A new film called“Trust Me, I’m a Doctor”is bringing the 2010 Los Angeles over-prescribing trial back into the spotlight, and it’s stacked: Abbie Cornish plays Anna Nicole Smith, Kal Penn plays Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, and Linda Hamilton plays defense attorney Ellyn Garofalo. The movie dramatizes the case against three people accused of over-prescribing medication connected to Smith’s 2007 death at age 39.
Garofalo says the trial was driven by political pressure, claiming former California Attorney General Jerry Brown wanted murder charges but couldn’t file them because Smith died in Florida. She also alleges prosecutors gave Smith’s Haitian nannies a Disneyland trip and new housing in exchange for testimony. Kapoor was acquitted, while Howard K. Stern and Dr. Khristine Eroshevich had their conspiracy convictions thrown out in 2011. Garofalo calls watching the film“triggering”but says she’d like to meet Linda Hamilton.
Not everyone is on board. Larry Birkhead, father of Smith’s daughter Dannielynn, now 20, has criticized the movie and says he warned about the emotional toll it could take. It raises an old question the internet loves to argue about: when does a true-crime dramatization stop being entertainment and start being somebody’s worst day on repeat?
Would you watch a movie about a real trial if the family objected? Drop your take in the comments.
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Local Lawton
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