Anna Nicole Smith stripped of $88m fortune in court

[emad]

Times
From James Bone in New York



ANNA NICOLE SMITH, the Playboy Playmate who starred in her own reality television show, was stripped of her fortune last night by a judge who ruled that she had no right to inherit $88.5 million (£46 million) from her late wheelchair-bound husband.

A federal appeals court in Los Angeles overturned a lower court’s decision awarding the former stripper $88.5 million from the estate of the elderly oil tycoon she married just 14 months before his death in 1995.

Smith, then called Vickie Lynn Smith, met the multimillionaire J. Howard Marshall II while working in a strip club called Gigi’s in Houston in 1991. The couple married three years later, when she was 26 and he was 89.

The former topless dancer dubbed “Miss Cleavage” by her opponents’ legal team and notorious for outrageous behaviour, has fought a nine-year legal battle with Mr Marshall’s son over her right to inherit. She was so confident of victory that recently she told fans that she was going on a diet to lose one pound for each of the $88 million she was going to receive.

More:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-1420787,00.html#

[radwriter0555]

1. That's just so wrong... She deserved the big bucks.

Luckily, it looks like her media career really is doing pretty well, so hopefully she'll be okay.

[Fiona]

2. She'll probably get it back...

despite the headline, it was reversed on a technicality (i.e., they said the judge who heard the case was the wrong judge to hear it).

She married him, he left her the money. Good for her. God help America when the right of old men to leave their fortunes to strippers is taken away.

[blueknight]

4. the problem is

i dont think she was left the money in his will. the way i understand it is, she says he and she had an oral agreement on the money. i hope she dont get a red cent. i feel she is nothing but a gold digging whore.

[Fiona]

5. Luckily our legal system

is not based on your feelings about who's a whore and who isn't.

[kaitykaity]

6. Just feel the misogyny dripping out of that post.

:scared:

[ElsewheresDaughter]

16. i agree

[Cronus Protagonist]

23. I have an idea about the other end of that "oral agreement"

And it's not a pretty thought :)




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[jdj]

25. a gold digging whore is a smart whore

which offends you more, the looseness or the intelligence?

[oasis]

40. The money should go to his lazy, good for nothing, already rich kids.

[emad]

3. Her former stepson, E Pierce Marshall, brought the fight to court:

Snip:

A Texas probate court found that E. Pierce Marshall was the sole heir of his father’s estate and did not owe Smith a penny. However, a federal district court in California contradicted that decision and awarded Ms Smith the money, after finding that E. Pierce Marshall had altered, destroyed and falsified documents in a bid to stop her inheriting.

US District Judge David Carter, sitting in Santa Ana, California, said that Smith was entitled to half of the interest on her husband’s investments during their 14-month marriage, which came to $44.2 million, plus an equal amount in punitive damages.

The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision of the Texas judge and found that Judge Carter should not even have heard the case.

“After nine years of litigation, I’m very pleased by the judgment issued by the 9th Circuit upholding my father’s wishes regarding disposition of his assets,” E. Pierce Marshall said in a statement.

Snip.

[blueknight]

8. i may have worded that a little strong,

but do you really believe a twentysomething year old woman is going to marry a eightysomething year old man for anything other then the fact that he is a multimillionaire?

[Bridget Burke]

10. And the old guy got his money's worth.....

Embarrassment & lots of lawyer fees paid by his spoiled rotton stepson (& son, in another case).

He was laughing in hell while those soft-handed idiots had to deal with all that vulgarity. They never had to work a day in their lives & were already filthy rich before running to court.

[emad]

12. He was the one who decided to leave her the $$$$s as opposed

to his own son.

Maybe he thought he'd got good value for his money during the marriage....

[Cheswick2.0]

30. and what exactly did he marry her for?

I guess his motives were all pure?

Why people marry each other is none of our business. She was his wife, she deserved to inherit.

[jokerman93]

32. So what?

It was his money. He earned it and had the right to spend it any way he liked. She obviously gave him joy and sexual pleasure in his later years. What exactly makes you uncomfortable about such a completely human and above-board relationship?

Do you object to a man desiring a woman for her sexual beauty? Do you object to a man with money spending that money on, and sharing it with, a woman whose companionship he desires?

Moral objection (and outrage) to such a frankly sexual adult relationship seems a uniquely American idea fixe'. It must seem silly and puerile to most mature cultures.

[RadicalMom]

42. We don't know if any sex was involved, . It was up to her husband,

whatever that meant, to make the decision. Maybe he hated that stepson and wanted to leave it all to her. Unless it can be proven that he was incompetent to make it.

[bloom]

35. half of the investments during their 14 month marriage

sounds very reasonable. Anyone who doesn't think so is out to lunch, IMO.

It's the son who is a cad.

[barbaraann]

7. Ah, yes, another savvy woman empowered by the sex industry.

Right.

[readmylips]

15. Well, that's the only way most women get ahead in America....

America makes it very expensive and almost impossible for women to empower their brains, using your God-given sex is the best way to get rich in a capitalistic country. Don't knock it. Like Ivana Trump said, don't get mad, get everything.

[jdj]

29. the fact is, women didn't make the world this way

and women did not create the sex industry.

It's largely male earnings that keep it afloat, and I've never heard a man say she forced me to tip her, or pay her for sex, or look at her centerfold, she held a gun to my head.

It's like the axiom "row with the oars you have". Anna has one heck of a set of oars, and if she wants to aim for the ocean instead of some backwater stream then that's her prerogative.

[JNelson6563]

9. I often wonder

with stories like these.....how would you all feel if you were the son who got nothing while watching Ms. Smith take all? I strongly suspect we wouldn't be hearing "It's great that old men can leave their fortunes to strippers".

Julie--always getting a kick out of the above-it-all crowd

[Bridget Burke]

13. The stepson in this case (& the son in another--they hate each other)

Were both rich before this case came up. They just wanted more & actually had to "work" for it. (Hire lawyers & appear in court, that is.)

[Fiona]

17. If my dad was made happy by a young woman

and I was already wealthy, I wouldn't give a flying fuck if he gave her his money.

The notion that a son is automatically entitled to inherit his father's money is nonsensical. The old guy gave it to his wife. It doesn't matter if you or anybody else approved of the marriage.

[LizW]

19. If it was a son, and if he did get "nothing"

yes, that would be bad. But that's not the case. This is a step son. And as I understand it, he didn't get "nothing", he got plenty. He just wants to make sure the stripper gets nothing. The court only awarded the stripper the interest on the rich guy's investments during the time they were married, plus punitive damages. She was married to him for three years. That sounds fair to me.

[JNelson6563]

20. I'd like to know who all got what

wasn't there a will?

Julie

[LizW]

22. Not sure

I'm definitely not an expert on this case, but I understand that ANS's claim was based on an oral agreement. I don't know if there was a will or not, but if the old guy had that much money and property and no will, there was going to be trouble no matter what. I understand there is a separate suit going on between the son and step son.

[jokerman93]

33. self deleted n/t

[William Bloode]

11. She married the old coot....

She deserves her slice. I am quite sure she made his last days nicer in the end. Matters not if she is a whore, aint nothin' wrong with a good whore they are people just like the rest of us.

[fudge stripe cookays]

21. But she didn't really.

She went out and partied while he was at home feeling sad because she wasn't there.

This has been pointed out in various treatments of this case. Now if she'd been by his side for most of the time he was old and took care of him, etc. I'd say give her a slice. But she was all over town instead of being home with her sugar daddy. She doesn't deserve squat.

But I'm with the previous poster who thinks she's a whore. She married him for the money, then treated him like crap once she was in. The poor old guy didn't know what had hit him.

I can't stand this nauseating excuse for "entertainment."

[salin]

26. Didn't she spend most of her time in another house in another city?

[fudge stripe cookays]

34. Something like that.

So she deserves whatever she gets. She's not a caring wife. She's a mercenary.

[Raiden]

37. That's a very misogynist thing to say

She married a rich old man, ergo she must be a golddigging whore. "The poor old guy didn't know what had hit him." - Yeah, "the poor old guy" didn't know what hit him. :eyes: That's basically saying he was completely innocent and she was the bad guy. I'm sure his intentions were pure.

She wanted money, so she's a golddiggin' whore...
He wanted a trophy wife, and didn't get one, so he's a "poor old guy."

If she got away with a get rich quick scheme, good for her. Other women should be so lucky. I'm sure her hubby wouldn't have left her all that money if she had treated him like crap... He obviously got what he wanted.

She was obviously looking for money... he was looking for a trophy wife, so they both are just as guilty as far as I'm concerned.

"I can't stand this nauseating excuse for 'entertainment'." --- That I can agree with!

[fudge stripe cookays]

39. Mysoginist?

Hardly.

Recognizant of crassness? Yeah.

Anyone who congratulates those who devise mercenary schemes to get their money rather than earn it has SO much to be lecturing me about.

:eyes:

[Raiden]

46. He married her... He left his money to her, *HIS WIFE*

She earned it. That's all there is to it. Besides, why is it that she takes all the heat when all he obviously wanted was a trophy wife. He is just as much, nay, more to blame for the mess than she is.

Sugar daddy just wanted nookie, and he was clearly satisfied as he left Anna Nicole a big hunk of change. She was his wife. He died, ergo she gets his inheritence. It's as simple as that, like it or not. If he had any concerns about what would happen to his money HE shouldn't have married her. HE should have known that a young woman like Anna Nicole Smith obviously didn't want him for his charm and good looks, and was presumably a golddigger. He is more to blame than anyone else as far as I'm concerned.

[oasis]

41. She deserves the money after smelling that old man's farts for 3 years.

}(

[edbermac]

14. Martha goes to jail, Bush wins again, floods in Asia, and now THIS?

The cherry on the cake of this year...

:silly:

[Tinoire]

18. Can't stand that idiotic bimbo but

she should get to keep at least most of the money. She was his wife and legally the wife gets the money. The son should have brought this crap up while his father was still alive.

Peter Sellers did it the best. He specifically willed each of children $1 so that they couldn't take it to court pleading oversight or whatever.

If it's such a controversy, with that much money, why can't they just split it in two? Talk about greed - urgh.

[eyepaddle]

24. I hope she gets ALL the money.

I'm a male, and I think she probably did marry him for the money--so what?!? She at least had to put forth some effort, and evidently the guy felt he got what he wanted. What did his son E.P. Marshall do--pick a wealthy set of parents to be born to? Most people reading this message board probably don't have some large estate out there with their name on it, I know I don't. BFD! Ol' EP is in our boat now. Personally I've always felt that children who eye their parents' estate and wait for the inheritance are sort of akin to vampires--get off yur ass you worthless POS leech and take care of yourself.

[jdj]

27. This is another Bitch hunt just like the one that put Martha away.

What Anna needs to do is keep fighting in the courts while cleaning up chemically, and go all Britney by putting out a perfume, ("Scent of Money" perhaps?) a clothing line, do some more video appearances and movies, maybe get voice lessons and do an album, appear in The Pussy Cat Dolls, do Calenders and Playboy spreads, etc, etc. Make herself as big a franchise as she can, even have someone ghost-write her some romance novels, put out a large women's clothing line, a line of large size undergarments and support bras, write an advice column, etc, etc.

It's weird how people seem to hate women who use their sexuality shrewdly than they do anonymous men who use every tool at their disposal to further their ambition despite the wave of destruction they leave in their path.

I wish they would just split the money and be done with it. A wise judge would do this. Besides, why is the steps-son not being called a gold-digging whore as well.

[Piperay]

38. I agree

also the MSM 'forgets' to mention that her other stepson is in this with her because the one stepson is trying to screw his own brother out of the money.

[Fla Dem]

28. Who cares when 120,000 dead. n/t

[jdj]

31. have you seen the footage of people already back on the beach

sunning in Thailand?

It's odd.

[bemildred]

36. Was it really necessary to say "stripped"? nt

[seabeyond]

43. she is what she is

deserve the money, right to the money?

who cares

[yorgatron]

44. his son was an asshole

and the old guy knew it.why not torment the little fucker by leaving a bunch of money to a stripper? i hope she gets it back,just to piss him off.

[Raiden]

47. LOL---Agreed! n/t

[Alex146]

45. Strip them all of the fortune and send it to help the earth quake victims

screw rich people.