Anna Nicole is an opera in 2 acts by Mark-Anthony Turnage to an English libretto by Richard Thomas. It premiered on 17 February 2011 at the Royal Opera House, London, directed by Richard Jones. The story is based on the life of Anna Nicole Smith. A recording of the opera was broadcast on BBC Four and BBC iPlayer on 25 March 2011. The broadcast drew in 67,700 viewers. A special introduction and intermission was filmed - hosted by Clemency Burton-Hill.

New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini described Anna Nicole as "a weirdly inspired work . . . engrossing, outrageous, entertaining and, ultimately, deeply moving." He characterized the libretto as "clever, literate and perceptive" and found the score to be "pulsing, wild and, when called for, yearning. Tommasini praised the initial production as "a musically rich, audacious and inexplicably poignant work."

Aphrodite Jones (born November 27, 1959) is an American reporter, author, and cable TV host of the series, True Crime with Aphrodite Jones, which airs on Investigation Discovery. Before landing the hosting position with Discovery Channel's new network, Jones hosted a show called The Justice Hunters for USA Network, and then became known as a crime reporter for Fox News Channel, covering the trials of Scott Peterson, Michael Jackson, and the BTK Killer.

Most recently, Jones has been featured on a number of television news shows discussing the trial of Casey Anthony, the Florida mother accused of murdering her daughter. Jones was present for the entirety of the trial and was interviewed on The O'Reilly Factor, Piers Morgan Tonight, Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell, Inside Edition, and Nancy Grace.

In addition, Jones has regularly contributed television commentary about the psychological profiles involved in newsworthy trials including those involving O.J. Simpson, Michael Jackson, Scott Peterson, the BTK Killer, the Menendez Brothers, Charles Manson, Robert Blake and JonBenet Ramsey. A reporter and contributor for Fox News, Jones also hosted her own series, The Justice Hunters for USA, and began her career as a national columnist for United Features Syndicate.

Vickie Lynn Hogan (November 28, 1967 – February 8, 2007), known briefly as Vickie Smith, before settling on Anna Nicole Smith as her moniker, was an American model, actress and television personality. Smith first gained popularity in Playboy, becoming the 1993 Playmate of the Year. She modeled for clothing companies, including Guess jeans and Lane Bryant.

Smith dropped out of high school and was married in 1985. Her highly publicized second marriage to oil business mogul J. Howard Marshall, 62 years her senior, resulted in speculation that she married the octogenarian for his money, which she denied. Following Marshall's death, Smith began a lengthy legal battle over a share of his estate; her case, Marshall v. Marshall, reached the U.S. Supreme Court on a question of federal jurisdiction and again on a question of bankruptcy court authority (now called Stern v. Marshall). Smith died on February 8, 2007 in a Hollywood, Florida hotel room as a result of an overdose of prescription drugs. Within the final six months of her life, Smith was in the focus of a renewed press coverage surrounding the death of her son, Daniel and the paternity and custody battle over her newborn daughter, Dannielynn.

Larry King (born November 19, 1933) is an American television and radio host whose work has been recognized with awards including two Peabodys and ten Cable ACE Awards. He began as a local Florida journalist and radio interviewer in the 1950s and 1960s and became prominent as an all-night national radio broadcaster starting in 1978. From 1985-2010, he hosted the nightly interview TV program Larry King Live on CNN.

King was born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger in Brooklyn, New York City, to an Austrian immigrant Edward Zeiger, a restaurant owner and defense plant worker, and his wife Jennie Gitlitz, a garment worker, who emigrated from Belarus. King grew up in a religiously observant Jewish home, but in adulthood became an agnostic.

King's father died at 44 of heart disease, and his mother had to go on welfare to support her two sons. His father's death greatly affected King, and he lost interest in school. After graduating from high school, he worked to help support his mother. From an early age, however, he had wanted to go into radio. King is a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Ivan Simon Cary Elwes (born 26 October 1962), known professionally as Cary Elwes (pronounced ELL-WAYS ), is an English actor and voice actor. The son of painter Dominick Elwes and designer Tessa Georgina Kennedy, Elwes acted in off-Broadway plays during college and moved to the United States in the early 1980s. He is known for his roles as Westley in the cult classic The Princess Bride and for his role as Dr. Lawrence Gordon in Saw.

He has also appeared in box office hits such as Days of Thunder, Hot Shots!, Twister, Liar, Liar and New Year's Eve. He has had recurring roles in television series such as The X-Files playing Brad Follmer and Psych playing Pierre Despereaux.

Elwes was born in Westminster, London. He is the third and youngest son of portrait-painter Dominick Elwes and interior designer Tessa Georgina Kennedy, who is of Croatian, Anglo-Irish, and Scottish descent. His paternal grandfather was painter Simon Elwes, whose father was the diplomat and tenor Gervase Elwes (1866–1921). His brothers are Damian Elwes, an artist, and Cassian Elwes, a producer and agent. He is the stepson of Elliott Kastner, an American film producer. One of his ancestors is John Elwes, who is believed to be the inspiration for Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843) (Elwes played the role of Dick Wilkins in the 2009 film adaptation of the novel).