The Sideshow Lady

Anna Nicole Smith, 1967-2007. Porn star, celebrity, talk-show hostess, wife, ex-wife, divorcee, grieving mother, high school dropout. Real name: Vicky Lynn Marshall.

I bet you didn't even know she had a "real name", did you...

You know, it's funny: when I think about it, Anna Nicole Smith was probably to every blonde white girl what Ms. Peachez is to every Black man who plans to get somewhere in life: an insult. And granted, if you have any morals about you, the first thing that comes to mind when you hear Anna Nicole Smith is something like "despicable". But I can't help but feel sorry for her...

Be honest. When Anna Nicole Smith died at 39 years old in a hotel room... you thought it was a publicity stunt, didn't you? It doesn't even feel like she's really dead, does it? Do you feel strange at the thought of grieving for her? Doesn't that... shouldn't that bother you?

Think about it. Can a person truly be so de-humanized that when they die, we feel no human sympathy towards that person? I mean, let's face it: Anna Nicole's life was a circus, a big entertainment fest. And it doesn't really feel like it ended when she died, and that's scary. I know for me, it's the feeling of watching a magician make a woman disappear; you just know she's gonna come back at some point because it's a sideshow act. When a person's life can become a sideshow act, that's really something to think about.

I'm not saying this woman was a saint by any stretch of the imagination. But, regardless of her lifestyle, she was a human being, just like you and me. And when we live in a world where a human being can be reduced to a sideshow act to the point that we stand at her grave with cameras waiting for her triumphant return...

Where I can say, "I feel sorry for Anna Nicole Smith" and get unanimous instant laughter...

Where I can say, "I feel sorry for Vicky Lynn Marshall" and hear a unanimous, "Who is that" in return...

At that point, I think Blue Magic says it best:

"...It'll only cost you 50 cents to see; what life has done to those like you and me/
...There's got to be no sadder show to see; no doubt about it, satisfaction guaranteed/
...It's more exciting than a one-man band; the saddest little show in all the land/

...So, Let the Sideshow Begin" B-(