Anna Nicole fans skip flowers, hit the Web

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - Fans of Anna Nicole Smith aren’t making pilgrimages to the place where she spent her final days. They’re not leaving flowers. They’re not gathering in crowds to express their grief.

Instead, emotions are being expressed in a way as uniquely modern as Smith’s fame — on blogs, Web pages and online message boards where true fans battle naysayers to get their voices heard.

“I loved her,” fans beam. “I miss her,” others write. “She was beautiful,” they say.

The 39-year-old former Playboy Playmate died unexpectedly on Thursday during a stay in Hollywood, Fla. On Sunday, MSNBC’s Rita Cosby reported Smith had had at least two surgeries since giving birth to her daughter five months ago, one of which was breast surgery. Sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Smith had been recuperating from breast surgery at the time of her death and was prescribed multiple painkillers for her recovery.

On Facebook, hundreds of Anna Nicole pages are buzzing with gossip and outpourings of emotion. YouTube has logged hundreds of thousands of hits on Anna Nicole videos, including some fan-produced tributes. One fan put a message on Craigslist seeking others touched by the starlet’s death for a candlelight vigil in New York’s Union Square.

“I do almost feel like I’ve lost something. She was an inspiration to me,” said Sian Richter, a 20-year-old office worker who has been posting messages and photos online from her London home and has been glued to E! coverage of her idol’s death.

‘Humble roots and making it big time ’
“I truly believe she had a lot of love to give and just wanted to be loved back,” Richter said. “Also I looked up to her because of the background she came from. Humble roots and making it big time gave me inspiration.”

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Richter said she has handbags adorned with pictures of Smith, a bobblehead doll in the former Playboy model’s likeness and recordings of episodes of “The Anna Nicole Show.”

The medical examiner who performed an autopsy on Smith’s body said it could take weeks to determine the cause of death. Dr. Joshua Perper, the Broward County medical examiner, said Friday that no illegal drugs were discovered in Smith’s room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood where she collapsed Thursday.

MSNBC’s Cosby reported Sunday that about 10 different medications were found in Smith’s hotel room closet, and open prescription bottles were found on the hotel room nightstand.

‘It doesn’t even seem real’
In New York, Brian Hewson, a 26-year-old who works in a theater box office, had followed Smith on and off for years and was shocked when a friend told him about her death.

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“It doesn’t even seem real,” Hewson said. “If someone wrote this story, or it was on television, no one would think it had any realism to it. But these insane new developments just keep popping up.”

‘I sympathize with her’
In Kuala Lumpur, a huge photo of Smith in a bright red dress was splashed across the front page of the Star newspaper on Saturday. Her image fronted the Iltalehti newspaper in Helsinki, Finland.

“I sympathize with her,” said Catherine Toth, a 31-year-old resident of Hawaii Kai on the island of Oahu who pens “The Daily Dish” blog for The Honolulu Advertiser. “I saw so much tragedy in her life. I just kept hoping it would get better.”

Billy Lowe, a hairstylist who frequently works with celebrities, said many people couldn’t help but gasp when they heard news of Smith’s death.

“We’ll certainly miss her charm, her on-cam blunders and bloopers and we’ll pray she’s making the sandy shores in the hereafter very happy,” he said.