Ms. Smith Goes to Washington

Tomorrow, former Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith goes to the Supreme Court.

Smith is fighting for the millions she claims her former husband, the late Houston billionaire J. Howard Marshall II, promised her before his death in 1995. Smith was Marshall's third wife; she met him while she was an exotic dancer in 1991. The couple courted for three years before tying the knot in June 1994. But there's one bump in the road preventing Smith from collecting her millions: E. Pierce Marshall, son and principal heir to Howard's fortune.

Smith filed for bakruptcy in a California court that took it upon itself to decide some matters related to Marshall's estate. The court proceeded to award Smith $475 million, while Texas courts said she shouldn't get anything. To try to resolve the conflict, Smith and Pierce turned to a federal district court in California, which reduced Smith's award to a paltry $88.5 million. That didn't satisfy anyone.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco eventually threw out Smith's entire award, ruling that the estate battle was best settled in Texas. Smith then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will decide the case by July. If Smith loses in her Supreme Court bid, the chances of ever recovering what she deems her hard-earned fortune are virtually nil. If she wins, the court action returns to California, where E. Pierce Marshall has filed several other appeals. Be prepared for even more titillating coverage then!

Houstonist really wants to make some legal commentary, but we aren't in any position to do that, so we're going with what we know. Both Anna Nicole and Pierce Marshall have websites of their own, so take a look and decide who you're behind: the playmate or the ... uh ... playboy. Let the judgment begin!