From Britney Spears to Janet Jackson, the last year has been an age of re-examining how—and why—some female celebrities were utterly maligned in the media.
In 2023, that much-needed trend continues, with a new documentary about iconic model Anna Nicole Smith finally hitting Netflix.
The film, titled Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me, features “never-before-seen footage of the iconic Playboy and Guess jeans model, who blazed a trail through the ’90s before her tragic death at the age of 39,” it’s synopsis reads.
Curious? Below, everything you need to know about Netflix’s newest documentary, and its intriguing subject.
What Does The Anna Nicole Smith Documentary Cover?
The documentary includes never-before-seen footage of Smith’s life and the events that occurred after her untimely death. It tells the story via interviews with her family, friends and employees, plus archive footage from her late mum, Virgie.
“I approached Anna Nicole’s story as an epic mystery tale. How did someone with so much charisma and jaw-dropping beauty, with the world at her feet, fall so far, so quickly?”, director Ursula Macfarlane said in a statement prior to the documentary’s release.
“Now feels like the right time to re-examine the life of yet another beautiful young woman whose life has been picked over and ultimately destroyed by our culture,” she continued.
“I am thrilled to work with Netflix and Propagate to make a moving, unflinching and sensitive portrayal of one of the most misunderstood women of our time.”
Who Was Anna Nicole Smith?
Originally from Houston, Texas, Anna Nicole Smith (née Vickie Lynn Hogan) began her career has a pole dancer. While working at Gigi’s, a strip club in her hometown, Smith met her second husband, 89-year-old oil tycoon, J. Howard Marshall II.
According to Interview Magazine, the pair met on an October afternoon in 1991, when Marshall became enamoured by Smith dancing to Chris de Burgh’s “The Lady in Red.” Following her performance, the then 26-year-old gave him a lap dance, he offered her financial security and the rest was history. By 1994, the duo were married, however, their nuptials results in speculation that she only married him for his money, which she refused.
“I loved him for so much for what he did for me and my son,” Smith told Larry King in 2002. “I’ve never had love like that before. No one has ever loved me, and done things for me, and respected me and didn’t care about what people said about me.”
“For some reason, people think I am this terrible person and it really hurts me to hear that. I am just doing the best I know how to.”
During this time, she started her modelling career with Guess and as Playboy’s 1993 Playmate Of The Year. As for acting, she made her big break in the film Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult, and shows Veronica’s Closet and Ally McBeal.
Later, she scored her very own E! reality series The Anna Nicole Show, which pioneered future reality TV franchises like the Real Housewives and Keeping Up With The Kardashians.
Sadly, Smith dealt with her own struggles as the years went on, dealing with drug addiction, paternity lawsuits, fighting for her late husband’s estate and tragically, the death of her first child, Daniel, in 2006.
By February 2007, she passed away from an accidental prescription drug overdose in a Florida hotel room, leaving behind her five-month-old daughter, Dannielynn Hope Marshall Birkhead.
