HOLLYWOOD, Fla.– On Thursday, Hollywood, Florida, slightly resembled Hollywood, California.
When Anna Nicole Smith was rushed from her room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino to nearby Memorial Regional Hospital at 1:38 p.m. EST, the surrounding local streets were blocked off during the three-mile route.
The only time something like that happens in this Hollywood is when the president is in town, and yet it was the tip of the iceberg of Thursday’s media blitz.
Once Anna Nicole arrived at Memorial Regional, the media attention was divided between there and the Hard Rock, with a potential “Sophie’s Choice” of conflicting news conferences to be held at each site. At least there was somewhat of a split between the two sites.
But when Smith was officially pronounced dead at 2:49 p.m. at the hospital, most of the swarm descended upon the only place to be, Memorial Regional, even though a press conference at the Hard Rock went on as scheduled.
At the hospital, the press trucks were lined up almost as far as the naked eye could see, with the entryway to the emergency room turned into a makeshift media zoo. If police officers weren’t removing people with no business being there they were answering questions, and if reporters weren’t asking questions they were merely relaying answers to their TV audiences with live broadcasts from the ER entrance area.
It might not be out of the ordinary for media to be lined up outside a hospital awaiting answers, but on this day, with a veritable tailgate party of press vehicles surrounding the entire perimeter of the hospital, it was quite clear even to the few unwitting civilian passers-by that this story was to reach much further than Broward County.
As nighttime neared and word spread of Anna Nicole’s body being transported to the Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office, the full-court press began to dissipate.
In what seemed like minutes (although approximately an hour and a half in reality), one could suddenly hear a pin drop—or, more fittingly, an ambulance siren as it approached the hospital. It was a sign that this usually sedate city would return to its normal form—at least until the autopsy is performed Friday and the results.
And what is “normalcy” in Hollywood, Fla., a city located north of the Miami area and just south of Fort Lauderdale?
Coincidentally, a night out might involve the aforementioned Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, a resort-style hotel, casino and entertainment venue all in one, reportedly frequented by Smith until Thursday’s tragedy.
But as of the evening hours of Thursday night, the press scant throughout the city, residents already had enough entertainment for one day, as some could be heard rehashing on their cell phones what they saw and heard—or didn’t—earlier.
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