Wampum

There are seven words that I never imagined would ever appear in the same article:
"Anna Nicole Smith" and "United States Supreme Court".

USAToday reports:

The decade-long saga of former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith, her late tycoon husband, his adult son and a multimillion-dollar inheritance will be argued at the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

What otherwise would be a dreary probate dispute testing federal and state court jurisdiction has drawn international tabloid interest because of Smith, an exotic dancer turned 1993 Playmate of the Year and reality-TV star.

The issue is one of jurisdiction:

Despite the natural fodder for comedians, the case offers the justices a chance to resolve a difficult question of the scope of federal judges' authority in certain probate cases.

Typically, state courts have jurisdiction over probate matters, but federal courts can have authority when a dispute involves large sums of money and parties from different states. Over the decades, federal judges have ceded some of that authority to local courts for matters involving wills and estates. The question for the Supreme Court is when federal judges can intervene in such disputes.

She is planning to attend.

I, for one, could not make that up. No doubt it represents a failure of iimagination on my part. I guess "Paris Hilton" and "Federal Reserve" is still possible.