Who murdered Anna Nicole Smith? You or me? Don't worry, they'll get around to accusing us the same way they'll get around to calling it murder, if they haven't already. Accusing us will come after a litany of other suspects have been thrown under the media bus, but sooner or later we'll be tossed into the lineup.

We enabled her fame. We killed her by paying attention. We killed her by caring. Good lord, what a lie to die for.

Of course the real guilty parties in the death of Anna Nicole Smith are lining up behind lawyers, like pirhana behind cow entrails. Quick come the cannibals to the conqueror's devour.

Why call it murder? Why not call it occupational liability? To be Marilyn, one must die like Marilyn. And Anna Nicole Smith copied Marilyn Monroe's meteoric rise and sad public fall like a Cliff's Notes version of a classic Hollywood tragedy.

It's not like we didn't see this coming. The vivisection of Anna Nicole's good looking corpse began years ago. But now that her train wreck of a life has ended -- and just about all the obituaries managed to use that same "train wreck" image -- in death her second act has just begun, part mystery, part cautionary tale and one hundred percent salacious.

If the life of Marilyn Monroe was like a candle in the wind, then Anna Nicole Smith was like a garbage disposal in the sink. When the flame flickered out for Norma Jean, the reverent hush lasted as long as it took for the first reporter to write that Marilyn was found in the nude. However the tragic death of Anna Nicole
is like a straight-to-DVD version of a big budget B movie flop. Who green lighted this mess?

The news media were horrible to behold in the aftermath of Marilyn's sad lonely death. But that was back in the early '60's when newspapers and television still clung to shreds of decency. Anna Nicole's media post mortem started as a farce and will only become more ludicrous as new layers of absurdity are layed on top of old layers of fabrication.

Could the spin meisters have possibly come up with a more appalling coincidence than Anna Nicole's boyfriend having the name Howard Stern? And could a paternity dispute over Anna Nicole's infant daughter be complete without a" yeah-I-did-her" cameo by Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband?!

This story is so sordid it has to crawl on its belly just to reach the gutter. This is a murder story, all right, and every word we read about it kills our spirit just a little bit more.