Smith offered film funding to play Monroe

Tragic model Anna Nicole Smith was so desperate to play her icon Marilyn Monroe in a Hollywood movie, she offered to fund a film about the actress' second husband, Joe DiMaggio.

But Marv Schneider, who penned DiMaggio: Setting the Record Straight, says Smith's generous offer was turned down, because directors feared if she was cast as Monroe, other stars turn down the role of DiMaggio.

He tells the New York Daily News, "She offered to at least partially finance it, about six months before she died. The screenplay was finished in the summer.

"It was rejected out of hand. She wasn't considered ready. Also, if she got the role, we thought we'd have a tough time getting a top actor to play DiMaggio."

Earlier this week, Florida's Broward County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Joshua Perper ruled Anna Nicole's death as an accidental drug overdose.

The 39-year-old model was found dead in her suite at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, on Feb. 8--five months after the death of her 20-year-old son Daniel in the Bahamas.