A victory for white trash everywhere
By Beth Teitell
Tuesday, May 2, 2006
No matter where you stand on the divisive state-vs.-federal court matter, or the issue of “probate exception,” as an American, you’ve got to be psyched about yesterday’s Supreme Court victory for the little guy.
Yes, I speak about Anna Nicole Smith, a former Playmate of the Year, who got the Supreme nod to keep bird-dogging her late billionaire husband’s estate.
For a country always on the lookout for stories that affirm our Horatio Alger-style rags-to-riches promise, Anna Nicole’s saga is the feel-good tale of the year.
Yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling, which moved the case along to a lower court in the 11-year-old dispute between the “gold digger” and her late sugar daddy’s son, sends a message to all the aspiring vixens out there that with hard work, a dream and an exuberant bust, you, too, can be an aging billionaire’s lap dance partner.
Just think of the perks.
But it gets better - who could have imagined that the Bush administration would stand on Anna Nicole’s side? (The administration’s interest was on the technical legal matter only, but even so, it’s a nice credential for Miss Anna to add to her resume.)
“She’s a white trash heroine and we love her,” one legal observer noted, taking time out from discussing the jurisdiction of federal bankruptcy courts and certiorari to weigh in on the case.
“In a society where Mensa-toddlers grab megabuck book deals, and suburban moms shiv each other at bake sales to get their daughters into the best summer camps or onto the college-track cheerleading team, Anna Nicole is a big thumb in the eye to pretentious overachievers,” she explained.
“Trailer park to stripper pole to mansion: there’s a seamless (though seamy) beauty to the whole thing. Little Pomegranate may have the Golden Ticket to Harvard at age 3, but Anna Nicole stands to outearn her all the same.”
“Good for her,” added another legal eagle. “Marrying an old guy like that - she had to work hard for her money and she deserves it.”
I asked him about the “gold digger” allegation: “Of course she’s a gold digger,” he replied. “But she was honest about it. The real gold digger is his son who’s so greedily holding to money he didn’t earn.”
The observer, a man in his 50s, paused, and then added a personal note, “I hope when I’m old and lonely I get the deal that she gave him.”
