Names and faces

LITTLE ROCK — The long running legal fight over whether former Playboy centerfold Anna Nicole Smith should have gotten part of the fortune left behind by her elderly Texas billionaire husband landed at the Supreme Court on Tuesday as justices announced new cases to be argued in the forthcoming 2010 term. Smith’s estate wants some of the $1.6 billion estate of her husband, J. Howard Marshall, who died in 1995. Marshall’s will left nearly all his money to his son, E. Pierce Marshall, and nothing to Smith. Smith challenged the will, claiming that her husband promised to leave her more than $300 million above the $7 million in cash and gifts showered on her during their 14-month marriage. But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with a Houston jury that said Marshall was mentally fit and under no undue pressure when he wrote his will. Smith’s estate is appealing that ruling, part of a legal battle that has outlived its main participants.The younger Marshall died in 2006 and Smith died of a drug overdose in 2007. The dispute over J. Howard Marshall’s money has its roots in a Houston strip club where he met Smith. The two were wed in 1994 when he was 89 and she 26. Marshall died the next year.

Oscar winner Richard Dreyfuss is receiving the 2010 Empire State Archives and History Award for his efforts to improve civics education in America’s schools. According to the Archives Partnership Trust, the award ceremony was part of a public discussion with nationally prominent Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer scheduled for Tuesday night in Albany, N.Y. Dreyfuss launched The Dreyfuss Initiative last year to spur interest in strengthening American democracy by promoting civics education. His films include Jaws and The Goodbye Girl, for which he won an Academy Award for best actor. Other recipients of the award include actor. The Archives Partnership Trust is a nonprofit that supports the New York State Archives.