CNN reports today that the U.S. Supreme Court has accepted the appeal of Anna Nicole Smith, stripper-turned-Playmate-turned-reality-TV-star who is seeking $474 million from the estate of her husband, who was 89 when she married him, and who is now unsurprisingly deceased.
Smith, who I am shocked to learn was the 1993 Playmate of the Year, married J. Howard Marshall II in 1994 after they met in a strip club. He died a year later, probably still grinning. The legal fight over who is entitled to Marshall’s millions has been going on ever since. Smith was originally awarded the $474 million, but the award was later reduced to $89 million and then thrown out altogether. The 9th Circuit let stand a Texas probate court’s eventual decision that Marshall’s son was his sole heir.
The issue before the high court will be whether and when federal courts may hear claims that also involve state probate proceedings. But you don’t really care about that.