Playboy Pinup Battles for Dead Husband’s Millions

A former Playboy pinup and Guess? jeans model who was not yet 30 when she married an elderly Texas oil billionaire will ask a Los Angeles judge today for a share of her late husband’s estate.

The issue before a federal bankruptcy judge is whether J. Howard Marshall II, who was almost 90 and wheelchair-bound when he died four years ago, meant to make Anna Nicole Smith a multimillionaire upon his death.

During their marriage, Marshall, whom Smith called “Paw Paw,” had bought her cars, property, clothes, and baubles--about $6.6 million worth. He even backed a truck up to the Neiman Marcus department store for one memorable Christmas Eve shopping spree.

Smith now says that she was meant to receive half of the amount that her husband’s Koch Industries and Marshall Petroleum stock went up during their marriage--to $820 million.

Marshall’s son, E. Pierce Marshall, says that his stepmother was entitled to nothing after his father died. Because there was no written prenuptial agreement or updated clause to the will, Pierce Marshall wound up with it all--about $1.6 billion.

Smith’s lawyers allege that Pierce Marshall interfered with his father’s wishes to provide for Smith.

J. Howard Marshall was mourning the loss of his second wife and his mistress when his driver arranged for him to meet Smith, a young single mother who was working the lunch shift at a Houston topless joint. “Don’t go love-falling,” the chauffeur advised.

But Marshall was smitten, said attorney Philip W. Boesch Jr., and he gained a new lease on life. “He loved this woman to the point that he wanted to adopt and marry her at the same time,” the lawyer said.

Pierce Marshall’s lawyer called the story “a fantasy.” Attorney Joseph A. Eisenberg said Howard Marshall spent all he intended to spend on Smith during his lifetime. Testimony begins today in this spinoff of a bitter probate battle being waged in Texas.