Larry Birkhead slams Netflix’s Anna Nicole Smith doc as ‘poorly reviewed cesspool’
By Mads Lennon
Even in death, the media struggles to represent the late model and icon Anna Nicole Smith accurately. Netflix’s latest documentary, Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me, proves that we still don’t really know the actress and television personality. The documentary is rather simplistic and often comes off a little contemptuous of its subject.
It should speak volumes that Smith’s daughter, Dannielynn Birkhead, and Dannielyn’s father, Larry Birkhead, were not involved in making the documentary. The only people interviewed are a few of Smith’s siblings and a former friend named Missy, who claims she and Smith were romantically involved at one point.
Directed by Untouchable‘s Ursula Macfarlane, it’s unfortunate that You Don’t Know Me fails its subject, especially after Netflix did release a tactful and inspirational doc on Pamela Anderson. But of course, Anderson is still alive and was able to actively participate in the feature to tell her side of the story, while Smith doesn’t have the opportunity to speak for herself.
Anna Nicole Smith’s ex Larry Birkhead slams Netflix’s documentary
Smith’s ex and the father of her daughter, Larry Birkhead, did not mince words when asked why he declined to participate in the Netflix doc. In a statement released to Entertainment Tonight, Birkhead said the documentary is a “poorly reviewed cesspool” and even indicated that some of the participants might rewriting history in their claims.
Birkhead certainly has a point. Several of the documentary’s subjects make wild assertions about Smith’s past, insinuating she lied about being abused and more, yet there didn’t appear to be any legitimate fact-checking involved in following up on those claims. The interviewees were able to say what they wanted without much pushback.
Birkhead added that he’s looking forward to the day when a “true definitive Anna Nicole project” will be made, seemingly indicating that he would be willing to participate in a documentary if he trusted the filmmaker to get it right.
You can read Larry Birkhead’s full statement below:
"“We declined to participate as I did not want my daughter in a overwhelmingly poorly reviewed cesspool of a project about her Mother, where some people were allowed to invent things and rewrite history. I am looking forward to a true definitive Anna Nicole project where her truth can be heard from her own perspective and by those that truly knew her the best and not just another ‘wash, rinse and repeat’ Anna Nicole project. Anna truly deserved better and that day will come.”"