weight became a problem. She couldn't lose the pounds that E! wanted her to and, after two seasons, her show wasn't renewed. In 2003, she signed on to become a spokesperson for TrimSpa and by the following year had lost a reported eighty pounds, transforming her body back to her early nineties perfection.

   In November 2004, she revealed her new body during a now legendary appearance at the American Music Awards. During her introduction of the next musical performance on the live show, Anna's speech was visibly slurred and her behavior was bizarre. She threw her arms up and exclaimed, "Like my body?"

   Now knowing Anna Nicole's medical history, experts like Dr. Keith Eddleman at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital say that her "slurred speech and exaggerated behaviors may have been indicative of someone taking methadone. It has the same euphoric effects as heroin."

   The following day her appearance at the American Music Awards was played over and over again around the world. Though
The Anna Nicole Show
was no longer on-air, her exploits and foibles continued off-camera. Her life, like her show, wasn't meant to be funny. And now, on February 8, 2007, it really wasn't. Anna Nicole Smith was dead.

In my almost twenty years of journalism, covering stories from the Michael Jackson molestation trial to President Clinton's impeachment, I have never seen anything like the media swarm that circled the body of Anna Nicole Smith. The day after she died, satellite trucks, helicopters, squad cars, a mob scene the likes of which had never been seen before, hit Fort Lauderdale. The normally quiet medical examiner's office where forensic pathologist Dr. Joshua Perper, Chief Medical Examiner of Broward County toiled, was now squarely in the media crosshairs. Like the pounding rain that slams Floridians each year, this storm grew into a full-fledged Hurricane Anna.

   Lying on a gurney in the building that served as a backdrop for the news conference, Anna Nicole's voluptuous body had just been dissected by Dr. Joshua Perper. He speaks with a Romanian accent, and is an endearing combination of wacky scientist and gentle grandfather. The crowd fell suddenly quiet as he stepped to the microphone to make his initial statements before the press about this case. Right away, reporters zeroed in on prescription drugs and who may have given them to her. As you'll see from his answers—only twenty-four hours after she was pronounced dead—details of what happened inside room 607 and inside the body of Anna Nicole Smith were conflicting and hard to ascertain.

dr. joshua perper, broward county, florida, chief medical examiner: Good afternoon. . . . I would like, first, to thank Chief Tiger from the Seminole police, who did a very professional investigation in this particular case. . . . We will have the— Chief Charlie Tiger say a few words about his investigation. And, then, I will report to you about our findings.

charlie tiger, seminole, florida, police chief: . . . First, I want to again extend our sympathy to the family and friends of Anna Nicole Smith. . . .

     With regard to the ongoing investigation, we have some additional information we—to share with you today. At the Seminole Police Department, we treat any death with utmost importance, and investigate it thoroughly. At this point, no evidence has been revealed to suggest that a crime occurred. We found no illegal drugs, only prescription medicines. We are not releasing the names on those prescriptions.

     We have taken sworn statements from all the parties involved. Everyone has cooperated fully. We are continuing to review certain surveillance tapes, but nothing unusual has been observed. This incident will remain open, an open investigation, until all tests are completed by the medical examiner's office. Thank you for being here today.

dr. joshua perper: We have been informed that yesterday was—February 8th at about 1:00 p.m. or around it, the attendants of Mrs. Nicole Smith found her collapsed and unconscious. She apparently had been sick for several days with what was approximately some kind of stomach flu. And one of the individuals who was a bodyguard, provided resuscitation. Medics came to the scene and the body was transferred to the hospital. In the hospital, unfortunately, the patient was virtually dead on arrival and was declared dead around 2:40 or so in the afternoon.

     According to the Florida statute, the Broward County Medical Examiner assumed jurisdiction because this is clearly a sudden, unexpected and unexplained death. And according to that, myself and one of our associate medical examiners, Dr. Juste, performed an autopsy, which we just completed several moments ago.

     The autopsy was able to exclude any kind of physical injury, such as blunt force trauma, gunshot wound, stab wounds or asphyxia as a cause of death, as a contributory cause of death or a hastening cause of death.

     The only thing which we found in terms of very minor trauma was a minor bruise on the back, which was related apparently to a fall reported to have occurred several days ago while the—Mrs. Smith was in the bathroom. The autopsy revealed only subtle findings in the heart and in the gastrointestinal system, in other words, in the intestines, which would have to be verified microscopically. The other finding, which we found was a small amount of blood in the stomach, which is related to her being in terminal shock a short time before she died.

   At this time, we do not make a determination of the cause and the manner of death. And, basically, we have a long list of investigation procedures which have to be completed and include an extensive review of the medical records, interview the witnesses which were with Mrs. Smith or witnessed her collapse, further cardiovascular examination of the heart and neuropathological examination of the brain and the spinal cord, bacterial and viral studies of the heart, intestines and a variety of other tissues, chemical analysis of the eye fluid and an extensive microscopic examination of the body tissues which were taken for examination.

   Now, it's our estimate that collecting the information and putting it together and relating the clinical, pathological and laboratory data would take approximately somewhere between three and five weeks.

   The medical examiner's office is obviously aware of the significant public interest in this death and therefore, we are prepared to make optimal efforts to expedite the determination of the cause and manner of death without affecting the thoroughness and the reliability of our investigation.

   So, now, if you have any questions, either address the chief or to me.

(reporters began to riddle him with questions. our job is to raise any red flags. Often times, at press conferences such as this, the loudest, most dogged reporter is the one who gets his or her question heard, if not answered.)

question: Is there any indication that she may have taken a large amount of the prescription drugs that were in the room? And what were those drugs, please?

perper: There is no such indication because we didn't find any kind of pills in the stomach. If this would be the case, then there would have been a large amount. We would have seen that. However, at this time, we don't have the results of the chemical tests, of the toxicological tests. And that's why this determination of the cause and manner of death is postponed until the entire—pieces of the puzzle. It's a medical puzzle which you have to resolve, have to be placed in place so we get a comprehensive picture of what exactly happened.

question: Have you ruled out drugs?

perper: No, I didn't rule it. I think I was very clear. What I said is that as part of our investigation, we will make a very comprehensive and thorough examination of a variety of drugs and medication, which she probably took. We have a list of the medication, which apparently were in the room. But the list of medication doesn't mean that those medications would be found in the person. So we did not exclude any kind of contribution of medication for the death. And this will have to wait for the results of the toxicological study.

question: Are you ruling out that it was a natural cause of death?

perper: It's a possibility that it might be. At this time, I cannot make a determination because there are a number of possibilities. Basically, there are three major possibilities. One is that the death is due solely to natural causes. The other possibility is that the death might be due to some medication or chemicals. And the third possibility is that there's a combination of natural causes and medication and at this time, we do not have the results of the test, which would permit us to make this determination.

question: Doctor Perper, you said there was a subtle finding—you found subtle findings in the heart and gastrointestinal that need additional further examination. But what could those findings be an indication of?

perper: Well, sometimes findings—very subtle findings in the heart can be an indication of an inflammatory process in the heart, which is not visible by the naked eye. That's why I'm saying—I'm not saying that I made this diagnosis. But I see something, which looks a little bit unusual and on microscopic examination this may verify a significant process or it may be nothing.

question: You were talking about those injuries. Did they come from continued drug abuse?

question: OK. We were hearing she may have passed away because of vomiting. Did she choke on her own vomit? That's the theory we're hearing out there.

perper: Well, we found in the stomach a small amount of blood, as I said before. This small amount of blood we related to a terminal event of shock. And the reason is that from the stomach, the contents of what an individual is ingesting go in the intestine. And we did not find blood in the intestine, but we found some intestinal contents. So it means that what is the blood occurred very shortly before the death.

     We didn't find in the stomach any kind of tablets or pills. And we did not find evidence by the naked eye, by the gross examination that was chronic abuse. However, at this time, as I said, our findings are limited to what we are able to see with our eyes . . . .

question: Chief Tiger, what about the rumors that when paramedics arrived in the room, they witnessed Mr. Stern flushing the toilet?

tiger: None of our officers that arrived on the scene saw anything like that at all.

question: How about the paramedics?

tiger: They didn't see anything like that also.