As tributes continue to pour in to tragic victim Anna Nicole Smith, we thought we'd share a few. They leave us with more questions than answers. Here's Playboy photography director Gary Cole:

Playboy readers loved Anna. We couldn't give them enough of her. She was Playmate of the Year, the pictorial for which was photographed by fashion photographer Daniela Federici. We featured her several more times in pictorials...on the beach, in bed, in the bathtub. Her sexuality and her spontaneity always revealed themselves to the camera. Her exploits since Playboy have been well publicized.

And now she is suddenly gone, like with Marilyn and Jayne Mansfield, taken too quickly. Perhaps Billy Joel should write a sequel to his song "Only the Good Die Young" simply changing the last word to "Beautiful." We'll miss you, Vickie.

In the Post Page Six Editor Richard Johnson (under the predictably classy headline, "SAD VICTIM WAS GOSSIP'S BREAST FRIEND," notes the following:

Growing up, she always said she wanted to be the next Marilyn Monroe. She was actually a tad more durable. Norma Jeane Baker was 36 when she overdosed. Vicki Lynn Hogan died at 39. They had a similar appeal with their aching vulnerability - bombshell blondes childishly unprepared to cope with an adult world, obviously in need of a daddy to take care of them. Marilyn found Joe DiMaggio, Arthur Miller and maybe a Kennedy or two. Anna Nicole found octogenarian billionaire J. Howard Marshall. It makes me glad Marilyn Monroe never had children.

Finally, CNN Entertainment producer Todd Leopold gets philosophical:

What was it about Anna Nicole?

There have been hundreds of Playboy Playmates, but the wire services don't put out new stories every time one of them appears at an event. Countless beautiful young women have married rich old men, but you never hear about them on national TV. Reality show stars are a dime a dozen, but seldom make the cover of supermarket tabloids.

Perhaps it was that she was many things — and not quite anything. She was Forrest Gump, wandering from one spotlight to the next (the Playboy Mansion? Billionaire's ranch? The Supreme Court?). She was a national Rorschach blot, in which various constituencies — breast-loving men, money-loving hangers-on, the celebrity media — saw what they wanted. She was presented as a cartoon character, two-dimensional and not quite real.

She was also a mother who lost a son and leaves behind a 5-month-old daughter. That, too, echoes.

A Greek tragedy retold by Jacqueline Susann — or Dave Barry.

Okay, we've had enough.

We'll miss you, Vickie [Playboy]
SAD VICTIM WAS GOSSIP'S BREAST FRIEND [NYP]
Anna Nicole. Why? [CNN]