Producer Sues Anna Nicole

October 23, 2000 -- When it rains, it pours, especially if your name is Anna Nicole Smith.

The 32-year-old model-actress is being sued by a movie producer for breach of contract just one month after a federal judge awarded her nearly $450 million in a battle over her late husband's estate. Coincidence? We think not.

Producer Vince Offer is suing Smith for breach of contract, claiming that she backed out of making the 1996 film Underground Comedy Movie, which co-starred then-famous adulterer Joey Buttafuoco. Smith apparently decided it would not be "good for her career or public image."

That, they say, is history. Smith had already decided that marrying an 89-year-old man was good for her career. The 1993 Playmate of the Year wed Texas billionaire J. Howard Marshall in 1994. They had been married only 14 months when he died.

Smith has been involved in a bitter court trial with her late husband's son, who says she is not entitled to his father's $1.6 billion estate. The trial is currently on hold while the blond actress recovers from nerve damage following an Oct. 18 weightlifting accident.

Underground Comedy Movie, which went on to star The Green Mile's Michael Clarke Duncan and former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash, can be rented at a video store near you. It was released in 1999.