Hurricane Anna Nicole Smith rocks the Bahamas

It’s not every day when one could mistake a WikiLeaked cable for Us Weekly magazine. The exception is this one, released yesterday by the Guardian, titled "HURRICANE ANNA NICOLE WREAKS HAVOC IN THE BAHAMAS" and revealing "titillating details" about the "American B-list celebrity" and her "sordid affairs." The document describes how Anna Nicole Smith, who ...

It's not every day when one could mistake a WikiLeaked cable for Us Weekly magazine. The exception is this one, released yesterday by the Guardian, titled "HURRICANE ANNA NICOLE WREAKS HAVOC IN THE BAHAMAS" and revealing "titillating details" about the "American B-list celebrity" and her "sordid affairs."

It’s not every day when one could mistake a WikiLeaked cable for Us Weekly magazine. The exception is this one, released yesterday by the Guardian, titled "HURRICANE ANNA NICOLE WREAKS HAVOC IN THE BAHAMAS" and revealing "titillating details" about the "American B-list celebrity" and her "sordid affairs."

The document describes how Anna Nicole Smith, who died a year after the cable was written, attempted to secure residency status in the Bahamas with a $10,000 check to the immigration minister. Her application was approved in a month, when the process usually takes a year. Another cable reveals that the immigration minister was forced to resign after the publication of photographs of him "embracing Smith in her bed."

While the exploits of a former Playboy bunny in the Bahamas might not be especially pertinent on the global level, they make for fun reading:

Several months into her Bahamian residency, American B-list celebrity and regular entertainment television fixture Anna Nicole Smith has changed the face of Bahamian politics. Not since Category 4 Hurricane Betsy made landfall in 1965 has one woman done as much damage in Nassau. 

Not since Wallace Simpson dethroned a King and came to Nassau has an American femme fatale so captivated the Bahamian public and dominated local politics. Gossip in The Bahamas is an art form — called "sip sip" — and the Anna Nicole saga has been quite a show for connoisseurs. The sordid details of Anna Nicole’s private life inspire readers to pick up a paper, and when they do they read about a Government bending the rules for personal benefit and the privileged elite. 

Suzanne Merkelson is an editorial assistant at Foreign Policy.

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