Anna Nicole Smith
No one should confuse the circus that is happening in Florida in the probate matter involving Anna Nicole Smith as a normal proceeding. True the matter is being heard in a probate court. But that virtually ends the similarity to the customary probate hearing. The matter involves the unfortunate death of a young woman who was a celebrity who actively sought controversy during her life. That controversy involved her marriage to a much older man who was worth millions, a celebrated court proceeding that went all the way up to the United States Supreme Court, posing in men's magazines or just posing in general for the paparazzi, the extensive use of drugs in her family and the birth of a baby with suspected parentage. When you add to that cocktail a judge who obviously has little or no control over his courtroom ,disaster will happen.
Probate proceedings are generally conducted in the privacy of a courtroom without any cameras or press present. The proceedings are dignified and are not paraded in front of the evening news and scandal sheets.
