not to be a dick, but...refresh my memory, what did she do?
was she one of those paris hilton types who is famous for being famous, but no one can really remember why?
Far from a Paris Hilton type. She was a country girl, moved away, did some modeling, became a Playboy Playmate, and then became the Playmate Of The Year. She tried to do a bit more than the Playboy thing, including acting, but couldn't do much of that.
Arguably, she became more popular/notorious for what she did after being the Playmate of the year. Weight issues, partying, drug taking, marrying a rich man who later died and gave her a huge amount of his estate, only for his family to protest, which lead to many visits to court... and a lot of other bullshit that for a lot of people, made Anne Nicole Smith who she was.
Her "fame" in the last few years has been more or less food for the media, who knew that she would be a mess in anything she did, and there would be a camera waiting. Her reality show on E! had taken that to the extreme.