Larry Birkhead Fights Back Against Anna Nicole Smith Biopic

When a story as complicated and tragic as Anna Nicole Smith’s gets optioned for the big screen, there’s bound to be fallout—and photographer Larry Birkhead is making his position crystal clear: not on his watch.

Birkhead, 53, came out swinging this week against the upcoming biopic centered on Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, the physician implicated in Smith’s 2007 death from a drug overdose. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight published on Thursday, July 9, Birkhead didn’t mince words about the film’s potential impact on his family.“We absolutely object to any of Anna Nicole’s, my life, my daughter’s life being used in a movie,”he said, adding that he takes particular issue with portraying Kapoor—a doctor who was supposed to be trusted—as a character in a narrative film.

What makes this pushback more than just celebrity grumbling is Birkhead’s stated effort to actually stop the project. He’s filed a formal complaint with the California Medical Board regarding Kapoor’s participation in the film, and claims he’s already reached out to the doctor and his representatives to warn them about the emotional toll this could take on Dannielynn, his and Smith’s now 19-year-old daughter. For Birkhead, this isn’t abstract—it’s about protecting his daughter from reliving her mother’s death through a Hollywood dramatization.

The film, based on Kapoor’s memoir Trust Me, I’m a Doctor: My Life Before, During and After Anna Nicole Smith, stars Kal Penn as Kapoor and Abbie Cornish as Smith. Birkhead also took issue with the casting, telling the outlet that while Cornish“is probably a nice girl and a great actress,”she doesn’t quite capture Smith’s essence. Penn, however, has sung a different tune in interviews with Variety on Tuesday, July 7, calling Cornish’s performance“phenomenal”and saying“She really embodied Anna Nicole in a very striking way.”

Here’s where things get thorny: Kapoor was acquitted of all charges in 2010 after being prosecuted for conspiracy and improper prescribing related to Smith’s death. So legally, he’s cleared. But that acquittal doesn’t settle the moral or emotional questions around turning a tragedy—one that claimed a woman’s life and left a child motherless—into entertainment. Birkhead’s fight suggests he believes there’s a difference between the right to tell a story and whether that story should be told, especially when it could hurt the people closest to the truth.

The complaint to the Medical Board is a savvy move. Whether it gains traction likely depends on how the Board views a physician’s involvement in a dramatized film about his own case. It’s less about stopping the movie outright and more about signaling that this story has guardians willing to fight for how—and whether—it gets told.