Count me among the ones that just doesn’t get it either. I’m educated and well read, but the emotional outpouring due to her death, and in response this article escapes me.
Sure I’m sorry the woman died. I’m sorry when anyone dies. But I feel most sorry for those who die tragic deaths. Those who have tragedy thrust upon them. Young children with cancer. Young military members who die, trying to do something they believe in for others. People who worked hard their entire lives, and die a month into retirement, without a chance to enjoy a little rest.
Anna Nicole Smith, didn’t seem like she was dealt a real great hand to start with. Poor, she was a bit overweight and didn’t get much of an education. At some point, she developed a way with men, and managed to parley that into, among other things, a career as a strip club dancer, a playboy model, a clothing model and a wife of a man what, 60 years her senior? By all accounts she didn’t pay much attention to her first husband, even less to her second, even though he was potentially worth hundreds of millions. Were their lives enriched but having her as their wife? It’s hard to say how they were. The first marriage did produce a son. A son who later died a drug related death. Her second child is alone, and currently without a father.
What was I supposed to derive from the story of her date in the restaurant? A date with a man who flew halfway around the world to give her a very expensive necklace. A date with two people who couldn’t even communicate because they didn’t even speak a common language. So she received a lot of money for a date. He paid a lot of money to travel for a “date” with a woman and perhaps a sexual encounter, and left a day later with a story of a woman as equally emotional barren as he was. Perhaps she was able to get from him what she had managed to get from the others, attention and money. But in the end, that goal proved empty. In the end she surrounded herself with people who did her little good, and appeared to provide her with little happiness. And she returned the same to others
So did she lead a tragic life? Perhaps. But it was one of her own making. And I don’t know how this proves to be "touching or “sweet” or “teary” at all.
Not sure what to make of this quasi-condescending view of Cheetos aficionados. :dubious:
At the very least, she was doing her part to combat our country’s trade deficit.
That’s what I got out of that line too – a tactful, frank way of admitting she’d have sex with him without explicitly saying it in polite society. I got no indication of that “Don’t think I’m a whore” interpretation others found.
The total cynic in me felt that Miller had an amusing anecdote about Smith, burning a hole in his computer that he was just dying to use. So he decided to go against the grain and spin it into a feel good story. But I don’t know Miller (obviously) and I’m not familiar with his work, so I might be unfair.
I have absolutely no problem with ANS at all, but don’t see what’s so touching about the story. If the guy got sex, then she is a whore. If he didn’t then she is an ass for accepting huge gifts from a guy who obviously wants/expects it. Unless this is a eunuch who truly was happy giving a five/six figure gift just to spend one night in her presence. Am I missing something? It’s not like she was at the table with a six year old cancer patient or something. Again, not judging her at all, but its not like she took time out her day to spend time with a suitor for nothing.
Or, “Nice to see you, but don’t bother me while I’m at work.” 
What I got from the article was that maybe Smith was a bit of an innocent, in a dumb kind of way. Maybe she did sleep with the guy, but that’s how some people say thank you. She didn’t come off as coldly calculating, is what I’m trying to say.
What, you think someone who’s been stuck in a cubicle running a spreadsheet all his or her life, or waiting table all his or her life hasn’t been used in a certain way? Most of us don’t get ancy choice about whether or not we’ll be used in a certain way. We just get to choose how we’re used, to a limited extent. Most of us try to maximize the value of how we get used to ourselves via talent or ability or whatever, if we’ve got it. I don’t see why women who use their looks are any different from programmers who use their programming skills. They’re both being used in a certain way, and maximizing their earning potential from that use.
Hey, it’s the American way.
Dumb blonde with big tits a trophy screw for short ugly rich guy. Film at 11.
Wasn’t that the basic plot of the film Sound of Music?
Not really, the Sound of Music guy wasn’t short.
I hate to join the “what’s the big deal” crowd but um … what’s the big deal? It wasn’t all that serious or touching. I think it was actually a little disturbing.
I feel bad for Anna Nicole. I think she was used a lot by some unscrupulous people but I think she also set herself up for it. Still she didn’t deserve to lose her son or her own life and leave her baby daughter basically an orphan with people fighting over her and the money. I guess those are the things that make her life tragic. It would be tragic in anyone’s case.
The thing that is getting to me is the amount of actual news time spent on her, let alone the entertainment “news” shows. The Insider has become All Anna Nicole/All The Time since her death. Yeah, I sort of watch those shows, I like to know what some of my favorite stars may be doing next and I like to see the movie and TV previews they show occasionally. I’d usually just watch whatever one that the station happened to be on but now I tune them out or change the station. The Insider = Change station and/or run screaming from room.
She wasn’t Princess Diana, who was a potential figurehead of an entire country and a humanitarian. She was just a C-list celebrity with a soap opera life that unfortunately ended early. If the media truly felt sorry for her they’d stop hovering around her corpse like vultures. I don’t want to know all the details of her funeral, what she’s wearing, what the casket looks like, what kind of flowers will be there, and so on. I don’t want to see Howard K. Stern blubbering all over the poor infant again. If you really want the poor woman to rest in peace, then let her. Let her family and friends put her to rest in some privacy. Let the courts decide what will happen to the baby and the money without the media circus and the crying judges. No more cameras in court, please! And let the people with the amusing anecdotes about her, that aren’t all that amusing or flattering, just hold their peace and let her rest, now that would be a lovely tribute.
Usually when someone shares a story like this, it is to show a different, softer side of someone, for example a person who is thought of as an asshole doing selfless charity work or something like that. The big reveal in the two page story is…ANS was out on a “date” with a wealthy foreigner? This is a story? I thought at least it was going to turn that she banged him for free, or something like that.
Like an above post says, the writer clearly wanted to show his link to ANS, and didn’t have a good enough story- at least he didn’t embellish it.
Whether you want to believe her or not, she was saying she was going to have just dinner.
Bolding mine.
She made a point to say just dinner. She gave Miller a look because she wanted to say “don’t think I’m a whore” in a very polite way.
What I took from the story was that, at least at one time, ANC was much more self-aware, perceptive, diplomatic, and quick-witted than her image gives her credit for.
As others have said, I found nothing particularly “touching” in this story. It was a little revelatory, perhaps, but not significantly so.
-FrL-