RIP: Anna Nicole Smith

I’m shocked to hear that Playmate of the Year Anna Nicole Smith has died yesterday.

To say that Anna had some problems in her life is something of an understatement. Sure she went from local heartbreaker to ultra-curvy model to billionaire widow in the span of just a decade, but at the same time she had to go more than her fair share of twists and turns. Her real life was cast on the short-lived TV reality series as pretty much a freak show. She seemed to be constantly on something. Her in-laws moved heaven and earth to block her from getting one penny of her late husband’s money. She lost her son around the same time that she gave birth to a daughter whose parentage is in question. And then she married her attorney for… whatever reason. If you didn’t know who she was, you’d think that she was a soap opera character.

Now as some of you know, I have the pleasure to call several Playboy Playmates as friends. I can tell you that most of the Playmates that I’ve met, and especially those who are my friends, aren’t like that. They live normal lives and work for a living. One of my Playmate friends often talks about how she lives the “glamorous life” by vacuuming and spending the weekend repainting the rooms in her house. They really are the “girls next door”… or at least the girls you wish lived next door.

I’ve never met Anna, and as strange as it may sound, there’s a part of me that’s sort of glad that I didn’t. She may have helped brought back curves to the modeling world, but at the same time she also reinforced the stereotype of the ditsy blonde beauty. Still, it is a waste that her life would end so early, especially not long after giving birth to a little girl.