best rated diet pills
However, shouldnt the REAL emphasis lie in providing overweight or potentially obese individuals with bona fide and efficient nutritional
Vickie Lynn Marshall (November 28, 1967 – February 8, 2007), better known under the stage name of Anna Nicole Smith , was an American model, sex symbol, actress and television personality. She first gained popularity in Playboy , becoming the 1993 Playmate of the Year. She modeled for clothing companies, including Guess jeans. She starred in her own reality TV show, The Anna Nicole Show .
Born and raised in Texas, Smith dropped out of high school and was married at the age of 17. Her highly publicized second marriage to oil business executive and billionaire J. Howard Marshall, 63 years her senior, resulted in speculation that she married the octogenarian for his money, which she denied. Following his death, she began a lengthy legal battle over a share of his estate; her case, Marshall v. Marshall , reached the U.S. Supreme Court on a question of federal jurisdiction. In the months before her death, she was the focus of renewed press coverage surrounding the death of her son, Daniel Smith, and the paternity and custody battle over her daughter Daniellynn.
Early life
Born Vickie Lynn Hogan in Harris County, Texas, Anna Nicole was the only child of Donald Eugene Hogan (born July 12, 1947) and Virgie Mae (née Tabers; born July 12, 1951), who married on February 22, 1967. Her father then left the family; he and Virgie divorced on November 4, 1969. Virgie's oldest child, Anna Nicole's half-brother, is David Luther Tacker, Jr. (born 1966). Anna Nicole was raised by her mother and aunt, Elaine (Todd) Tabers, wife of Virgie's brother, Melvin Tabers. Virgie's first child was fathered by her (later) stepbrother Donald Luther Tacker Sr. Virgie's mother Paralee Allman was married to Donald's father George Tacker.
Virgie, who worked as a law enforcement officer in Houston for 28 years, subsequently married Donald R. Hart in 1971. Their child was Donald Ray Hart, Jr. (born 1972). After Virgie married Donald Hart, Anna Nicole changed her name from Vickie Hogan to Nikki Hart. Virgie and Donald Hart divorced in 1983. Virgie then married Joe D. Thompson (1987, divorced 1991), James T. Sanders (1996, died 1996), and James H. Arthur (2000).
Anna Nicole's father Donald married Wanda Faye Atkinson in 1970 and had the following children: Donna Hogan (born 1971), Donald Ray Hogan (born 1973), and Amy Hogan (born 1975). Donald and Wanda were divorced in 1978. Donald married Carolyn S. Vandver in 1996.
Anna Nicole attended Durkee Elementary School and Aldine Intermediate School in Houston. When she was in the 9th grade, she was sent to live with her mother's younger sister, Kay Beall, in Mexia, Texas. At Mexia High School, Anna Nicole failed her freshman year and later quit school during her sophomore year.
While working as a waitress at Jim's Krispy Fried Chicken in Mexia, Anna Nicole met Billy Wayne Smith, who was a cook at the restaurant. The couple married April 4, 1985; she was 17 and he was 16. The next year, she gave birth to their son, Daniel Wayne Smith. She and Billy separated in 1987 and she moved to Houston with one-year-old Daniel. They were officially divorced February 3, 1993, in Houston.
Initially, Anna Nicole found employment at Wal-Mart, then as a waitress at Red Lobster. She then became an exotic dancer, and in 1991, began taking modeling and voice lessons. In October of that year, she saw an ad in the newspaper to audition for Playboy magazine.
Playboy and modeling career
A major turning point in Smith's career was in 1992. It was then her career took off after she was chosen by Hugh Hefner to appear on the cover of the March 1992 issue of Playboy , where she is listed as Vickie Smith, wearing a low-cut evening gown. Smith said she planned to be "the next Marilyn Monroe". Becoming one of Playboy' s most popular models, Smith was heavier and larger than the typical Playboy model. Smith was chosen to be the 1993 Playmate of the Year. By the time of her PMOY pictorial, she had settled on the name Anna Nicole Smith.
Smith secured a contract to replace supermodel Claudia Schiffer in the Guess jeans ad campaign in a series of sultry black and white photographs. Guess capitalized on Smith's strong resemblance to sex symbol Jayne Mansfield and put her in Jayne-inspired photo sessions. In 1993, before Christmas, she modeled for the Swedish clothing company Hennes & Mauritz (H&M). She was dressed in underwear and arranged in seductive poses. She appeared on big posters in Sweden and Norway.
A photograph of Smith was used by New York magazine on the cover of its August 22, 1994 issue titled White Trash Nation . In the photo, she appears squatting in a short skirt and cowboy boots as she eats chips. In October 1994, Smith's lawyer initiated a $5,000,000 lawsuit against the magazine claiming unauthorized use of her photo and that the article had damaged her reputation. Her lawyer said that Smith was told she was being photographed to embody the "all-American-woman look", and that they wanted glamor shots. He further stated that the picture used was taken for fun during a break.
Marriage to Marshall
While performing at Gigi's, a Houston strip club, in October 1991, Smith met elderly oil billionaire J. Howard Marshall and they began a relationship. During their two-year relationship, he reportedly lavished gifts on her and asked her to marry him several times. She divorced her husband Billy on February 3, 1993, in Houston. On June 27, 1994, Smith, 26, and Marshall, 89, married in Houston. This resulted in a great deal of gossip about her marrying him for his money. Though she reportedly never lived with him, Smith maintained that she loved her husband, and age did not matter to her. Thirteen months after his marriage to Smith, Marshall died on August 4, 1995, in Houston.
Inheritance court cases
Within weeks of J. Howard Marshall's death, Smith and her husband's son, E. Pierce Marshall, battled over her claim for half of her late husband's US$1.6 billion estate. She temporarily joined forces with J. Howard's other son, James Howard Marshall III, whom the elder Howard had disowned. Howard III claimed J. Howard orally promised him a portion of his estate; like Smith, Howard III was also left out of J. Howard's will. The case has gone on for more than a decade, producing a highly publicized court battle in Texas and several judicial decisions that have gone both for and against Smith in that time.
In 1996, Smith filed for bankruptcy in California as a result of a $850,000 judgment against her for sexual harassment of an employee. As any money potentially due to her from the Marshall estate was part of her potential assets, the bankruptcy court involved itself in the matter.
Smith claimed J. Howard orally promised her half of his estate if she married him. In September 2000, a Los Angeles bankruptcy judge awarded her $449,754,134. In July 2001, Houston judge Mike Wood affirmed the jury findings in the probate case by ruling that Smith was entitled to nothing and ordered Smith to pay over $1 million in fees and expenses to Pierce's legal team. The conflict between the Texas probate court and California bankruptcy court judgments forced the matter into federal court.
In March 2002, a federal judge vacated the California bankruptcy court's ruling and issued a new ruling but reduced the award to $88 million. In December 2004, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the March 2002 decision, on the reasoning that the federal courts lacked jurisdiction to overrule this probate decision.
The U.S. Supreme Court decided in September 2005 to hear the appeal of that decision. The Bush administration subsequently directed the Solicitor General to intercede on Smith's behalf out of an interest to expand federal court jurisdiction over state probate disputes. After months of waiting, Smith and her stepson Pierce learned of the Supreme Court's decision on May 1, 2006. The justices unanimously decided in favor of Smith; Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the majority opinion. The decision did not give Smith a portion of her husband's estate, but affirmed her right to pursue a share of it in federal court. On June 20, 2006, E. Pierce Marshall died at age 67 from an "aggressive infection". His widow, Elaine T. Marshall, now represents his estate. The case has been remanded to the 9th Circuit to adjudicate the remaining appellate issues not previously resolved.
After Anna’s death the New York Times reported that the case over the Marshall fortune “is likely to continue in the name of Ms. Smith’s infant daughter.”
Film and television career
Although her film appearances in The Hudsucker Proxy and Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult were highly publicized in 1994, little was done to further Smith's acting career. Her first starring role was as Colette Dubois, a retired spy seeking revenge for the murder of her husband, in the action/thriller To the Limit (1995).
Smith next starred in the action/thriller Skyscraper (1997), which she also produced, as a helicopter pilot, Carrie Wisk, who lands on a high rise building and, upon learning it has been taken over by terrorists, becomes engaged