E Pierce Marshall

Anna Nicole Smith: With her blow-up-doll curves, the former stripper and Red Lobster waitress became a Playmate of the Year and Guess jeans model before marrying a billionaire octogenarian, who died 14 months later, leaving her to fight over his estate with his adult son. That legal battle went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. During the filming of her reality show, Smith said she had two audiences: "large women and college boys." She died Feb.

Anna Nicole Smith had always made it clear: She wanted to be just like Marilyn Monroe. She struggled mightily to make herself into a platinum-tressed sex symbol. And though she never gained the acting credibility of Monroe, her death at 39 on Thursday in a Florida hotel poignantly echoes that of her idol.

In defense of dumb blonds ... A 26-year-old Playboy playmate with an eighth-grade education marries an uncommonly rich 89-year-old oilman. He dies a year later, and she makes a claim to part of his fortune. You've already chosen sides, haven't you? Maybe that's what E. Pierce Marshall was counting on as he contested Anna Nicole Smith's claim to part of his late father's fortune. She was nothing but a gold digger, Pierce Marshall claimed, and his father, J. Howard Marshall, had no intention of leaving any of his estate to the former stripper with the Marilyn Monroe fixation.

Anna Nicole Smith, the former Playboy Playmate and widow of a Texas oil billionaire, won a unanimous ruling from the Supreme Court on Monday that cleared the way for her to claim as much as $500 million from her late husband's estate. But the decision does not resolve the 11-year-old legal dispute, which has bounced back and forth between the state courts of Texas and the federal courts in California. The court battle has been fought over who lied and schemed to get a share of the estate of J.

Anna Nicole Smith wasn't suffocated, stabbed, shot or bludgeoned, but the medical examiner who conducted a six-hour autopsy on the pop-culture star said Friday that it could be five weeks before he knew what killed her. The 39-year-old celebrity sexpot, who was found lifeless in a luxury hotel suite Thursday, probably died of natural causes, drug or chemical influences, or a combination of those factors, said Joshua Perper, chief of the Broward County medical examiner's office.

Miguel Ferrer, who plays medical examiner Dr. Garret Macy on the NBC series "Crossing Jordan," and his actress-wife, Leilani Sarelle, have settled into a Hollywood Hills home they bought for about $1.7 million. The couple and their two children were living in New York when "Crossing Jordan" started airing. But after Ferrer commuted for a while to L.A., where the series is filmed, they decided to buy. "Crossing Jordan" was recently picked up for 24 episodes.