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Journalism of Courage
When Larry Birkhead came out of a courthouse in the Bahamas recently, raised his arms and jubilantly said to the TV cameras, 8220;I told you so!,8221; he completed a strange transformation. Less than a year ago, before he became a chew toy for celebrity journalists, he was an unknown freelance photographer and former boyfriend of Anna Nicole Smith, not an image with wholesome written all over it. But during the months of legal wrangling to prove that he is the father of Smith8217;s baby daughter, Dannielynn, Birkhead exuded clean-cut sincerity, emerging as a sentimental favourite over rival Howard K. Stern, Smith8217;s companion and business adviser.
The way Birkhead8217;s newfound fame has morphed is just an aspect of the larger way in which celebrity status has changed in the two months since Smith8217;s death. The public fascination has been driven not by Smith8217;s personality but by the story itself
Entertainment Tonight and The Insider sister shows owned by CBS Paramount Network Television visited Smith and Stern in the Bahamas not long after the child8217;s birth and are still milking that interview. Like many successful series, though, the most forward-looking element of the Anna Nicole story comes from the Web, where a satiric tone and playful approach are a better reflection of the gossipy curiosity that fuels the public8217;s interest.
Both Us Weekly8217;s site, usmagazine.com, and MSNBC.com asked readers to vote on whom they believed the father to be. Us offered three choices: Stern, Birkhead and Prince Frederic von Anhalt. He8217;s more easily identified as Prince Zsa-Zsa8217;s husband!
Before the announcement yesterday, Us presented its results under the headline 8220;Who Needs a DNA Test When We8217;ve Got a Reader Poll?8221;
The Us site also had a feature offering composite photos of what Dannielynn might look like if fathered by each of the three men, a stunt similar to the If They Mated feature on Conan O8217;Brien8217;s show.
Meanwhile, the enormously influential TMZ.com was already moving to the next cycle of the Anna Nicole tale. In reporting that Smith8217;s mother, Virgie Arthur, was likely to fight for custody no matter, the site asked voters to 8220;Rate Virgie as a Mother8221;, with letter grades of A, C or F as possibilities.
On May 1, Smith8217;s last movie, Illegal Aliens, will go straight to DVD. In the film, meant to be a tongue-in-cheek sci-fi adventure, she mocks her dumb blonde image as one of a trio of women from another planet who take human form while fighting evil on Earth. Smith was one of the film8217;s producers, but even so, the spoofy approach of Illegal Aliens suggests that even Anna Nicole Smith didn8217;t think of Anna Nicole Smith as a serious actress. It took death, the loose ends of her life and celebrity journalism to transform her into one of the world8217;s most famous people.
Caryn James, NYT
