This image was lost some time after publication.

Anna Nicole Smith's methadone-infused light may have been snuffed much too soon, but her memory will live on in a steady barrage of endlessly exploitable audio-visual materials. For example, a Texas plastic surgeon has been attempting to sell a videotape he made of a routine gazonga-insertion procedure she underwent back in 1994. Now, creepy lurking legal presence Howard K. Stern, still hanging around in her afterlife, has overseen a temporary restraining order against the doctor:

Superior Court Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff granted the order Friday at the request of Smith's former attorney and executor of her will, Howard K. Stern. The injunction prevents the sale, distribution or dissemination of the videotape.

Stern accused Gerald Wayne Johnson, the Texas doctor who performed the surgery, of sending a tape showing the procedure to Thomas Riccio, a Los Angeles-based memorabilia dealer. Stern claims the surgery was taped without the former model's consent.

In a letter written June 22, Johnson said he routinely records surgeries with the patient's permission and promises to keep the video confidential "during the patient's lifetime." Johnson said he gave Riccio permission to use the video after Smith died.

It might be easier to find fault with Johnson's cold compromise of the sacred bond of doctor-patient trust had Smith herself not sold a grotesquely invasive surgical video of her own C-section to Entertainment Tonight, somehow justified by the showbiz news program as being suitable for broadcast in all its sticky, forceps-assisted glory. Still, we highly doubt that what the world needs now is another glimpse of Smith's insides, and we can only hope that the temporary injunction becomes a permanent one before Odyssey Video starts hanging massive banners trumpeting their newly arrived stock, Anna Nicole: From 36-A to 42-DD.