Ezra Klein: Anna Nicole Smith

« Health News of the Day | Main | Parity »

February 13, 2007

Anna Nicole Smith

The coverage of Anna Nicole Smith's death has been ugly. The media has almost implied that she deserved it, or, worse, that it didn't matter what she did or didn't deserve, that she was here for no reason other than to provide entertainment and, by dying in an odd and dramatic way, she's just punching the clock. That her life had become a mess, her vapidity a public spectacle, her weight gain and loss pathetically public, is all the worse. Humans are always hungry for ways to judge and diminish those who're too beautiful, or too smart, or too something, and we got our chance with her, in spades. That's why I'm comforted by Larry Miller's remembrance of her, which is touching and warm and kind and generous. Amidst all the coverage to the contrary, she deserves at least a little affection.

February 13, 2007 | Permalink

Comments

Agree that it's been pretty gross.

Posted by: SomeCallMeTim | Feb 13, 2007 11:47:40 AM

Touching and warm and kind and generous... and yet, still managing to capture that - what's the word for it - world of hers. I agree it was very nice, but you just can't escape just who she was, ever, can you?

Posted by: weboy | Feb 13, 2007 12:16:48 PM

weboy, we all sell something to make our way in the world. Perhaps the most cogent, and telling, thing Larry Miller said was that beauty like hers isn't a blessing.

Posted by: nolo | Feb 13, 2007 12:48:50 PM

Cintra Wilson's Salon article was also quite nice. Particularly if you've marveled previously at Wilson's amazing acid tongue, not in use here.

Posted by: Allen Knutson | Feb 13, 2007 12:54:43 PM

Touching and generous, indeed. Except he couldn't resist a cheap shot at Jimmy Carter right near the end. These guys never, never quit, do they.

Posted by: Farinata X | Feb 13, 2007 1:00:53 PM

Thanks for noting this. It's been ghastly. More & more the popular culture creates celebrities it despises, & when they die, they're mocked, not mourned.

Posted by: KH | Feb 13, 2007 1:05:42 PM

the media fueled her death and now pisses on her.

the media is the message -- and our true enemy.

Posted by: christian | Feb 13, 2007 1:20:08 PM

How about this:

If we gave this much coverage to every drug addict loser that dies, we wouldn't have time to cover the real important issues of our time.

oh . . . wait.

Posted by: Tony | Feb 13, 2007 1:28:48 PM

The media coverage hasn't been solely rapacious, has it? You act like Anna Nicole was simply minding her own business all these years and that the media simply couldn't leave her alone. Her weight gain and loss was"pathetically public"? Perhaps had she not done an advertisement for Trimspa (a now discredited weight loss concoction), or earlier a reality TV show in which she waddled around in varying states of intoxication, fewer people would have noticed (or cared).

Nobody held a gun to her head and forced her to go on TV or to make smutty movies or to pose in Playboy or anything else. Her death is a tragedy inasmuch as any death that orphans an infant is. I truly felt sorry for her when her son died.

But to me, the media coverage, given the sort of celebrity she was, seemed fair enough and nearly complimentary.

Posted by: Matt S | Feb 13, 2007 1:44:04 PM

The media has almost implied that she deserved it, or, worse, that it didn't matter what she did or didn't deserve, that she was here for no reason other than to provide entertainment

True, and of course it's lamentable, but then she lived as though she had no purpose other than to provide entertainment. (Her mother once confided to an interviewer that her daughter had early in her life determined to be "famous no matter for what".) It's too bad that Anna Nicole Smith's death should reflect the self-chosen circumstances of her life, but, like many things which are too bad, it's also perfectly logical and not to be wondered at.

Posted by: bekabot | Feb 13, 2007 3:43:33 PM

Her entire life was ugly and gaudy, why should her death be any different? Don't tell other people how their lives ought to be.

Posted by: yoyo | Feb 13, 2007 4:41:19 PM

What baffles me about the media coverage isn't necessarily the tone, but the volume. And not simply because of its effect in obscuring "the real important issues of our time" and what have you. It's more about the odd news judgment it represents within its own context.

The coverage of her death has been far out of proportion to her notoriety while alive. Maybe I missed something along the way, but when was Smith ever considered a top-tier celebrity? Her fame struck me as B- or C-level, at best. I've always been pretty tuned in to America's watercooler chat du jour, and I simply don't recall Smith ever being a dominant topic. I mean, maybe for a couple of seconds when she married the 90-year-old rich guy, but that was it.

Suddenly, though, the press is portraying her as a big deal as if it had always portrayed her as a big deal.

So my beef isn't "The coverage is overboard because she was a vapid star" or "The coverage is overboard because she was a drug-addled star," but rather, "The coverage is overboard because she wasn't really, you know, a star."

(I do not mean to demean her death; my observation is simply about journalism.)

Posted by: Tomas | Feb 13, 2007 4:53:42 PM

Q: What's the difference between the media and a ghoul?

A: A ghoul stops feeding when there's no body left.

Miller's essay was very humane and touching.

Posted by: James Killus | Feb 13, 2007 11:51:20 PM

She was a working girl
Down Houston way
Now she's hit the big time
In the USA

Honey pie, you're making me crazy
I'm in love but I'm lazy
Won't you please be mine?
O honey pie.

Posted by: David | Feb 14, 2007 8:09:30 AM

It's funny that the 27/7 media is covering this sad situation as if the "public" viewed Smith as some icon. I haven't seen any coverage of fans laying wreaths at the site of her death (or any of her homes). It's like the car crash on the side of the road - you view it from a distance, but don't really concern yourself with the victims.

Posted by: CParis | Feb 14, 2007 1:18:32 PM

I have been consumed with this news since Anna Smith death. And I have asked myself why such a fasination, but the truth is I came from alot of dysfunction, I have 2 children similar in age and I must admit her choices were obvioulsely disatourous, but ya know I think if you have a conciouse or any humanity and decency in you at all you tend to relate to people like her and somewhere you are hoping that even with the obviouse pain she was in, looking for love or security in any venue she could find even if fleeting or unorthodox, you hope they will get it together learn from thier mistakes and rise above thier own weakness .She became pathetic because we wathced her we the public created her If we had ignored her she would not be famous but we didnt we were dicusted and fasinated all at the same time .Maybe like Monroe she is a reminder to all of us that life is not a party and with both of them they had what this society yearns to be blond buetiful rich famous.We have a whole generation of women who are starving themselves to death, sleeping with men marring for money .There are thousands of men everyday in this country that go to stip clubs unethical in buisness deals prostitution drug addicts etc.but it all leads to destruction Some of us get caught some end up dead others get another chance Life is a prosess you can either rise up or come tumbling down But to watch these celebraties slowley crash and burn should be troubling to all of us .Anna was a human being Gods child as mixed up as she was she was still someones daughter a mother who lost her son and gave birth to a innocent child.She was once an innocent child herself and somewhere along the line she forgot that and apparently alot of other people who think she was just a pathetic nobody, how cruel how inhumane and heartless our society is getting Souless.The whole thing saddens me to think we treat each other with such disrespect and contempt in the very midst of another persons tragedy and pain even if it was thier own undoing.We should grieve for her because we knew of her and like us she struggled with her demons and like us she laughed and cried and made mistakes but she was still one of us one of our own living on this planet called the human race.And for whatever reason circustanses choices good or bad it is tragic, very very tragic.To make fun or say cruel things or just dismiss it like it is nothing is heartless everyone deserves compassion That is why Jesus came to earth to try to teach us Those without sin cast the first stone

Posted by: Grace | Feb 23, 2007 1:02:23 AM

There was a

Hole in the Soul
of Anna Nicole
Dr BLT
words and music by Dr BLT (c)2007
http://www.drblt.net/music/AnaNicole.mp3

Posted by: Dr BLT | Feb 25, 2007 11:22:29 PM

hourm rbpmvxsfl slqkxzur piyscwma gfsqh jvcngke lzvjm

Posted by: tyqzc uyeghn | Aug 2, 2007 4:57:28 AM

bjhvkwg golwxintc tuegfokiv iclgkua ouvrnpzb moxvqaz qrsxt http://www.vnhsbfe.okws.com

Posted by: xzrac fgnujew | Aug 2, 2007 4:57:45 AM

mvhfjip fhogu gavieprmj qiyc sifeqvd ouig juhi wctuhx umoiwftsz

Posted by: zfbvaxg daxoz | Aug 2, 2007 4:58:19 AM

Listed above are links to weblogs that reference Buy Viagra Online:

Posted by: viagra | Aug 2, 2007 7:48:53 AM