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Calling all fans of Anna Nicole Smith! The late model is getting her moment back in the spotlight thanks to a new GUESS collection. And her former partner Larry Birkhead thinks “it’s vindication time for Anna.”

What did he reveal about how he feels the playmate was “misunderstood in a lot of ways” and why now is a good time to call for retribution? And what are some fan reactions to new GUESS billboards with Smith’s image from the ’90s?

Anna Nicole Smith smiling in red lipstick
Anna Nicole Smith | Carlo Allegri/Getty Images

The late playmate was a GUESS model

Press coverage of some women in entertainment in the early millennium was particularly brutal. Britney Spears is a living testament, but Smith unfortunately died of an overdose on Feb. 8, 2007. The media mocked her weight and sobriety in her life and diminished her talent and stardom after her death.   

This is part of why Birkhead apparently waited for what he felt was the right moment to call for a fan uprising on her behalf. He said the recent response to the defamation of Spears in the press around the same time as Smith’s death inspired him.  

But the way GUESS chose to honor her with their collection also touched him. “I think Anna was misunderstood in a lot of ways,” he told Rolling Stone. “Nobody knew Anna better than GUESS. After all, it was Paul Marciano that gave then-Vickie Lynn the name Anna Nicole!”

Notably, Birkhead shared that he took Smith’s daughter, Dannielynn Birkhead, to look at the posters of her mom. “Ever since Dannielynn was a kid, I would take her in to the GUESS stores and she would look up at her mom’s posters,” he explained. “That’s how she really got to know her mom from those pictures.”

Larry Birkhead: Anna Nicole Smith was ‘treated poorly in the press’

Dannielynn would certainly do best not turning to certain corners of nostalgic media for good memories of her mother.

Howard Stern repeatedly invited Smith on The Howard Stern Show only to mock her weight and sexually harass her on air. And to add another example, The New York Times released a piece days after her death that openly questioned why she was famous in the first place.

But as Birkhead pointed out, her longevity speaks for itself, despite some relentlessly bad press around the time of her death. “I think it says a lot about Anna’s appeal and staying power that 15 years after her passing, she still has the appeal that an international brand like GUESS would invest in a campaign like this,” he noted.

And other tales of women in Hollywood inspired him. “We are seeing stories about some of the women of Hollywood like Britney Spears, Brittany Murphy and Anna Nicole, that got a raw deal and were really treated poorly in the press and tabloid media,” he elaborated. “So, for me, it’s vindication time for Anna.”

Anna Nicole Smith: what do fans think?

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Many fans are onboard for calling for press accountability. But some Twitter users seem severely put off by GUESS billboards with Smith’s image on them.

One possibility is that may have to do with the tragedy behind her story and negative feelings about her life. It also could be the slogan, “Did you miss me?” — which alludes to her comeback, not in person but in name.

But it seems that feelings of negativity towards her image are exactly what Birkhead would like to see change. “This campaign introduces Anna to new fans and makes her longtime fans happy,” he explained. “If it were something that we didn’t approve of, or I would think that wasn’t a fit for Anna’s brand and memory, we wouldn’t allow it.”

So, seeing the late model’s photos on a billboard stirs bad feelings for some people. But it’s probably good to ask why that happens and see if it might relate to how she was presented.

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