Wed May 29,10:54 PM ET
By Bob Tourtellotte and Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Looking to go where no reality series -- not even "The Osbournes" -- has gone before, cable television's E! Networks on Wednesday unveiled a new show about Anna Nicole Smith (news - web sites), the former Playboy Playmate and widow of a 90-year-old Texas oil tycoon.
"The Osbournes," which airs on the MTV network and follows the doings of aging rock star Ozzy Osbourne and his family, is a smash hit on cable TV, appealing to viewers who want to see what the everyday life of a celebrity is like.
E! President Mindy Herman promises that "The Anna Nicole Smith Show," which is set to debut in August, will give viewers an insider's look at the outlandish life of the former Guess? jeans model who in March won $88 million in a court battle against the son of her late husband over his fortune.
"Unlike Mary Tyler Moore, Anna Nicole will throw caution, and not her hat, to the wind," Herman said, alluding to the 1970s hit sitcom in which Mary Tyler Moore played a woman learning to live independently in the big city.
Certainly, Smith is independent, but she's already done a lot of living.
The former Vickie Lynn Smith (also known as Vickie Lynn Hogan and Vickie Lynn Marshall) of Texas started her rise to celebrity as a topless dancer before becoming a Playboy playmate in 1992. She went on to become Playboy's Playmate of the Year and a Guess? model in 1993.
Smith met 86-year-old Texas oil billionaire J. Howard Marshall when she was just 24 years old and working in a Houston strip club. She married him, and they remained husband and wife until his death 14 months later.
SMITH SAYS LIFE "A ROLLER COASTER"
When Marshall died, she expected to inherit half of his considerable fortune, but his son Pierce Marshall contested Smith's claim during a bitter, six-year legal feud that culminated in March with the $88 million judgement for Smith.
"My life is a roller coaster," Smith said about the TV show and what viewers will see. "People won't be able to stop watching once they tune in."
The weekly show that looks at her day-to-day life will be taped in and around Smith's home in Los Angeles and will feature her 16-year-old son, Daniel, along with her purple-haired assistant, Kim, who sports a tattoo of Smith on her upper arm.
Smith's buttoned-down attorney will be by the star's side for much of the show, too, just in case legal problems pop up.
Smith, in a Wednesday appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live," joked that the E! camera crew, which followed her onto the set of King's show, "won't leave me alone."
"They are watching everything I do," she said. "I didn't know how bad they were going to be watching me."
Smith, who said she had kicked an addiction to pain killers and alcohol, added that her life was now dull, consisting mostly of court dates and staying at home with her son, but said she was willing to "hit some bars" if it would make for good television.
Smith said she expected Pierce Marshall to file an appeal of the judgement she won in March, but vowed to "fight to the end" for the money because it was what her husband wanted.
She told King she had so far not collected "a penny" on the judgement but said if she ultimately gets the money she will do with it "something that would make my husband proud."
E! Networks, which focuses on celebrity news, gossip and entertainment programming, reaches some 78 million cable and satellite TV subscribers in the United States.
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Oh for the love of God! First we are bombarded with televised drivel such as "Survivor" ad nauseum, "The Weakest Link" and other shows of their ilk. Next we are treated to the pure insanity of everyday life with "The Ozbournes". Now, as if watching an old, burned out, obscene, drug addict/alcoholic and his family, who make the Addams Family look like Ozzie and Harriet, isn't bad enough, now we are going to have to put up with a trashy gutter sl*t like Vickie Logan. (That's her real name, folks.). At this juncture, I am seriously thinking about unplugging my cable box and watching movies instead.
This is the pits!
I shudder to think what they have in store for us next.
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Peace,
Captain Kundalini
[This message has been edited by Captain Kundalini (edited 30 May 2002).]
Now if I had a Billion $$, you know I'd put it to good use. 