You can't make this stuff up

I have to admit I was deeply saddened by this news of Anna Nicole Smith's untimely death. She was a real character and her passing gives people less to talk about while having their hair permed. Well, for a couple of weeks her passing will really give some people something to talk about. But on the long term, less.

There are many things I liked about her. First she had that three name thing going on. Who is Anna Smith? Who is Nicole Smith? But we all know who Anna Nicole Smith is.

Then there were those shamlessly fake boobs, hair, nails and skin color. She showed the world that artificial beauty is beauty nonetheless.

She did what all women secretly want to do: marry an old man for money. Marrying a guy your age for money is just tragic. That's a whole lifetime of regret and quasi-prostitution. Marry an old geezer worth a billion dollars who does you the favor of croaking in 14 months, that's a love story.

Her life was like a good soap opera or a bad Sidney Sheldon novel:

She was born in a small town outside Dallas and was raised by a single mom. At 17, while working as a waitress at Jim's Krispy Fried Chicken in Mexia, she met Billy Wayne Smith (note the three name thing again), the short-order cook at the restaurant. They married and had a son. They divorced within a year and Anna Nicole supported herself and her son by stripping becoming an exotic dancer. She worked hard and in the end she came out on top (pun intended). She became a Playboy Playmate.

More than 20 years after her son is born she gives birth in the Bahamas to a daughter she names Hope. A few days after the child's birth, the grown son visits Anna Nicole and Hope in the hospital. He dies in Anna Nicole's hospital room from what would be discovered as a lethal combination of Zoloft, Lexapro and methadone.

Two weeks after her son's demise Anna Nicole weds lawyer Howard Stern (his real name, but not the shock jock) on a boat. Well, not really weds. A commitment ceremony of sorts.

Less than 6 months later, she will be found dead in a hotel room in Florida.

I wonder who will play her in the Movie of the Week special.