The death of 39-year old Anna Nicole Smith yesterday, in a South Florida casino hotel, comes as a shock but not as a surprise. Her life has been filled with drama which has been taking a dark turn since the birth of her daughter late last year and the sudden death of her son a few days later.

Now there are many questions that remain unanswered, at least for now:

• Was her death an accident, a suicide, or something more?
• Did she accidentally contribute to her son’s death? Did her new husband?
• Who is the father of her daughter? Her new husband? Her ex-boyfriend? Or the third man no one wants to talk about?
• What will happen to her daughter if paternity tests ID an unexpected father?
• Was a pre-nup in place when Anna Nicole married Howard K.? Or does he inherit the massive fortune still being fought over in the courts?
• Or does that fortune pass to Anna Nicole’s infant daughter and the parent or guardian yet to be determined?
• And, on a much lesser note, how will her death affect TrimSpa’s current court case and future advertising? 

Mae West, Diana Dors, Anita Ekberg, Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Pamela Anderson, Anna Nicole Smith. Their blonde hair and overblown bodies made them famous on stage, screen, and in the tabloids. Famous for their bust size, not their IQ, they are parodies of womanhood. Drag queens copy their style. The tabloid press loves them. 

Three, Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, and now Anna Nicole Smith, died at their prime, before their looks could fade. Pamela Anderson is teetering on the brink of middle age but her flamboyant lifestyle may be her downfall. Diana Dors lived into her 50s, Mae West into her 80s. Anita Ekberg, whose career tanked when her weigh increased, currently lives in Italy.

Curiously, none of these women would have made it in today’s world of the super model. Anna Nicole, when she appeared in Playboy, weighed 140 pounds. Spread over her 5′ 11″ frame, she was the perfect centerfold. By today’s “ideal woman” standards, she would have been 30 pounds too heavy for the fashion runway and overweight for the big screen. Most of the others would have been deemed too short and too fat.

Who will be the next Marilyn, Anita, or Anna Nicole? Are today’s candidates too one-note? Does the next icon need something more than just blonde hair and huge breasts to make her stand out from a crowd of wannabees?

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