In what I guess is a show of class, Superior Court Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff has barred the release of a video of Anna Nicole Smith’s breast augmentation surgery, made in 1994. The request came from her former “boyfriend”/ former attorney/executor of her will, Howard K. Stern. Stern claimed that the doctor taped the operation without Smith’s consent, and he sent it to a Los Angeles memorabilia dealer, Thomas Riccio.

“The surgeon, Surgeon Gerald Wayne Johnson, said he routinely recorded surgeries with the patient’s permission and promised to keep the video confidential ‘during the patient’s lifetime’.

“Dr Johnson said he gave Mr Riccio permission to use the video after Smith died.

“Mr Stern claimed Dr Johnson’s wife and Mr Riccio would share any proceeds from the sale of the video to media outlets.“

[From the Melbourne Herald Sun]

Ew. Just ew. I wish I had something more intelligent to say, but this story makes my visceral reactions take over. Aren’t people done feeding off of Anna Nicole Smith yet? I’m not saying the woman was an upstanding pillar of the community or anything, but you can tell she wasn’t exactly smart enough to protect herself against some of the more unscrupulous people that surrounded her in life. She certainly wasn’t above selling her private family moments and personal medical procedures for a little bit of cash. Remember Celebitchy’s story in November ‘06 when Anna Nicole sold her C-section video to “Entertainment Tonight” for $1 million?
I still think it’s sad that people are still trying to take advantage of her. She’s not here to say “Go ahead and see my bob job surgery,” or not. Though with that c-section incident, I guess it’s hard to say for sure if she’d put the kibosh on it. The woman was certainly a riddle. A simple one, more like a knock knock joke, yet a riddle nonetheless.

In other Anna Nicole news, remember that batshit crazy judge who presided over the trial regarding custody of Smith’s body in Florida. Well, Judge Larry Seidlin will be coming to a television near you pretty soon.

“Judge Larry Seidlin, the wisecracking, emotional judge from the Anna Nicole Smith case, is shooting a pilot for his own TV show, ‘Access Hollywood’ has learned.

“The show will be produced by CBS Paramount. No other details were available.

“The lampooning purveyor of justice (dubbed Sideshow Seidlin by the media for his courtroom antics) announced his resignation from the bench in June amid speculation he was negotiating a deal for his own show.

“At the time of his resignation, Seidlin sent a letter to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, stating ‘it is now time for me to devote more of my daily life to my own young family and to pursue the many opportunities that have been offered to me outside the judicial system and I have disregarded until now.’

“Seidlin, 56, is a former New York cab driver who presided on the bench for nearly 29 years.”

[From MSNBC.com]

I wonder if that guy was always a mental case, or if he just put it on for Smith’s trial. He had a bit too much of that infamous New York phenomenon known as the “philosopher cabbie” thing going on. You know, a lot of dispensing more advice than you needed, and more personal information than you ever asked for. Plus that whole thing where he referred to each of the lawyers by their respective states really bothered me. “Shut up California!” “Your motion is denied South Dakota.” Alright I don’t think there really was a South Dakota lawyer there, but you get the point. Seidlin was clearly longing for greener pastures from the moment he was assigned the case. Though his ruling actually was legally sound and made a lot of sense. But I don’t want to give him too much credit, because I think he was just made a good ruling by chance. I don’t think any drawn-out logic went into his decision. So good lucky, Larry Seidlin. I hope your show fails and you have to slink back to Florida with your head in your hands, and your pants around your ankles. Just because that would be extra funny.