Anna Nicole makes splash at Supreme Court

As we discussed yesterday, the Supreme Court got a little more fun today when Anna Nicole Smith made the scene to try to convince justices that she really did marry for money love.

Several justices said they were concerned that the one-time Playboy Playmate was kept from pursuing a piece of her late husband's fortune.

"It's quite a story," said Justice Stephen Breyer.

Smith married oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II in 1994 when he was 89 and she was a 26-year-old topless dancer in Texas. Marshall died the following year. His fortune has been estimated at as much as $1.6 billion.

One of his two sons claims he is the only heir.

Breyer said there was evidence that the son hired private detectives to keep Smith away from her elderly husband's bedside.

Smith's claim is simple, said Justice David Souter, "just give me the money I would have had."

According to the AP, justices criticized the argument that the case could only be settled by a Texas court: "That's just not the way our system works," said Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The background of the case is so messy that we won't try to explain it here — we did that yesterday — but the interesting thing about Anna Nicole's Supreme Court case is that it will answer a technical question: when federal courts will be able to hear claims involving probate proceedings. As DCist notes, the Bush administration has sided with Smith, saying she's raising interesting points about federal jurisdiction — but the White House also may be remembering her Playboy appearance in May 1992, when she allowed that her turn-ons included cowboys and scary movies. She and Ruth Ginsburg should have a lot to talk about.

Outside the Supreme Court, the scene was chaotic as Anna Nicole arrived in a knee-length black dress, high heels and sunglasses. Several photographers were knocked to the ground in the media crush. [video from WRC-TV in Washington and from the AP via the Chronicle, and from CNN, see Marshall's son's spokesman call Smith "trailer park trash!"]