WikiLeaks: How Playboy star Anna Nicole ‘wreaked havoc in the Bahamas’

LONDON - The latest scandal revealed by WikiLeaks describes how former Playboy model and reality TV star Anna Nicole Smith blew away the Bahamas.

“Not since Wallis Simpson dethroned a king and moved to Nassau has an American femme fatale so captivated the Bahamian public and dominated local politics than Anna Nicole Smith did during her time on the island,” the Guardian quoted the memo titled ‘Hurricane Anna Nicole wreaks havoc in the Bahamas’ as saying.

Nevertheless, her presence had a positive impact on the island, attracting media and leading to a more democratic society.

“Not since the Category 4 Hurricane Betsy hit the island in 1965, has one woman done as much damage in Nassau,” it said.

Smith had allegedly provided a 10,000-dollar cheque directly to the immigration minister, Shane Gibson, after her residency application was approved in one month - a process that usually takes at least a year.

But Gibson had to admit defeat when photos were published after the model’s death on 8 February of Smith and Gibson “in a bedroom embrace” - resulting in his resignation eventually.

“The Anna Nicole scandal has recast Gibson as puppet of the privileged rather than defender of the common people of The Bahamas,” one of the two memos noted.

Following her son’s death in September 2006 Nassau’s Doctors Hospital “came under fire for its treatment - or more pointedly its complete lack of treatment - of Anna Nicole’s son” was criticised over his treatment.

But “the criticism of the hospital was nothing compared to the criticism of the Bahamas Coroner’s Court”, the memo said.

The court could not provide a cause of death for Smith’s son and when a US pathologist found that the death of cause was drugs, there was widespread “speculation that the government was protecting Anna Nicole from embarrassment by delaying its findings”.

The memo said the scandals “revitalised” local media to take on a system that “too often rewards the privileged”.

But the cable adds, the “titillating details of Anna Nicole’s sordid affairs have enticed the Bahamian public to give renewed focus to government indiscretions”. (ANI)