Mourning Mom Sells Out Before Rites

The NY POST reports that Anna Nicole Smith's 20 year old son Daniel was taking antidepressants after a heartbreaking split with his girlfriend. He died September 10 in his mother's hospital room in Nassau, the Bahamas while visiting her and his newborn sister. A producer on Anna Nicole's last movie, Illegal Alien, reported that Daniel was hospitalized with an irregular heartbeat during the filming, according to Fox entertainment reporter Dorothy Lucey. The mystery into his death after uncontrollably coughing up blood and vomit deepens with conflicting pathologists' findings: Anna Nicole's independent investigator says after his autopsy of young Smith that he hasn't detetmined the cause of death. The local coroner told TMZ less than a week before that she was certain what killed him.

Meanwhile, according to TMZ: "Representatives for Anna Nicole Smith have wrangled more than $600,000 from the glossies and TV outlets for pictures taken of Daniel Smith and his mother and baby half-sister just before his death hours later."

Anna Nicole was reportedly inconsolable after her son's death and had to be sedated. As a teenage mom, she and Daniel had a close bond and grew up together. He remained steadfastly loving, and a little bit embarrassed during her wild drug use, public battles with weight and a lengthy court battle for her share of the estate of her late 89-year old tycoon husband. How does a grief stricken mother negotiate a deal for her late son's images before the funeral is even scheduled? Maybe we're downright antediluvian...

Howard Stern might be finding out that conventional wisdom is just that: Folks don't want to pay for something they're used to getting for free. The NY POST reports that since Stern left terrestial radio at CBS for pay radio ($13 a month subscriptions) and a $500 million deal at Sirius last January, "traffic to Stern's Web site was down a whopping 71 percent and his search-engine action plunged 90 percent."

Maybe the model to look to is the Internet with its video and audio podcasts. Advertising revenues fuel most enterprises, not paid subscriptions. TO REPEAT, PEOPLE DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR WHAT THEY'RE USED TO GETTING FOR FREE, even if you are the self-proclaimed "King of All Media".

The British newspaper, Daily Mail, reports that, "Brad Pitt has been lined up to replace Tom Cruise in the next Mission Impossible film. It is a move that will make Pitt the highest paid actor in Hollywood history. Paramount Pictures, the company behind the franchise, ended their long-running partnership with Cruise and is planning to install Pitt in the lead role."

The morality tale here: careful whose couch you jump on and which new mother you criticize for post-partum depression...

Question of the day: Were screen icons Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy really the romantic couple offscreen that has been portrayed in Hollywood legend or was there a buried, deep dark secret?

Listen to our podcast and read our blog, "Angelina Jolie & Kate Hepburn: Honesty And Lesbian Flings Are Sexy" COMING SOON!!!

Now, be the FIRST to go out and spin the down and dirty truth behind the headlines...