I viewed this on Netflix streaming movies. I was very surprised to see its very low rating, and somehow almost 50% of the votes are "1", clearly a bogus rating. As a documentary of sorts it is actually pretty good.B-movie director David Giancola decided to make his BIG movie, a parody of Sci-Fi B movies, and call it "Illegal Aliens." It features 3 women, sort of as a take-off of "Charlie's Angels." But being a poor filmmaker without much funds, and no nibbles from the big studios, had to get creative with his financing.To that end one of the people he ended up with was Anna Nicole Smith who would star as one of the alien women, and also put up money as a producer. What started out as seemingly a great idea turned into a real nightmare for Giancola.First on many days of shooting Anna either did not show up for various reasons, or showed up late, or was so incoherent that she could barely remember one line at a time. When answering off-the-cuff questions she often was barely coherent. Then three additional events hit. First Anna had to go before the Supreme Court in her battle with her dead husband's son. Then Anna's 20- yr-old son was found dead unexpectedly. Then just 5 months later Anna herself was found dead. The media circuses all this brought was both a blessing and a curse. It gave the film unlimited free publicity but it also made it almost unreleasable. It was released, and I haven't seen it yet but reportedly mid-American audiences got the joke and thought it was funny. While making the movie Giancola had the idea to do lots of filming of behind the scenes activities, on and off the set, and that is where most of the footage for this documentary comes. It gives us a rare look into the real Anna Nicole Smith, and for that alone it is a worthwhile viewing. The end credits say that today Giancola is managing a rental car business.

Addicted to Fame (2012) *** (out of 4) In 2005 director David Giancola began work on a low-budget science fiction spoof that was clearly headed straight-to-DVD without much fan fair but then Anna Nicole Smith happened. This documentary has all sorts of behind-the-scenes stories because the film, ILLEGAL ALIENS, turned out to be a gigantic publicity boost when Smith's true life horror show put it on the map. At first it was all good publicity because of Smith's case over her late husband's will was heading to the Supreme Court but soon it took a darker turn when her son and eventually her were dead. ADDICTED TO FAME isn't a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but I thought it was quite fascinating simply because you really haven't gotten to see a film like it. Yes, there are some good documentaries out there dealing with low-budget filmmaking but none of them featured a media storm like Smith and it's interesting to see what having someone like her in your movie can do. Not only that but the last year of her life was just so strange and bizarre that it brought on all sorts of stories that just put more fuel on the fire. I really thought it was fascinating getting to hear from the director and producer of ILLEGAL ALIENS who were one day benefiting from the news and then the next being destroyed by it. The film also offers up a lot of stuff from the shooting of the movie and it's clear that Smith wasn't very pleasant to work with and caused all sorts of problems. Is ADDICTED TO FAME an exploitation movie? Are they taking advantage of Smith's fame and death? I'd say so but then again so has every other television station, newspaper and magazine. The difference is that those here actually worked with the woman on her final picture.

Not sure why this is getting low star ratings, other than perhaps the subject matter. This was an interesting story of getting caught up in the poop storm that was the media coverage of Anna Nicole Smith's last days. The filmmakers prove that they are human enough to not profit from her death, rather chronicling her last days. While her story is sad, it actually puts a human face on someone who was troubled by drugs and fame and whose path to fame seemed to be unsavory yet provocative .The story is much better as a documentary, but the footage they do show of the movie 'Illegal Aliens' is interesting. I am not a fan of movies or B-movies in general but I do like documentaries that show me a side of things I hadn't seen before. It's also a case of playing with fire, as you see the ups and downs of the roller-coaster of publicity involved in dragging someone so provocative into your film. In some ways her life seems to parallel Marilyn Monroe, certainly an angle I hadn't thought of before. Overall, the documentary is very entertaining.