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Anna Nicole (2013)

In his book 'Whose Lives Are They Anyway', Dennis Bingham conceived of the subgenre 'Biopics of Someone Undeserving', noting that the only two film's featuring a female subject were both directed by Mary Harron. Though we are reluctant to judge who may or may not belong in this category, we believe that if Mr. Bingham's book was published three years later, he most certainly would have included Mary Harron's third biopic, Anna Nicole.

In this version of her story, Anna Nicole Smith is depicted as a loving, single mother who is determined to make the best use of her natural, and unnatural, talents to provide for her son. Taking a cocktail of antidepressants and alcohol to numb her indignity, Anna's self-prescribed cure soon becomes more important to her than the son she made all these sacrifices for.

Despite the biopic's sympathetic treatment of its subject and an impressive cast, Anna Nicole has difficulty reconciling the fact that it is primarily concerned with some contemptible characters. So while her relationship with J. Howard Marshall is depicted as genuinely affectionate, we are still treated to scenes depicting Anna abandoning the octogenarian on their wedding night, attempting to seduce him on his death bed to gain evidence for her legal battles and parading his ashes around on her reality TV show. 

 

In short, it doesn't matter how much tomato sauce you put on a dropped pie, at the end of the day it's still a dropped pie.

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When Anna Nicole is visited by her son Daniel in hospital, she informs him that she has named her new-born daughter Dannielynn. In reality, the baby was initially named Hanna Rose. Anna Nicole changed her named to Dannielynn after her son died three days after her daughter’s birth.

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Only mention of Anna Nicole Smith's movie career in this biopic is a discussion about the direct-to-video Skyscraper. It does however include is a recreation of scenes from Season 1 of her short-lived reality TV series, 'The Anna Nicole Show', Introduction of Bobby Trendy (Episode 2) and The Eating Contest (Episode 3). 

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