Maybe Gary Coleman is getting the last laugh after all.

When I read that Coleman may have left a secret will naming a woman, Anna Gray, who served as one of his business associates as his sole heir, I thought good for him.

As Coleman's ex-wife scrambles for control of his estate, including allegedly taking items from his home and filing a petition to be named special administrator of his estate because she believes she's still his common law wife, this new will may leave her out in the cold, or at least in court for a little while.

And that's exactly where she deserves to be.

Last night, I attended a memorial service for a friend's father, where hundreds of people filled a church to reminisce about how he touched their lives in ways big and small. After the service, my wife and I made a stop at the drug store. As we were leaving, we were almost smacked in the face by a photo of Price posing next to Coleman, a ventilator attached to Coleman's mouth, on the cover of the Globe magazine.

This is a picture that other tabloids refused to print. The store, a major chain that should be ashamed of itself, had placed the rag next to the door so you couldn't avoid seeing it as you exited.

In the brief, forced glimpse that I took of the picture, Shannon Price has a sort of half smile on her face. I turned away immediately, not wanting to see the depths that money can drive humans to dive to. Price, according to TMZ, had shopped the photos around and was allegedly paid $10,000 for the photos.

"We were aware that Shannon and her family were inside taking pictures ... we made notes that the family was taking pictures, " a Utah Valley Regional Medical Center representative told TMZ.

At the memorial I attended, people talked about this man's great qualities: His love for music, love for his children and wife, love of learning and his great intellect. "Celebrate" read a note he left to his family. I've seen no such signs in the saga after Coleman's death. When I saw that deathbed photo, I got the sense that Price was exploiting her so-called husband, not mourning him.



It didn't seem as if she cared about this man she had pledged to spend her life with at one point.

That's why the 23-page will seems like just desserts. Gray, who once lived with Coleman at his home, was also the CEO of one of his corporations. She also accompanied him to the 2003 Emmy awards.

According to one report, Price pushed Gray out of Coleman's life when they got together in the late 1990s.

I had been trying to give Price the benefit of the doubt, even after listening to the pitiful 911 call in which she appears cold and uncaring as Coleman lays bleeding on the floor. I thought that she was in shock, but it seems a spouse would show more concern for their significant other who lay bleeding on the floor.

But after seeing that picture, my views have changed.

First of all, how sick is it to pose next to your dying "spouse" while he or she is bloodied and hooked up to monitors and ventilators? Taking a picture in that situation would be the furthest thing from my mind. In fact, that's not how I would want to remember my wife.

And then to earn a measly $10,000 for selling the picture shows that, if the charges are true, she has little class and even less dignity. It's no wonder even Coleman's estranged parents are concerned that some sort of foul play may have been involved in their son's death.

It's up to the courts now to untangle this mess. I hope they act quickly so that Coleman can at least be buried with the dignity and respect that every human being deserves.