Anna Nicole Smith Movie a Real Thing Now: Gets 'American Psycho' Director, Decent Cast
by Shannon Keirnan
Apparently Lifetime is all about the biopics lately. We’re still eagerly awaiting the potentially amazing (or potential train wreck) Elizabeth Taylor-based flick “Liz & Dick,” starring Lindsay Lohan due out in November, and already they’re prepping another.
They’ve gone a very different direction from Elizabeth Taylor this time.
“The Anna Nicole Story” will follow the life of Playboy star Anna Nicole Smith, and, before you scoff, let me note that Mary Herron has signed on to direct. That’s the writer and director of “American Psycho,” if the name sounds familiar.
And adding more punch to the otherwise questionable decision to go forward with this is the addition of two major cast members.
Oscar-winning Martin Landau will be playing J. Howard Marshall, the 89-year-old oil tycoon who officially elevated Smith to the status of “gold-digger” by marring her.
Smith will be played by “Private Practice” star Agnes Bruckner.
The movie is set to follow Smith’s rise to fame as she worked her way up from less-than-savory positions to become a Playboy sensation. It will also document her inevitable downfall, including serious drug use exacerbated by the death of her son, Daniel. The E! starlet died in 2007.
It’s bold of Lifetime to start working on another big-picture flick before “Liz & Dick” has hit us, but Anna Nicole Smith? How seriously are we supposed to take this? Way to cast some heavy hitters here, and props for getting Mary Herron, but can anyone who has seen “The Anna Nicole Show” take the “beautiful, mislead butterfly” storyline that they’ll try and spin to us at all seriously?
Yes, her life was crazy, and her end was tragic. But can we watch that without remembering the dog that humped everything, and Smith’s desperate love of doughnuts? But wait, maybe I’m being too hasty. Will there be a Bobby Trendy character?
Oh, please, Lifetime. Please bring back Bobby Trendy!