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T H U R S D AY, F E B R U A RY 0 8 , 2 0 0 7And An Unhinged Astronaut Heaves A Sigh OfReliefA brief respite for the astronaut story as Anna Nicole Smith dies andthe media tries to strike a somber balance while showing images ofAnna boogieing on the red carpet and shaking her breasts like a go-godancer. Yes, it's a story for a day or two (she did take a case all the wayto the Supreme Court, had a hit reality show, etc.) but nothing morethan that and should it really dominate the news? No.UPDATE: You can see the absurdly over the top media coverage of themedia-generated Anna Nicole Smith. A low point surely was Larry Kingon The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer:KING: I've always liked Anna Nicole Smith. I first met her manyyears ago after the Playmate era, when she was in Playboy,featured in Playboy. She came on the show -- I was doing it outof New York that night -- and liked her right away. She wasbouncy, she-- I went through with all the marriage to the elderlygentleman, the weight gains up, the weight gains down. Butthere was always a special thing about her, even when theyspoofed her on Saturday Night Live -- she could easily be madefun of. There was also a genuineness about her. She was anextraordinarily pretty girl. An unusual thing, Wolf, is that shedid a painting that we have here in the house. She tried -- shewas kind of an amateur painter. I have an oil painting that shehas done here.BLITZER: It's an amazing story, Larry. I know that you canbring some unique insight because you actually knew thiswoman, who was born in very, very humble origins down inTexas and becomes a Playmate, a Playboy Playmate of the Yearin 1993, and then marries this very fabulously wealthy89-year-old man.KING: It's a story for the books. It's a story that will be writtenabout and talked about. I imagine there'll be a major motionpicture about it.But the truly unseemly side is the wave of emails trying to cash in, allpreceded by meaningless words of sympathy. A friend of mine hadjoked a few months ago that Nicole Smith was trying to squeeze a year'sworth of tabloid stories in one week -- that was when her son died, sheNext Blog»sal1mineo@hotmail.comSEARCH BLOG FLAG BLOGFOLLOW BLOGP O P S U R F I N G . C O MS U R F I N G T H E WAV E S O F P O P U L A R C U LT U R EB Y M I C H A E L G I LT Z & F R I E N D SPOPSURFING.COM: And An Unhinged Astronaut Heaves A S...http://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2007/02/and-unhinged-astronaut...
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