The Associated Press
NEW YORK -- Anybody who arrived from Mars and wanted to know what all the fuss was over this Anna Nicole Smith would do well to watch just one clip: her appearance at the 2004 American Music Awards.
Prancing onstage in a tight-fitting black gown that showcased her cleavage — which was, as all else about her, larger than life — she grabbed your attention. Her looks were outlandish, but there was beauty beneath the excess.
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And then she spoke. "Like my body?" she asked, tracing her fingers over her breasts. Her slurred words spilled out dangerously. She was clearly very high on something, and you wondered if she would survive, literally.
It was hard to watch. And, of course, harder not to.
Scant hours after news emerged of her death Thursday at age 39, many people were hard pressed to describe what exactly Anna Nicole Smith was. Actress? Model? Reality star? Rich widow? "I don't know exactly what she did," said talk show host Joy Behar, hearing the news over the phone. And yet, trying to put her finger on why we watched this strange woman over the years, she came up with two things: Dysfunction. And beauty.
"No question, she was beautiful," said Behar, of ABC's "The View." "We know people like to watch dysfunction. But beauty gives you something extra to look at. Dysfunction and beauty: Now that's something to watch."
How was she dysfunctional? Really, how wasn't she? Her strange life seemed to veer from one outsized struggle to another. She struggled famously with her weight and with her family. She sometimes even struggled to speak without slurring. She had a TV show that could be so embarrassing you'd want to watch it with dark sunglasses on. Much more tragically, she lost her 20-year-old son. Five months ago she had a baby daughter and now two men claim to be the father.
In other words, she was a perfect pop culture icon.
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