The problem is that Anna is herself responsible for the potential of her daughter being used for all or part of her life. It can fairly be blamed on Anna and no other person that her daughter is in that position.

I also really have a hard time believing that Anna was just a simple girl who wanted to be loved and spent her life being used by men. Some women get used by men, Anna used men by letting them use her, as much as anything else. She may have been a genius, in fact, if in no other way than creating for herself a niche only she could fill. She was a user as much as she was used, and she admitted it by actions if not by words during her life. There is nothing wrong with pointing that out.

I am not saddened by her death, but then, unless any person has touched me I rarely really care. Nothing Anna did in life or death touched me. A person's spot in the media is not enough to make me care about their deaths, and why should it? A person's celebrity status should not in itself be enough to garner mourners from the public, and I am not one who believes that any death is inherintly sad. But then, I also don't mean to speak ill of the dead. I also said these things when she was alive. I have little respect for her, and her dying doesn't (nor should it) change that.

Even though she apparently sold her own son's 'death' photographs and lived a sleazy, anything -goes - sort of life, I am still sorry such a person felt compelled to demean herself, and came to a bad end over it. Sure, she was everything that disgusts me. But I'm still sobered [ saddened is too strong a word] over the wreckage she created for herself and those around her - her children in particular.

As the battling over who has the right to bury Anna Nicole's body continues, a copy of her will has been produced:

Judge Releases Anna Nicole Smith's Will
By MATT SEDENSKY
Associated Press Writer

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The question of who will inherit Anna Nicole Smith's estate was thrown into further confusion Friday with the release of a 2001 will in which the former Playboy centerfold said her fortune should be held in trust for her son -- who died last year.

The document said Smith's lawyer and boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, should be her executor and hold her estate in trust for son Daniel Smith. But her son died last September at age 20 of apparently drug-related causes, days after the birth of the pinup's daughter, Dannielynn.

And the will explicitly leaves out anything for anyone other than the son.

"I have intentionally omitted to provide for my spouse and other heirs, including future spouses and children and other descendants now living and those hereafter born or adopted," Smith said in the will, which was signed under her legal name, Vickie Lynn Marshall.
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The Will, written in 2001 was apparently never updated or amended.

It seems extremely odd that a 33 year old woman (her age at the time) would write a well that specifically disinherits all future spouses and children. Why would she want to disinherit her future children?

It is also inconceivable that Anna's lawyers (including Howard K. Stern, who she was living with) did not inform her that she needed to update her Will after her son died because he had been listed as her only heir. She now had a daughter, and she needed to provide for her daughter financially, as well as name a guardian for the child in the event of her death. Why wasn't the will updated? Why didn't her lawyers advise her about that?

It wasn't as if Anna couldn't face the issues of her own mortality after her son's death. Allegedly she bought burial plots next to those of her son, apparently so she could be buried next to him. According to some reports, she also attempted suicide twice within the past 5 months. And, the latest rumor (as of yesterday) is that she had even picked out a dress she wanted to be buried in. So, her lawyers (including Howard K. Stern) could hardly claim that they couldn't bring up the issue of her death with her to advise her that her Will needed to be updated to provide for her daughter. Was it in Stern's best interests for Anna not to update her Will? Since he is likely not the biological father of Anna's daughter, could he be in a stronger position to control Anna's estate, and her child, without an updated Will? Was it deliberate negligence that Anna's lawyers (and Stern) did not draft an updated Will for her to sign?

Anna, who spent the last 10 years contesting the Will of her late husband Howard Marshall, in order to try to get his money, certainly knew the importance of a Will, and the need to put one's wishes in writing rather than just utter them orally. It doesn't make any sense that she wouldn't have wanted to update her Will, or provide for her daughter. The failure to update her Will seems to clearly point at her lawyers (including Howard K. Stern).

No one knows how much money Anna Nicole Smith was worth, or the financial value of her Estate. A lot of the fuss, including issues surrounding the question of her daughter's paternity, seems to hinge on whether her Estate might yet be awarded up to 400 million+, from the Estate of Howard Marshall if future legal fights are successful. Whoever gets custody of the baby might (or might not) be able to control a great deal of money "in the child's best interests". But, that's a big "if", since, in 10 years of legal fighting, Anna was unable to receive a nickel from her late husband's Estate. It is unknown how much money Anna herself was worth at the time of her death, or how many unpaid bills she left behind. The current Estate might be large or not very large. Any future gains from Marshall's Estate might never materialize.

Because Anna's Will no longer applies (since her only named heir is now dead), this matter might be treated as though she died without a Will. But, where will the situation of her Estate, and the guardianship of her daughter, be resolved? In Florida? California? The Bahamas? Conflicting laws between those jurisdictions may keep this from being resolved for quite some time to come.

Anna's legal affairs were as messy as everything else in her life. They haven't even resolved the issue of who can bury her or who will be the guardian of her daughter. Various legal wranglings could go on, internationally, for an indefinite period of time. If nothing else, she has provided a feast for the legal profession, who can continue to figuratively gnaw on her carcass, and rake in money from the various parties grabbing at her remains, assets, and child, for God knows how long.

If anyone really cared for this woman, they certainly didn't look out for her interests in life. Their concern about her wishes in death seems nothing more than self-serving.

I agree with Chelseabelle - where were these people who are so concerned with her interests now, when she was still alive? I saw an interview she'd taped a week or so before her death, and she already looked dead! Her face was puffy, her words were slurred and Howard K. Stern - who was sitting right next to her - didn't seem the least bit concerned. If, as a complete stranger and casual observer, I could tell she was in serious trouble, why couldn't the man who "loved" her?

But did he lover her or was it just her money that he loved?

Heard there is now a man in jail claiming he is the father of her child. What people will do for money!

Quote:

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What people will do for money!

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The same could be said of Anna herself.

The man in jail is the brother of a friend of Anna's, and she did have a relationship with him. He claims she asked him for a sperm sample, and he obliged. He does have some written proof of their relationship, and he feels she might have used that sperm sample.

Anna also had a brief fling with the wealthy land developer who owned the house in the Bahamas she eventually fled to in order to block any potential custody claims from Larry Birkhead regarding her (as of then unborn) daughter. She first tried to tell the land developer that he was the father of the child, but she got a rude surprise--he told her he had a vasectomy years before. He alleges that she then told him that Birkhead was the father. When she asked him for help, he agreed to let her have the house in the Bahamas on credit (so she could leave the U.S. and avoid Birkhead's paternity claims) with the understanding that she would pay him for the house (which she apparently never did--which is why her Bahamas residency may now be in question).

Larry Birkhead is probably the most likely father of Anna's daughter. She wouldn't have gone to such extremes (like leaving the country) to block having to give her baby's DNA sample, in response to Birkhead's demands for such testing and his threats of a potential custody battle, unless there was a very good probability he was the dad. Birkhead claims that Anna had earlier asked him to marry her, but he turned her down because there were too many problems in their relationship.

How Anna herself even managed to keep track of her tangled love life is baffling. Who knows how many more men will come forward to talk about the parts they played in the maze of her life, or the possibility that they fathered her child? She apparently bedded down with a lot of men.

I don't know whether Howard K. Stern loved her or not. On her reality TV show he was always by her side, but mainly as a gopher and someone who tried to manage the tumult she was always creating. He was clearly a paid employee, judging by her behavior toward him. There was no hint of genuine affection between them. Perhaps they grew closer, as friends, after the death of her son, and he may have been a real source of emotional support for her during that time. But Anna was also his main source of income for over 10 years--he had no other clients--and keeping her happy, at all times, was his full time job. His public assertions that he fathered her child may have been just another way of keeping her happy. Even their planned marriage might have been a way to smooth over her legal difficulties rather than a true romance. He may have been the only man she trusted. But, given the messy state of her legal affairs, that trust might well have been misplaced.

If Howard K. Stern remains as the executor of Anna's estate (as designated in her 2001 Will) he will certainly profit financially, even if he does not retain custody of the baby. If he loses custody of the baby, and is also not found to be the legitimate executor of her estate, he will be out of luck. He might actually have to find a real job, for possibly the first time in his life.

But, perhaps the reason that Howard K. Stern didn't have Anna update her Will was that, once her daughter was named as her sole beneficiary, in the event of Anna's death the child's biological father would also come into the picture, effectively taking control of most of the money. That would have left Howard high and dry. Without a currently valid legal Will for Anna, he can continue his claims for paternity, custody, and control of the estate to care for the child. That legal fighting could go on for quite some time.

It remains to be seen whether Dannielynn, Anna's daughter, will ever inherit any money from her mother's marriage to J. Howard Marshall. She might not. Her mother seems to have spent money as fast as she earned it, so Dannielynn might not live in the lap of luxury just on the basis of Anna Nicole's estate. Money or money, the child deserves to grow up in a stable and loving home. But, with whom?

If Howard K. Stern takes care of Dannielynn the way he took care of her mother, she would be much better off without him.