Anna Nicole: "Piggybank" For 3 Suspects?

Ex-Manager Says Money Motivated Those Charged With Supplying Late Ex-Playmate With Drugs On Which She O-D'd

(CBS)  With Anna Nicole Smith's former lawyer-turned-boyfriend and two doctors facing felony charges of conspiring to get addictive drugs to the former Playboy Playmate in the years before her fatal overdose in 2007, Smith's ex-manager and close friend is accusing them of doing it for the money.

Eric Redding, In an exclusive interview with The Early Show Saturday Edition co-anchor Chris Wragge, said Howard K. Stern and the two physicians saw Smith as a "piggybank."

California Attorney General Jerry Brown says Stern was her "principal enabler" and supplied Smith with thousands of prescription pills before her death.

Redding, author of "Great Big Beautiful Doll: The Anna Nicole Smith Story" and co-author of "Sex Bomb: The Life and Death of Anna Nicole Smith," says he "wasn't surprised at all" when he heard about the three arrests.

"I had heard an investigation was under way immediately after Anna's death," Redding told Wragge, "so I'm not shocked. Howard was not a good friend of mine. I loved Anna dearly, 18 years ago, I discovered Anna, and it's sad to see her gone."

Stern, Redding asserts, had "100 percent" control over Smith's life, adding, "Anna couldn't do anything without Howard telling her what to do."

As a close friend of Smith's, Wragge wondered, did Redding try to intervene at any point to help Smith?

"When you're under as much medication as Anna was ... she really didn't know what she was doing half the time," Redding replied. "Howard would say, 'Here, take this, do this,' and I had talked to Anna about it, but she just couldn't get off the medications, unfortunately."

Why would Stern and the doctors seek to keep Smith, who seemed to be under the influence of drugs during numerous public appearances, in that state?
"Money," Redding quickly told Wragge. "In my eyes, money. I mean, definitely. They knew she was their piggybank, so to speak, and they just controlled her. They said,'Here, do this, look pretty, and do what we tell you to do,' and Annna, being the good soul that she was, did what they said."

Redding says the prospect of the three spending years in prison makes him happy. "Of course," he said. "I mean, you know, I don't want anyone to do bad to someone else, especially someone you care for, and the family's happy, as well. I'm very close to the family; Anna's mom is great. She's very saddened by her daughter's death, of course, and hopes justice will get done here."

CBS News legal analyst Lisa Bloom says Stern and his co-defendants fave "four-to-five years in prison. Keep in mind: They're not accused of homicide, they’re not not accused of killing her. What they're accused of is giving her excessive amounts of prescription drugs when they knew she was already an addict -- that's the legal violation.

"(The legal compliant against them is) extraordinarily detailed: dates, times, which specific drug was given to her. I think they've done a very lengthy, careful investigation over the last two years to make sure they know what they’re doing."

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To read an excerpt of "Great Big Beautiful Doll, click here.

[noodlemonkey]

HKS's motivations are 100% about money. He exploited Anna, he exploits Dannielynn and he exploits the judicial system. He is human garbage, plain and simple.

[justthought1]

In the wake of Ms. Smith?s death, forensic psychiatrist, Michael Welner, M.D. was heavily involved with the questions that arose from the subsequent death investigation and he made these interesting comments consulting to ABC ? (http://a.abcnews.com/US/Story?id=2861902&page=3).
With the recent suspicion and arrest of Smith?s boyfriend, the insights provided by Dr. Welner about Sterns culpability are very intriguing http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=2982406&page=1.

Regardless of who used this person as a "piggybank" or what have you, there were millions
of folks week after week who couldn't get enough "dirty laundry tv", so you could say, we
all "chipped in". Gee, let's take this inebriated, drugged up celebrity and follow her around with
a camera all day. Our curiosity and appetite for the intimate details of others' personal
disasters and misfortune have emerged as a most user friendly antidote for this "endless
hangover" that is our own lives.

[formrusmcsgt]

How often do we see dysfunctional, famous people self-destruct before our eyes once they have enough money to do so.....

[msay3]

If Eric Redding was such a good friend, why didn't he alert the authorities about this gross abuse of drugs?

[FreddyBartholomew]

Who cares?

[tincup356]

funny how people here think stern is terrible for using someone for personal gain....Now look at your members of congress from both parties.......they are doing the same exact thing to the American people...but no one seems to care ,,,they just keep right on supporting BOTH criminal parties.

[FrankDenise]

Our society as a whole loves to put these famous people up on a grand stage,then we like to see them crumble..The media and press coverage this country,Which I call the vultures are partly to blame for the demise of these Hollywood faces...Especially the women...Its all about image and weight..They post pictures of certain women from a bad angle than hound the crap out of them why the look fat..Or what is wrong in their lives...Irresponsible journalism and a Bunch of nonsense..What is wrong with this society we live in today?????I wouldnt switch places with any of these famous people for a minute...I like my privacy and little boring life..Than we wonder why these famous people are hooked on drugs or overdose...Shame on the American Media......God Help Us All...Frank

[opedanderson]

Everyone ridiculed this woman. Me too. Perhaps rightly so, but I felt nothing but sorry for her once I got a look at the array of scumbags and leeches she surrounded herself with.

Like most people, I didn't believe her feelings for the old guy were true. But now that we have all seen what Howard and company had done to her, maybe she did love the old fart after all. If for nothing else, he may have been the one person in the world that didn't want anything from her. Not even sex. Maybe he just wanted her to be her trailer park self and he was ok with that. And maybe that was something she had never felt in her entire life.

[formrusmcsgt]

"Anna couldn't do anything without Howard telling her what to do."
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Probably because Howard kept her in a fog all the time.

He never made any money of his own and wanted to use hers, in my book....