The Anna Nicole Story

Honoring the late Anna Nicole Smith with the dignity that is synonymous with her name, here’s the trailer for The Anna Nicole Story, Lifetime’s attempt to capture a life written on the wind and on various prescription pads. Though the film features a surprisingly impressive supporting cast—including Martin Landau (as the elderly billionaire who buys Smith’s affections), Virginia Madsen (as her mom), Cary Elwes (as Landau’s son), and Adam Goldberg (as her lawyer/enabler Howard K. Stern)—this preview is mostly all about Private Practice star Agnes Bruckner hitting all the recognizable high-and-low-points of Smith’s life, mostly by hitting various bottles. Champagne bottles. Liquor bottles. Pill bottles. Pill bottles that go into liquor. Bottles of clown make-up. And so on. American Psycho director Mary Harron seems to be aiming for a similar commentary on the emptiness of excess here (please note the melancholic cover of “Fame” and its attendant symbolism), the thesis statement of which is probably best expressed by the face of Smith’s son, as he time and again catches his mom sloppy drunk. We are all Smith's slackjawed children.