Anna Anna Anna Anna, Anna Nicole – you’re so bodacious!
She was a sex symbol, an icon, a tabloid fixation and a mother. Anna Nicole Smith departed the world too early in February 2007, leaving behind a legacy that pop culture gurus have not forgotten. The same tune as Marilyn Monroe, Anna Nicole – born Vickie Lynn Hogan in Texas – had a monumental rise to fame, with traditional steppingstones that ultimately led her to disaster. Once one of the most sought-after women in Hollywood, Smith’s career started burning out following a number of legal battles and issues with drug addiction.
All of this and more is explored in the upcoming documentary from director Ursula Macfarlane titled Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me. And it’s coming to streaming in less than a month!
Ursula tells Tudum:
I feel like many previous books and films about Anna Nicole twisted her narrative, so I felt fortunate to have access to a wealth of audio and TV interviews including personal phone calls that involved Anna Nicole. I really feel like she is telling her own story in her own words. And with the contributions of people in her life who genuinely knew her, I feel that we’ve been able to get closer to her truth.
From her humble beginnings modeling for Guess Jeans and H&M to gracing the cover of Playboy Magazine a historic 5 times to attempting a career in film and television… The sky was the limit until legal battles over her deceased husband’s estate, billionaire oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall, and a lengthy paternity suit involving 3 different men pushed her priorities to a different place. Renewed weight loss and a reality show, The Anna Nicole Smith Show, was reviving her relevance until personal tragedy sidetracked her growth again. Her son, Daniel, died just three days after the birth of her daughter, Dannielynn, to which Smith truly recovered.
She passed away from a drug overdose on February 8, 2007 at age 39.
The upcoming documentary promises to showcase never-before-seen footage of the late model, home videos from her personal collection, interviews from friends and family who truly knew her and a more in depth look at her life, career and downfall than ever before.
Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me debuts exclusively on Netflix May 16, 2023.
Sources: Tudum, Rolling Stone
She was a total gay icon. I loved her E! reality show, she seemed so real and very sweet.