Former Playmate Tells Court About Diamonds, Promises
Former Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith sat on the witness stand, staring blankly at Exhibit 3337, a $235,000 wish list of goodies she faxed to her Texas oil tycoon husband eight months before his death.
Attorney Rusty Hardin rattled off item after item on the handwritten note, grilling Smith about each request--three $50,000 bank deposits, two bodyguards, one publicist and a Manhattan apartment.
Then came the finale: a $48,000 diamond.
“There might be too many zeros,” Smith said sheepishly, explaining that the stone may have cost a mere $4,800. “I’m not too good on zeros.”
Representatives of J. Howard Marshall’s multimillion-dollar estate not so respectfully disagree.
Marshall’s son and the 1993 Playmate of the Year have been locked in a Texas-sized feud over the Houston oilman’s fortune, a six-year legal battle that has seesawed between courts in California and the Lone Star state and sizzled with accusations of faked legal documents, coached testimony and sexual innuendo.
At issue is whether Marshall, who met Smith in 1991 at the Houston strip club GiGi’s, ever promised Smith half of his wealth--and whether Marshall’s son, E. Pierce Marshall, tried to cheat her out of it. Smith’s name never appears in the elder Marshall’s will but, in a cassette tape she recorded months before his death, the feisty oil maverick demanded that “my wife be taken care of.”
Last year, a bankruptcy judge in Los Angeles sided with Smith, awarding her $475 million. Six months later, a Texas probate court sided with E. Pierce Marshall, declaring him the sole heir.
The case now has fallen into the lap of U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter in Santa Ana, who this past week has been patiently listening to Smith’s sometimes fuzzy recollection of events.
In May, Carter vacated a $475-million judgment that the former Playboy pinup won against her husband’s estate and now must decide whether the bankruptcy judge had the proper jurisdiction to award Smith the money.
Smith, whose post-centerfold acting career included bit parts in “The Hudsucker Proxy” and “Naked Gun 33 1/3,” has played a starring role since the most recent court battle began two weeks ago. During her three days of testimony, Smith spoke in a faint, lethargic voice, often asking that simple questions be rephrased.
When asked to state the year she was born, Smith paused to think before she answered. She couldn’t remember how many times--or if--she saw her husband the month before he died in August 1995.
Throughout the proceeding, Smith has grimaced in pain, stepping gingerly from the witness stand. Her 15-year-old son, from a previous marriage, often assisted her out of the courtroom.
On Thursday, one of E. Pierce Marshall’s attorneys asked Smith if she was on medication. On Friday, the judge asked her the same question.
“Not at this time,” Smith told the judge.
After more prodding, Smith acknowledged that she has been on medication for back pain, and recently has taken antidepressants. However, she assured the judge that she had not taken either before testifying.
Smith, whose legal name is Vicky Lynn Marshall, was 26 when she married the 89-year-old Marshall in 1994. He died 14 months later. She testified that Marshall proposed “many, many times,” and vowed to give her half his fortune if she relented and agreed to marry him.
“I wanted him to wait until I made a career [for] myself, so people didn’t think I married him for money,” said Smith. She finally accepted after being named Playboy Playmate of the Year, landing the Guess Jeans modeling contract and starring in two movies.
When cross-examined, Smith said that she could not name anyone else who heard Marshall promise to give her half his estate, and that Marshall never put it in writing--a fact that E. Pierce Marshall’s lawyers pounced on.
E. Pierce Marshall’s lead counsel, Texas attorney and former prosecutor Hardin, has argued that his client’s father had no intention of leaving Smith anything.
Hardin said the evidence shows that Smith rarely saw her husband during their brief marriage--spending most of her time in Los Angeles and on modeling jobs. Hardin grilled Smith about why she took time to appear on the Howard Stern show in New York as her husband was on his deathbed.
J. Howard Marshall’s attorneys and advisors testified that the oil man’s trust and will listed only his son’s name as the heir--and that Smith was never added although Marshall had ample opportunities to do so.
On cross-examination, Hardin proved adept at pushing Smith’s buttons, just as he did during his brutal line of questioning during the probate trial in Texas earlier this year--when Smith hurled an expletive at the lawyer in open court.
Last week, Hardin questioned Smith about her years as a stripper, her relationship with her estranged mother, and why she would hire an old boyfriend as a bodyguard when still married to Marshall.
Son’s Role Criticized
Hardin presented nursing logs showing that Smith once, in the months before his death, visited her husband in the hospital at 2 a.m., cuddling up to Marshall as a friend captured the exchange on videotape.
“I don’t think that event occurred,” Smith said in court last week. “But if it did occur, there’s nothing wrong with it.”
Despite Smith’s sometimes fuzzy testimony, her attorneys argue that ample evidence exists that E. Pierce Marshall went out of his way to disrupt his father’s marriage with Smith and to ensure that she never received a share of the Marshall fortune. Smith has accused her stepson of siccing armed guards on her when she tried to visit her husband in the spring of 1995, and of hiring a private eye to dig up dirt and discredit her.
Smith’s attorney, Philip W. Boesch of Los Angeles, on Friday played a cassette tape of Marshall saying that he wanted Smith to be “taken care of,” and that his son might be jealous of her. Smith recorded the tape herself about three months before he died.
“I want my wife to be supported by me. She’s the light of my life. I don’t think Pierce quite understands that,” Marshall said in a raspy voice.
His son’s attorneys had accused Smith of coaching Marshall on what to say.
However, many of Marshall’s closest associates have testified that the old man often spoke of his love for Smith, and credited her with pulling him out of a deep depression after the deaths of his wife and mistress in 1991.
At one point before they were married, Marshall talked of adopting Smith--mainly for tax purposes, his legal advisors testified. He later discussed possibly adopting her son.
Smith told the court that, shortly after they were wed, she and Marshall explored having children, a statement verified by one of Marshall’s attorneys.
“We tried to have children the normal way and other ways,” Smith said.
For Smith, the most critical pieces of evidence might be the original legal document detailing Marshall’s trust--which left everything to his son.
Boesch has questioned whether the trust was doctored to ensure that Smith received nothing. The federal bankruptcy judge in Los Angeles, who awarded Smith the $475 million last year, ruled that there was evidence that E. Pierce Marshall did alter the document.
Shortly after marrying Smith, Marshall signed an updated version of the document that made the trust “irrevocable.” However, in the original document, the page that declared the trust irrevocable was printed on common copying paper. The rest of the document was printed on watermarked stationery.
Boesch also raised questions about the unusual steps that were taken when the trust document was officially filed in court.
Jeff Townsend, Marshall’s personal attorney, testified that to avoid notoriety he flew the document to Midland, then drove south about half an hour and filed Marshall’s trust in a small county courthouse. When asked, Townsend couldn’t recall the county’s name. He did remember that the county had a lake that filled with rain every 20 years.
Plenty of Questions
As for the mysterious page, Townsend said, it probably was just switched as copies were being made.
The judge, however, had plenty of questions. At one point, Carter even pulled out a map of Texas and tried to pinpoint the county himself. The judge said that if he finds the authenticity of the trust is “problematic,” it might be relevant to Smith’s case.
E. Pierce Marshall has denied altering any documents, or waging a vendetta against Smith. He is scheduled to take the stand this week. Carter is not expected to issue a ruling until January. No matter what the judge decides, an appeal is almost guaranteed.
