NICOLE, NICOLE

No, not our dear Nicole Ann David, Malaysia's world class squash player and pride. But Anna Nicole Smith, former American model and Playboy centrefold who died under very mysterious circumstances, on Thursday (February 8) in Florida.
She was only 39.
Although Nicole Smith was familiar to me as the man from the moon, the news of her passing was shocking.
After the initial shock, a tinge of sadness.
But, wait.... why do I care?
I don't. But I can't help it. She had been in the news for oh-so-long.
And now, she is dead. Even the circumstances of her death are full of speculations -- did she die of natural causes, drugs, or foul play?
Poor thing. Not that I know her to feel pity for her.
Ok. Standing on neutral ground and as a complete outsider and stranger, I am thinking, poor thing. All the court battles,,, all unresolved.
She had an infant daughter, Daniellyn who would never know her mommy. And only five months ago, her son, Daniel, 20, died of a drug overdose!
Well, Nicole died as she lived, hogging the headlines. At this point, we still do not know what she died of even though an autopsy had been done on her. Medical examiners do not rule out drugs.
She was known to be on drugs and other substance. Other people think she was killed.
The issue of the paternity of her daughter is also being battled. Two men have claimed to be Daniellyn's daddy. And then there is Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband in the fray.
You see what I mean,
And so, a judge has ordered that her body be preserved until the issue goes before the courts.
Billions of dollars are at stake in this paternity claim because whoever is deemed the biological father gets to keep Daniellyn and the millions she may inherit.
Then again, Daniellyn may get nothing if the court decides to throw out Nicole's claim.
Goodness, you'd think that she was the first woman President of the United States or she was some top-rated movie star.
Whatever, she was a celebrity.
She has no bearing and makes no difference to my life. Yet, I seem to be drawn to stories about her. What did she represent? I can't quite explain it.
Perhaps it's because every woman can relate to some bits of her life, somehow.
I can tell you that she was one hell of a woman. She did not back off or back down after numerous court rulings over her claim on her late husband's estate.
She was back and forth, back and forth to court. I felt tired just reading about it.
I had never realised that I had been following her life story since the day she married oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall in 1994.
I mean, how could you miss the headlines the first time -- former stripper and Playboy Playmate, 26 marries oil tycoon, 89!
What a guy! What a gold-digger of a woman!
And then another headline 14 months later -- Tycoon Dies, Former Stripper Inherits Billions!
She killed him! She did it! I know she did it! She wanted his fortune!
See, how easy it is to form a conclusion, to be judge and jury? And how unfair? I had profiled her so unjustly.
Just because she was a sexy young blonde bombshell who went into marriage with a very very old man, and now that he was dead after only 14 months of marriage and therefore had made her a very young widow and a legitimate beneficiary to his vast estate.
Just like in the movies. I was to feel so guilty about this image I had of her, although, I must confess, that there were times that I did not. She seemed to have a perverse delight in the bad publicity.
So it was that in the next 12 years (until her untimely death) Nicole and her stepson, E.Pierce Marshall, fought tooth and nail in court over the old man's fortune. It was undoubtedly one of the nastiest court battles.
Nicole was everything you despise in a woman, yet she had admirable qualities.
She was fodder for the tabloids. For other women, it would be hell. But, for Nicole, she seemed to bask in it. Yet, you wondered whether she really did care or give a damn. Or , simply went with the flow.
Was she was made of steel, had thick skin or she was simply, really dumb?
She kinda grew on me. Sometimes I could see a bruised and embattled woman, a mother, emerging from this image of a ditzy Marilyn-Monroeisque blonde with awesome breasts.
Sometimes, she was a plain starightforward gold digger. And then, you remembered that she was also a mom. How devastated she was when Daniel died.
Nicole did not live life to the fullest. Or did she?
Whatever. She died with some legal battles still unresolved. How tragic.
I never knew her. What was fact and what was fiction, about her? I'll wait for the movie. Meow.