Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

Watch the trailer for the world premiere of Anna Nicole, Mark-Anthony Turnage's new opera commissioned by the Royal Opera House. The trailer highlights some key moments in her provocative life. Please note the music in the trailer is not the music from the opera.  I really wanted to see this at Covent Garden but I missed it. The same people who did Jerry Springer, the Opera are involved in this production.  Perhaps the Metropolitan Opera House will pick it up!

When my agent called to tell me that we had sold Scandalous Women to Perigee, I couldn’t have been more ecstatic. This was a dream come true for me after almost a decade of writing, but now came the hard part, what women would make it into the book? The book needed to be a mix of women that people were familiar with, but also women who for whatever reason were not as well known. My initial list consisted of forty women. Unfortunately due to that pesky word count, some of them had to end up on the cutting room floor. Here are five of the women who unfortunately got away. Isabella, Queen Consort to Edward II (1295-1358): called the She-Wolf of France by her enemies, this strong-willed Queen refused to play second fiddle to her husband Edward II’s male lovers who were showered not only with gifts and but with power. Aided by her lover, Roger de Mortimer, she stole the throne from her husband for her son, and possibly ordered the murder of her husband as well. Belle Starr (1848-188...

Just when you thought you’d heard everything, it was recently announced that the story of Anna Nicole Smith was being turned into opera, to be staged at Covent Garden in London 2011 by the same creative team who brought Jerry Springer the Opera to life. "It is not going to be a horrible, sleazy evening," Elaine Padmore, Covent Garden's director of opera told the Guardian newspaper. "It is not going to be tawdry; it is going to be witty, clever, thoughtful and sad. It is not just a documentary about her, but a parable about celebrity and what it does to people.” Since opera houses are filled with larger than life personalities, it seems the perfect place for Anna Nicole. I certainly will be making my vacation plans to attend. It boggles the mind as to who they are going to get to play Anna, Howard Stern, and Larry Birkhead, not to mention Hugh Hefner. I've seen Jerry Springer the Opera, and it was a night I will never forget (David Soul from Starsky and Hutch pla...