From Tabloid Trash to High Art

April 10, 2008 — -- She had it all -- fame, beauty, a body that just wouldn't quit.

She married a tycoon many decades her elder and many millions richer -- whether for love, money or both, no one ever really knew.

But when he died, her golden age died too. She went from strutting her stuff on set to defending her reputation in court. She gave birth to a daughter without knowing the identity of the father, three days before her son died of a drug overdose.

Once revered, now ridiculed by former fans, the fallen star died a year later under circumstances mysterious and murky, a victim of fame and the hangers-on that clung to her because of it.

It's a tale so tragic, it verges on Shakespearean. It's also the story of Anna Nicole Smith. And now it's the subject of an opera.

Composer Richard Thomas is writing the libretto for an opera based on the life of the late Playboy playmate, to be staged at London's Royal Opera House in 2010. Thomas, the co-creator of "Jerry Springer: The Opera," called Smith's story "incredible."

"It's very operatic and sad," he told U.K. newspaper The Independent. "She was quite a smart lady with the tragic flaw that she could not seem to get through life without a vat of prescription painkillers."

That's one way to look at it. Another: Smith was a big-breasted, blond bimbo, tabloid trash that catered to the lowest common cultural denominator. Is her story really appropriate for the opera?

"I think it's wacky. It's just not my cup of tea. A soap opera maybe, but her life was already a soap opera," said Michael Kammen, Cornell University professor of American cultural history.

But maybe Thomas is onto something. Every age has its inspirations. During the Renaissance, scientific advancement stirred art. In the 1960s and '70s, the Vietnam War fueled rock 'n' roll. So now, considering the 24/7 nature of the 21st century's celebrity obsession, maybe it's only natural that tabloid trash should inspire opera.

Smith, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan: These are our tragedies. The lurid details of their lives can be boiled down to tales as old as time.

Smith: buxom beauty burned by rich husband's hoity-toity family. Spears: single mom scorned. Lohan: rising talent led astray by substances and the people who peddle them.

Hollywood's rife with stars who live fast and die young -- if it's drama you're looking for, there's no better place to get it.