The two-hour documentary “Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me” dropped in mid-May on Netflix, and it’s one of the most damning portrayals of fame and victimhood you’ll ever see.
It’s hard to know where to begin when it comes to the late Anna Nicole Smith. The stripper-turned-Playmate and Guess model was all the rage while she was alive, but it turns out most of what we thought we knew about her may have been a lie.
In the damning new documentary from Netflix, focused on Smith’s life, family, career, and premature death, it seems like everyone around her is still healing from the scars she left behind. And it sounds like most of those scars were inflicted by Smith’s greed for fame, attention, finances and something totally intangible that left her dead at just 39 years old.
As revealed in the movie, Smith publicly lied about her childhood and upbringing on multiple occasions. In one of the last interviews she did before her death, she allegedly stole the stories of her best friend’s childhood trauma and sold them as her own. Playing the victim meant she’d make more money, according to Smith’s late mother, but that doesn’t undo the harm she caused her loved ones while she was still alive.
And it’s not like Smith didn’t have enough real trauma. Her biological father appears to be a horrible man. Her son died one day after her daughter was born. She battled addiction from an early age, and never really seemed to get a handle on it.
But playing the victim is a slippery slope. If you keep telling the same false story for too long, you start to believe it. Those neural pathways become ingrained in your skull, and everything you touch will turn to trash. At least, that’s how it appeared to happen for Smith.
Her version of love was defined as someone taking care of her, rescuing her from what sounded like a pretty good middle class life. She had a child with a man she hated, despite being surrounded by men who loved her. Clearly, playing the victim made Smith into one. And it was an act that turned fatal. (RELATED: ‘From’ Is The Greatest Show That No One Is Talking About. Here’s Why You Have To See It)
There is nothing more repulsive than being around someone who just wants to be famous, and will do anything to get there. Fame-seekers and social climbers will do and say anything to get ahead, and will sell their souls for a taste of admiration from faceless fans. These people are made from two branches of the same psychological tree: terrible parenting, personality disorders or both.
In the case of Smith, it’s hard to say whether her greed and lust for attention resulted from personality disorders or addiction. Either way, this movie is the best two hours you can spend showing your children that wanting to be famous is the most toxic, disgusting trait that humanity has to offer, and should be avoided at all costs.
Watch the trailer here:
