Anna Nicole's Sad Last Days

SIXTEEN YEARS AFTER HER DEATH, ANNA NICOLE SMITH IS BACK IN THE HEADLINES AS A FILMMAKER TRIES TO SHOW MORE THAN HER BOMBSHELL PERSONA

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WHEN Anna Nicole Smith was found dead in a Florida hotel room Feb. 8, 2007, the 39-year-old had been drifting in and out of consciousness for days. Authorities later said her bed at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino was surrounded by 44 different medications that had left her too weak to even sit up or take a sip of water until her heart finally gave out. Two years after her death, her security guard was still haunted by the image of Anna Nicole sipping the powerful sedative chloral hydrate from a baby bottle. “I saw her use a spoon maybe twice and after that it was bottle to mouth,” he said. “Gulp.”

It was a Hollywood tragedy, made worse by the fact that its victim was often considered a joke: a ditzy blond bombshell who married an 89-year-old petroleum tycoon then tried to get her hands on his fortune. Now, in You Don’t Know Me, a new Netflix documentary out May 16, director Ursula Macfarlane hopes to paint the late model as a “complex woman,” she’s said, adding, “but her story is also a cautionary tale about how the desire for the American dream can swallow you up and spit you out.”