Gold Digger. Bimbo. Opportunist. These were all the labels that dogged Anna Nicole Smith. The actress andPlayboymodel lived a very public life, but a new Netflix documentary, Anna Nicole: You Don’t Know Me, provides a more rounded idea of who she really was.The nearly two-hour-long documentary combines archive audio recordings of Smith with intimate interviews of her immediate family members and closest friends. As we dig deeper, it is clear there is more to her than meets the eye. Anna Nicole Smith was a complex woman, and her life was an ongoing tragedy; fuelled by exploitation, public scrutiny and invasive toxic tabloids. However, nor was she a powerless victim like the media portrayed, she was a savvy protagonist who shaped a lot of her own story.
In 1992, Smith's star power launched her practically overnight from a small-town of Mexia, Texas to the cover of Playboy and the face of Guess jeans. She won starring roles in movies such as Naked Gun 33 1/3 and The Hudsucker Proxy. She smouldered from billboards, charmed late-night hosts like Jay Leno and dazzled on the red carpet at the Oscars.
The documentary works hard to question the assumption that Anna Nicole was primarily a gold digger. After she married 89-year-old octogenarian billionaire J Howard Marshall II when she was 23-years-old, the world just assumed she was primarily in it to inherit his huge wealth. But the documentary suggests that there was true love between them. We also see that Anna Nicole worked hard for the life of luxury she wanted to live from a young age and worked strategically during her mid 20s to get there. 'She was a hustler,' Director Ursula Macfarlane says. 'She made things happen on her own terms.'
In the documentary Smith's friends, Pol' Atteu and Patrik Simpson insist Anna Nicole was just a character. The couple — who have an atelier in Beverly Hills and a reality show called Gown and Out in Beverly Hills — became close with Smith in the last years of her life. 'She was playing the part of Anna Nicole,' says Atteu. 'There were two different people. One was the celebrity superstar and television personality. Over the top, dumb blonde, what people wanted her to be, what would get her a pay check.' He continued, 'The other was deeply human. The intimate, real Anna Nicole. The shrewd businesswoman,' he says. Atteu detailed how Anna would make deals with the paparazzi by tipping them off to her whereabouts to make money. Adding, 'She was the one who figured out that sad stories about her pay more. Even if they are not her own.'
There is something tragically sad about someone who never really knew themselves. Anna Nicole clung to the opinions of the world and wanted so desperately to be adored. Producer Lancey told People, 'Every person that we spoke to, we asked the same question, "Do you think that we’re ever going to get a sense of who Anna Nicole Smith truly was?” And most of them said something along the lines of, “Well, you can try as best you can, but I don’t think she even knew who she was really.” Because a lot of folks felt she was trying to be what other people wanted her to be.'
Dr. Nathalie Maullin, a hospital psychiatrist, revealed that she thought Anna had borderline personality disorder and was addicted to prescription medications. Dr Maullin said it was difficult to get a medical history from Smith because she was 'putting on a show' and was deferring questions to her lawyer-boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, who was with her at all times. The lack of awareness and care for her mental and physical health was detrimental and was ultimately the cause of her tragic death in 2007. Anna was surrounded by a lot of 'yes men' who were only working in the interest of exploiting her for fame and fortune. If her care was top priority to those around her, perhaps her untimely death could have been avoided.
Anna Nicole was a character - there were two different people
Anna Nicole's life was full of tragedy and there were some very real deeply sad moments that changed the trajectory of her life. At 17 years old, she had her son Daniel just to soothe her own loneliness. 'Well if I have a baby, I'll never be lonely again,' Smith said in an old audio recording featured in the documentary. 'So I flushed them pills down the toilet, and I got pregnant. I had my son Daniel. And then, I'm not lonely, and I love him.'
The biggest bombshell moment came from the fact that Anna was an alleged victim of sexual assault by her biological father, Donald Eugene Hogan. This is a new claim that wasn't public knowledge before the Netflix release. The biggest bombshell moment from the documentary was the alleged sexual assault by her biological father, Donald Eugene Hogan. Smith claimed that her father tried to have sex with her shortly after meeting her for the first time. 'When we were alone, [Smith] told me her father had tried to have sex with her,' Missy says in the documentary. 'It was really sad because I know how happy she was when she met him. She had all of these ideas in her head of what he was like, and what it was going to be like. And then she was just so, so disappointed.'
As a viewer there are conflicting feelings. Whilst we can sympathise with Anna Nicole's tragic hardships, she also admitted to fabricating a lot of stories. The documentary reveals how Smith mythologized her own backstory to market herself—claiming she grew up in poverty and hijacking Missy’s own story of childhood abuse. Multiple sources in the documentary claimed that Smith’s family was not poor and that her mother Virgie, was a sweet woman who loved Anna and, if anything, helped keep her out of trouble.
In a never-before-heard interview, Virgie claims her daughter told her point-blank why she was throwing her under the bus to the public, 'I make more money telling sad stories than I make telling good stories,' she claims Smith told her. When Virgie asked Smith whether she wanted people to think good things about her, she says Smith replied, 'Not if bad pays better.' It makes it difficult for us as viewers to decipher the truth and truly understand her.
The world thought they knew the story of Anna Nicole Smith: the blonde bombshell who married a billionaire and died a tragic death. However, the documentary truly uncovers the complicated women she was. The real Anna Nicole Smith was a figure of many contradictions. She didn't always say or do the right thing but she was young and growing up under the glaring spotlight of Hollywood. There is nothing linear or straightforward about her story. But one thing is for certain: she was so much more than the headlines led us to believe.
How did Anna Nicole Smith die?
Anna tragically died of an overdose on 8 February 2007. She was only 39-years-old and passed just months after her daughter Dannielynn Birkhead was born and her son Daniel died of an accidental drug overdose. It is tragically sad that they both died of the same cause. At the time of her passing, Anna had been battling a bacterial infection and the flu, with methadone and Valium found in her system along with a rarely prescribed sedative chloral hydrate. The drug is known to be fatal if combined with certain medications, such as the sedative Lorazepam, which was also found in Anna's system.The Seminole Police Department in Florida ruled her death 'an accidental overdose with no other criminal element present.'
How did Anna Nicole Smith's son Daniel Wayne Smith die?
Daniel Wayne Smith died from an accidental overdose in 2007 at the age of 20, just three days after his half sister Dannielynn was born. Her Majesty’s Coroner announced on Sept. 12, 2007, two days after Daniel’s death, 'The cause of death is not natural. However, we wish to reserve the cause of death at this time pending the toxicologist examination and report for confirmation of cause of death. Friday is the likely release date for the autopsy and toxicology report.' Anna was devastated by her death of her son and died a few months later.
Reportedly when Daniel died, it was so traumatic for Anna that she experienced memory loss. 'She was very, very emotional,' TrimSpa CEO Alex Goen said on Larry King Live (via E! Online). 'She broke down many times. And, the few times when she was coherent was when she talked about her baby girl and she brightened up for a moment there but very quickly started thinking about Daniel and broke down immediately afterward.'
We all thought we knew the story of Anna Nicole Smith, the blonde bombshell who marries a billionaire: She’s a gold digger, she goes to court to fight for the money and dies a tragic death. We all thought we knew her in one way or another. However, the documentary truly uncovers the complicated women she was. The real Anna Nicole Smith was a figure of many contradictions. She didn't always say or do the right thing but she was young and growing up under the glaring spotlight of Hollywood. There is nothing linear or straightforward about her story. But one thing is for certain: she was so much more than the headlines led us to believe.