She's big, blonde, bulbous, and a savvy image-conscious media-manipulator -- a Jayne Mansfield for the '90s, but without Jayne's sweetness and coy acting ability. She first gained fame as a model for Guess in '92 then in Playboy as a Playmate of the Month (May '92) and then Playmate of the Year ('93), with measurements supposedly at 39 -- 27 -- 39 (only one other chick a Playmate of the Year -- the voluptuous Victoria Vetri); Anna's legitimate movie experience is limited to three "major" films -- bit parts in '94's The Hudsucker Proxy and Naked Gun 33 1/3, and the starring role as a helicopter pilot in the little-seen Skyscraper from '95 (which had the tagline "86 floors of action-packed terror!"); other screen appearances are dominated by R-rated videos and documentaries, including '95's The Best of Anna Nicole Smith and '98's Portrait of a Pin-Up Queen, plus lots of appearances on talk shows, "Entertainment Tonight," "Inside Edition," etc.


Born in '67 in Houston, Texas as Vickie Lynn Hogan; married at 17 to 16-year-old Billy Smith; her greatest fame came when in June '94 she married oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall, who was 73 years older than she was; when he died 14 months later she began a bitter fight with his family over his estate; part of the legal wrangling focused on whether or not she and Marshall had ever consummated their marriage, because if they hadn't the marriage would've been nullified and she would've had no claim to his millions; she always maintained that they enjoyed a full physical relationship, but she eventually settled out of court for much less than what Marshall was worth, later saying, "Marrying into money was not a good thing for me"; several years of huge weight gains/losses, substance abuse, and embarrassing episodes (like when she crashed a bar mitzvah and was "dirty dancing" with a 13-year-old kid) followed; in '96 she started a foundation called SASS -- Stars Against ScandalS -- to help celebrities deal with sudden unwanted notoriety.