Anna Nicole Smith in posthumous role at Cannes
Model Anna Nicole Smith is pictured at a Los Angeles party in this May 9, 2002 file photo. Smith, whose death grabbed world headlines this year, makes a posthumous appearance at Cannes in a science fiction comedy straight from the B movie tradition.[Reuters]
CANNES, France - Former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith, whose death grabbed world headlines this year, makes a posthumous appearance at Cannes in a science fiction comedy straight from the B movie tradition.
"Illegal Aliens" casts the silicone blonde as one of a "Charlie's Angel"-style trio formed "when three aliens morph into super-hot babes and arrive to protect the earth from the intergalactic forces of evil."
The film, which is being shown by producers in special market screenings away from the main festival, is unlikely ever to win prizes like the Palme d'Or awarded for top film in the Cannes competition.
But it is in keeping with a tumultuous career that took Smith from small-town Texas via a strip club to marriage at 26 with an 89-year-old oil billionaire, Playboy magazine and endless tabloid television appearances.
The tone is set from the outset, when a cartoon spaceship shoots by with the inscription "My other ride is Uranus" on the back and the film is light years away from the highbrow fare on show further along the Croisette.
Whether or not the producers can be accused of cashing in on her untimely death, they certainly make no attempt to minimize her role and at one point the three heroines recline on a sofa, watching the real Anna Nicole Smith on television.
Smith died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs in February, triggering a media frenzy over her burial, custody of her 6-month-old daughter and the future of her estate.
