Anna Nicole Smith dead
By Justin Lees and wires
February 09, 2007 12:00
A BODYGUARD and a nurse were in Anna Nicole Smith's hotel room while she collapsed and died in the bathroom, police have revealed.
Her third husband, lawyer Howard K Stern, was said to have been at her side.
Miss Smith made her name when she married oil billionaire J. Howard Marshall, 63 years her senior, in 1994.
When he died 14 months later she battled for a share of his huge fortune and went on to star in her own reality TV show.
US media reported the larger-than-life celebrity, 39, died early this morning - just months after her adult son died of a drug overdose and she gave birth to a new child.
The paternity of her now five-month-old daughter, Dannielynn, remains a matter of dispute, with Smith's ex-boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, waging a legal challenge, saying he is the father.
Debra Opri, the lawyer who filed his paternity suit, said Birkhead "is devastated. He is inconsolable, and we are taking steps now to protect the DNA testing of the child. The child is our No. 1 priority.''
The birth certificate lists Dannielynn's father as lawyer Howard K. Stern, Smith's most recent companion.
The buxom, platinum-blonde Texan former Guess spokeswoman and former Playboy Playmate collapsed in the bathroom of her room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, north of Miami.
Already parallels are being drawn between her death and that of her son Daniel, who apparently collapsed of a drug overdose in his mother's post-natal hospital room in September.
Today police said Smith was with a bodyguard and a nurse - who raised the alarm by calling the hotel's reception at 1.38pm local time.
It is not believed her seven-month-old daughter, Dannielynn Hope, was with her at the time.
Local streets were shut down and paramedics made desperate attempts to save Smith's life as she was rushed to the Memorial Regional Hospital, five kilometres away.
They were seen pumping her chest as she left in the ambulance and a tube was put down her throat to help her breathe, but she died about 3.45pm.
Smith was born Vickie Lynn Hogan and raised in the small Texas town of Mexia, growing up emulating screen legend Marilyn Monroe.
She made headlines when she sprang from small-town obscurity to fame as a Playboy Playmate who met aged oil tycoon J Howard Marshall in 1993 while dancing in a Houston strip club.
They married a year later when she was a 26-year-old mother of one and he was 89.
Marshall died in 1995 prompting a lengthy legal battle between his sons and Smith which was unresolved at the time of her death.
Smith made headlines in Australia after partying with ACP boss Cameron Hoy in 2005.
The debonair advertising director quit his post after partying with Smith at one of his magazine's Oscars parties.
She recently exchanged wedding vows with her lawyer Howard Stern - but it is unclear if the ceremony was legally binding - in a bizarre ceremony on a boat following the death of her 20-year-old son Daniel in the Bahamas before Christmas.
Just days before the death of Daniel, Smith gave birth to a baby girl whose paternity has been disputed by a former boyfriend and Smith's attorney.
Daniel died in strange circumstances, apparently collapsing of a methadone overdose in Smith's post-natal hospital room while his mother was asleep.
Another lawyer confirmed Smith's death today.
"I can confirm that she is deceased. It's as shocking to me as to you guys,'' Smith's attorney, Ronald Rale, told reporters.
"I don't know anything further. (Her lawyer and husband) Howard (K. Stern) obviously is speechless and grieving.
Sources said emergency responders performed CPR at the scene and a breathing apparatus was inserted in Smith's throat. Paramedics were seen pumping her chest as she was taken from the hotel.
All about Anna Nicole Smith:
* Smith had been ordered to have her five-month-old baby undergo a paternity test as part of a lawsuit by an ex-boyfriend, his attorney said. Larry Birkhead sued Smith in October, demanding she have the paternity test because he believed he was the father of the baby girl she gave birth to in the Bahamas on Sept. 7.
* Smith's 20-year-old son, Daniel, died in the Bahamas three days after the birth of her daughter. A pathologist hired by the model said he apparently died from a drug overdose.
* Smith was Playboy's Playmate of the Year in 1993. In 1994, she married 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall after meeting him at a strip club.
* Marshall's death 14 months later set off a legal battle over his estate between Smith and her husband's son, E. Pierce Marshall, who died in June.
* In May, Anna Nicole won a US Supreme Court decision in the suit giving her another chance to collect millions of dollars.
* She starred in a short-lived cable television reality series, The Anna Nicole Show, from 2002 to 2004