The Question About Smith That No One Is Asking

It was last week when fellow Online Journalism classmates and I emerged from the broadcast studio room after a joint-conference interview with Helen Thomas that are phones beeped like neglected little children all at once. Despite what ever else had happened in the world that day, this was going to be the headline evening news: Anna Nicole Smith was dead.

My honest to god first thought: Who's the daddy?

Of course you all know of whom and what I refer to. Smith's second and only surviving child, infant Dannielyn is the only biological heir to Smith's fortune. But the five hundred million dollar question is one of the unknown and questionable identity of little Dannielyn's male genetic donor. It seems that more than one man is man enough to own up to the responsibility.

I wonder if the sparkling ring of a multi-million dollar inheritance has anything to do with their sudden fatherly interest.

Now BBC News reports that Smith's alleged 2001 will left her vast estate to her now dead son. Her will goes on to say:

""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."

Oops. Seems someone forgot to update her affairs after said son died last year in a hospital due to drug overdose. And it's interesting to note that the will is being revealed now, as it could change the tide determining who gets the money in the end. Or perhaps not.

But here's the rub. No one seems to be all too concerned with how and why Smith died. The public must assume that such a death is expected of a 39 year-old former playmate and widow to a Texan oil tycoon (who was more than thrice her age when he finally bit the big dirt nap). Or perhaps people are too dazzled by the scandal to be concerned with the departed.

Even when the medical examiner has yet to determine the cause of death.