Great Big Beautiful Doll: The Anna Nicole Smith Story (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Anna Nicole Smith went from being a small town country girl to being Playboy's Playmate of the Year, exploited by national tabloids for her controversial marriage to one of the richest men in America. In this indulgent biography, authors reveal all of the salacious details of her meteoric rise to fame, now with a new introduction, concluding chapter, and even more never-before-seen photos. The authors reveal all of the salacious details of her meteoric rise to fame from her childhood in tiny Mexia, Texas to her very public struggle with her weight. It includes the details of her Supreme Court battle to hold onto the fabulous fortune left to her in her husband's will.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Barricade Books; 2nd edition (March 25, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569803285
• ISBN-13: 978-1569803288
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #661,910 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not too flattering bio on last decades blonde, January 17, 2003

By	Daniel J. Hamlow (Narita, Japan) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Great Big Beautiful Doll: The Anna Nicole Smith Story (Hardcover)

... Eric and D'Eva Redding's Great Big Beautiful Doll exposes the dark side of the playmate, from her humble beginnings as Vickie Lynn Hogan of Mexia, Texas to Vickie Lynn Smith, to Anna Nicole Smith, the latter name she got from Guess? Jeans president Paul Marciano. From there, Redding details someone who vulgarly flaunted sex, who was under a cloud of booze and drugs, and who wasn't above having sex with other women in front of the authors and even her own son.

Yet there is an incident in which both sides of the story are told. It involves Maria Ceratto, a former Honduran housekeeper who claims Anna Nicole forced her to have sex with her and basically held her captive by changing the phone number and not telling her. Anna Nicole on the other hand claims it was Maria who was doing the harassing.

There's even an entire chapter dedicated to Jay Leno's punches on her in his monologue, mainly concerning her marriage to Marshall. Two of the funniest: "I don't want to say he's old, but yesterday she told him to act his age--and he died." "She said they're two peas in a pod. ... It's more like two cantaloupes and a prune." Ouch and double ouch!

There are photos in the book, pictures as a child, nude ones, and a not-so-flattering police mug shot for a DWI.

So is this book credible? Well, let's see, Redding took the Polaroids that led to Anna Nicole's jump to fame. Both he and his wife were around her during that time, plus Anna-Nicole hasn't sued the Reddings. And Reddings portray themselves as being simultaneously disillusioned and feeling sorry at what she's become. To quote from the intro: "It would be easy to make fun of Anna, but we can't. Maybe it's a case of 'we knew her when,' but we did--and we liked her then." Yet at the same time, the bio comes off as being sensationalistic and somewhat exploitative.

For Anna-Nicole Smith sycophants, this book truly trashes their idol, so don't bother. If you totally loathe Anna Nicole, this book is ammunition for you. If you're ambivalent about her, well, maybe it's worth a read.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and a little startling, December 4, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Great Big Beautiful Doll: The Anna Nicole Smith Story (Hardcover)

I was a big Anna Nicole fan before reading this book. I had heard a few stories about her darker side and bad judgment before reading this book, but I was shocked by how she was described by the author Eric Redding. Redding describes her life and personality in a very unflattering way. (...)I felt very bad for Anna Nicole from the moment I started reading to the end.
The book was written by the playboy scout Eric Redding, who discovered and represented her for a year. I think there are some bad feelings on behalf of the author. None the less, Anna has lead quite a life. The writing was OK. The imformation was interesting and some of it down right amazing. Just a little gritty for me. My impression of the sweet small town Texas girl was smashed in the first few pages. I read the whole book in 2 days. I would recomend it. Just be warned it is a sad story of a girl who has lead a hard life.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting account of Anna's Playboy years and life told by the agents who submitted her photos to Playboy, May 15, 2007

By	sparrowgirl65 (planet earth) - See all my reviews

Interesting account of Anna's early professional years by Eric and D'Eva Redding, the agents who first sent Anna's photos and application to Playboy. Contains lots of pictures and many interesting stories about Anna, both their first-hand accounts and information they gathered in interviews with Anna's relatives and others. Especially in-depth info is given about the J. Howard Marshall years and the legal battles, and there is quite a bit of info and many anecdotes from other times of Anna's life also. At times I found the tone of the book somewhat superior and condescending toward Anna, and lacking in appreciation. I did want to point out one small error: Anna is quoted as having written on her Playboy application, "I have a 5 year old son we been raising by myself and my mom is a very big help to me." In fact, you can see in Anna's own writing on the preceding page that she wrote, "I have a 5 yr old son I've been raising by myself..." The apostrophe is mostly hidden by the line above. It does look like "we" at first glance. At times I found this book to be inconsiderate of Anna's feelings in that it recounts some of her most humiliating foibles, some of them quite private. I also did not see the need to include the naked mug shots which the Reddings took of Anna to submit to Playboy. The book sometimes made me wish we could hear Anna's side of some of the stories. However, the book did contain lots of interesting information and many nice photographs and it was also clear that the Reddings had a great appreciation for Anna's beauty and modeling talent and had promoted her in the early stages of her career. Since Anna didn't write an autobiography, I found it very interesting reading this book to gain more information about her life and career. Also, the writing is good and at times quite funny.