Reality TV star and former model Anna Nicole Smith was pronounced dead Thursday after being taken to a Florida hospital, a law enforcement source told CNN.
Smith, 39, collapsed at a south Florida hotel, according to news reports.
Love or hate celebrities, I cannot help but feel the loss of an interesting human being.
Anna Nicole had become a fixture on Entertainment Tonight, the prime-time gossip vid that has crept into our lives. Everybody shared the loss of her son and her never-ending battle with depression and grief.
And although she was a product of another World, totally foreign to my own, her raw and genuine humanity did show through the glamour and glitz.
So today I offer a toast to Anna Nicole.
You gave us something that the likes of Tom Cruise and Mel Gibson could never give us; a window in the painful reality that is the life of the celebrity.
You were real. And now you’re gone.
Happy journey Anna Nicole Smith!
Bonus: Bob Harris’s take on Anna Nicole in the news