Across the pond, Europe has been buzzing about the latest performance to debut at London’s Royal Opera House – the Anna Nicole Smith opera. The production opened a couple weeks ago and has made great fodder for tabloid reporters and drama-mongering bloggers because – as we all know in the world of pop culture – there’s a lot to say about the rags-to-riches story of the litigious Playmate whose rise to fame and troubled drug addiction has made for quite the on-stage show. And while the over the top script profiling Smith offers tremendous entertainment value, it highlights several of the deceased celebrity’s troubles that repeatedly make their way into the media even years after her untimely death.

Smith’s life was a story of instability starting with her teenage years when she married and eventually divorced a fellow fast food coworker. The on-stage display of her erratic behavior is an appropriate characterization of the former reality star’s tumultuous life. Ultimately, we see in the opera how her struggles culminated with an overdose on prescription drugs that led to her death in a Florida hotel room four years ago.

Although spot on in much of the Playboy model’s rise and the fall, the directors get sidetracked after the intermission in an attempt to make Smith out to be a tragic figure. The latter half of the production plays to the audience’s empathy by framing Smith as a victim. While misfortune makes good theater, these scenes miss the mark in their depiction of some of the final phases of her life.

One of the mischaracterizations in the second act is about her final marriage to Texas businessman J. Howard Marshall II. Marshall was 63 years Smith’s elder when they wed, and he passed away less than two years after the ceremony. In a New York Times review of the opera, one reporter alludes to a glaring error.  To set the course for her downward spiral, the opera leads the audience to think that Marshall didn’t have a will, and still, Smith was left with nothing.  More than a decade of legal activity between Smith and his family over the estate, however, has shown that Marshall in fact had a will, and was quite clear in his intentions.  Underscoring that fact, over more than a decade Marshall drafted and updated a dozen wills and living trusts.  At no point were the beneficiaries different than those included in the final will and living trust, which contained all of his property; technical aspects were merely altered.  In other words, leaving Smith out of his inheritance was something he did by design.

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The criminal trial of Howard K. Stern in the events connected to the death of former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith took a surprising twist Thursday. Stern, Smith’s former lover and lawyer, walked out of a Los Angeles courtroom essentially scott free.  Smith’s psychiatrist, Dr. Khristine Eroshevich, received $100 in fines, a reduction from a felony to a misdemeanor charge, and one year of unsupervised probation.  Stern walked out of court and immediately spoke with media – blaming the prosecution for being dishonest.

After a two month long trial and 13 days of deliberation, the jury found Stern guilty on two felony counts.  Both counts involved conspiracy charges of acting fraudulently to obtain prescriptions and using false names to acquire medication for Smith. Eroshevich was similarly charged with conspiracy as well as aiding to furnish sedatives and opiates to an addict.

While this may be a good day for Stern, this sentencing is a slap in the face to the jury who spent a grueling two weeks deliberating in order to reach a fair, thoughtful verdict.  Judge Robert Perry acted unusually throughout the proceedings. He claims there is not enough evidence proving Stern intended to break the law.  That excuse doesn’t even work for speeders on a long stretch of rural road, it certainly shouldn’t work for a man who admitted to falsifying names in order to get his girlfriend drugs that ultimately killed her.  This is truly a disappointment for justice.

Once again celebrity wrongdoers get special treatment.  Numerous testimonies verified Stern’s involvement in Smith’s medical management.  Smith’s bodyguard, former nannies, and G. Ben Thompson, another of Smith’s former lovers, all testified to seeing Stern bring Smith pills on separate occasions.  He even had multiple prescriptions for her under his own name! (more…)

In addition to its well-publicized, disastrous experiment with moving Jay Leno to primetime, NBC has done some good things this year. Perhaps the best of these is the new sitcom Community.

The concept is simple but rich in characters and potential comical situations. Suspended lawyer Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) has been sent back to college because his academic degree was discovered to be phony. Now he’s stuck at the local community college—which he describes as a “school-shaped toilet.”

The show includes at least a few genuinely amusing moments per episode, but it also takes its characters seriously to some degree, which makes it more than just a string of gags. In the first episode, Winger ends up leading a Spanish-language study group even though he has little grasp of the language. The various members of the group are comically beset by a multitude of emotional, social, and functional problems.

Winger, however, very quickly (and somewhat implausibly) turns the group into what he describes as a “community.” The tables are soon turned on him, however, as he is revealed to all as a shallow, selfish, conceited moral relativist. This is not characterized as a good thing. (more…)

You may not know who Matt Long is but you might have seen the young actor in recent advertisements for his new ABC television show “The Deep End.” Long has appeared in a couple of major motion pictures including “Ghost Rider” and “Sydney White” but he will likely gain more notice for his new role on a disappointing television show that Variety.com noted is little more than a sibling show to “Grey’s Anatomy,” about lawyers instead of doctors. It is disappointing to see the engaging Matt Long is on a show like this, especially considering that he did far superior work on television several years ago on the WB program “Jack and Bobby.”

On his new show, Long plays Dylan Hewitt, a new idealistic associate at a law firm. The show revolves around a group of young lawyers finding themselves in “the deep end” of their profession as they start working full time in “the real world.” The first episode of the series showed the young characters dealing with work dilemmas that law school did not prepare them for.  For instance, Hewitt had to fight for a mother to gain custody of her child against the wishes of his tough boss, played by Billy Zane. Hewitt is tempted to do the wrong thing in the case but inevitably he decides to do what is right for the child, a cliched plotline that falls flat. (more…)

The men and women who earn the right to wear eagle, globe and anchor of the United States Marine Corps are a special breed.   To those outside the Corps, they talk funny.  They look funny.  They are extremely impressed with themselves – and they have every right to be. 

My beloved United States Army is a blunt instrument, a magnificent club that has pummels our nation’s enemies into submission.  But the Marines are America’s rapier, a razor sharp weapon of war that has never been bested and never will be.  For over two centuries, the United States Marine Corps has been fighting our country’s battles in the air, on land and sea.  They don’t give up.  They don’t quit.  There’s no word for retreat in a Marine’s vocabulary.  And they are making history even today in the mountains of Afghanistan and elsewhere.

November 10th is the Corps’ 234th birthday.  With the indulgence of my Devil Dog brethren, here is this Army veteran’s countdown of the Top Ten Marine Corp movies: (more…)

The only surprising thing about hearing that Law & Order was going to take on the Bush administration over “torture” is the realization that Law & Order is still on the air.  This car-wreck of a series has been bouncing around NBC’s schedule since the first Bush administration doing the impossible – making lawyers look even worse.  Thanks, guys.

Law & Order’s mysteries are as unpredictable as where the sun will come up tomorrow morning.  In a typical episode, when the cops arrest a gang member you can safely bet the climatic trial denouement will reveal the real killer to be either the wealthy corporate executive,  the ambitious conservative politician or the hypocritical Christian preacher.  You know, kind of like in real life. (more…)

These are some words I never thought I’d say, but I hope Miley Cyrus loses the four billion dollar lawsuit that has been filed against her. In case you’re not up on this story Ms. Cyrus, who is a 16 year old, which I believe makes her prone to do silly and at times even stupid things, was photographed making silly faces with a group of friends at the mall or some such place were young multimillionaires hang out.

In the photo Ms. Cyrus and several of her friends are sitting with another boy who appears to be of Asian heritage. The kids seem to be trying to look like their Asian friend. I am assuming he is a friend and not just some random guy they crowded around for the picture. (more…)