What was it about Anna Nicole?

There have been hundreds of Playboy Playmates, but the wire services don’t put out new stories every time one of them appears at an event. Countless beautiful young women have married rich old men, but you never hear about them on national TV. Reality show stars are a dime a dozen, but seldom make the cover of supermarket tabloids.

Perhaps it was that she was many things -- and not quite anything. She was Forrest Gump, wandering from one spotlight to the next (the Playboy Mansion? Billionaire's ranch? The Supreme Court?). She was a national Rorschach blot, in which various constituencies -– breast-loving men, money-loving hangers-on, the celebrity media –- saw what they wanted. She was presented as a cartoon character, two-dimensional and not quite real.

She was also a mother who lost a son and leaves behind a 5-month-old daughter. That, too, echoes.

A Greek tragedy retold by Jacqueline Susann -- or Dave Barry.