JUDGE APPROVES EMBALMING AND ANNA NICOLE SMITH'S WILL IS READ
A judge approved the embalming of Anna Nicole Smith's remains Friday as he tried to broker an agreement among the three people fighting over the former Playboy Playmate's body.Lengthy legal fights still loomed over where she will be buried and who will get custody of her infant daughter. The hearing over Smith's final resting place was already in its third day."We're beginning to give her peace," Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin said.Smith's will was presented to the court as evidence, and Seidlin refused requests by both sides to keep it private. It was to be released Friday afternoon."I don't want any secrets here," the judge said.The proceedings moved out of Seidlin's chambers and into a courtroom to accommodate the horde of media and attorneys. The hearing stopped around noon for the holiday weekend and was set to resume Tuesday.Seidlin warned attorneys he would schedule as many sessions as it takes to resolve the issue. He ordered Smith's longtime companion, Howard K. Stern, who did not attend Friday's hearing, to appear in court Tuesday since he is trying to get control of her remains."This is a struggle for all of us," the judge said. "Let everyone perspire here."Stern claims he is executor of her will and wants her buried next to her son in the Bahamas. Smith's estranged mother, Virgie Arthur (Upper Right), wants her buried in her home state of Texas. Photographer Larry Birkhead hopes Smith's DNA will help prove he fathered the former centerfold's 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn, who could inherit millions of dollars. Stern is listed as the father on the girl's birth certificate.On Thursday, Seidlin ordered that additional DNA be taken, saying he wanted to make sure her body wouldn't have to be exhumed.Smith, 39, died Feb. 8 after collapsing at a Florida hotel.On Wednesday, Seidlin declared Smith's corpse would stay refrigerated in the medical examiner's office until he said otherwise. In California, von Anhalt, the husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, filed legal documents Thursday seeking a DNA test to determine if he fathered the baby. Von Anhalt, who says he is 59, has said he and Smith had a decade-long affair.Also in California on Thursday, the state medical board said it is investigating a doctor who may have prescribed methadone to Smith through a prescription that contained an alias.The Medical Board of California began looking at Dr. Sandeep Kapoor after receiving information about possible misconduct, board spokeswoman Candis Cohen said. Cohen declined to give details on the allegation or its source but said it was connected to Smith.Among other things, the board is investigating whether it is legal to prescribe drugs for someone using an alias, Cohen said. She described the review as routine and said the board is obligated to review all allegations of physician misconduct.A woman who answered the telephone at a listing for Kapoor in Los Angeles hung up when The Associated Press called Thursday.Smith was the widow of Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, whom she married in 1994 when he was 89 and she was 26. She had been fighting his family over his fortune since his death in 1999.
Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith
Anna Nicole Smith left everything to her son Daniel, who died in September, according to a will released Friday by a Florida court. She also named longtime companion Howard K. Stern as executor, according to the document, written in July 2001. The will was never updated. It does not mention Smith's 5-month-old daughter, DannielynnClouding an already murky legal senario, some language in the will seems to exclude any of Smith's future spouses or children.
Smith's heir or heirs stand to inherit a stake in her longstanding claim to the fortune of her late husband, Texas oil baron J. Howard Marshall II. As executor, Stern is authorized set up and oversee a trust on behalf of Smith's beneficiaries, and to make investments on its behalf. The document is signed "Vicky Lynn Marshall," the name Smith used before finding fame as a Playboy Playmate, Guess jeans model and reality TV show star. Smith's son would have received distributions at ages 21, 25 and 30. Daniel was 20 when he died. The judge overseeing the dispute over the former Playmate's burial ordered attorneys to file a copy of the will, which has been the subject of intense speculation since Smith's sudden death eight days ago. The document could be crucial to giving Stern the legal standing to determine Smith's final resting place -- the subject of a contentious courtroom battle between Stern and her Smith's estranged mother, Vergie Arthur. Stern's attorneys say Smith bought a plot in the Bahamas, next to the plot where her son, Daniel, is buried. He died in September, three days after Smith's baby daughter, Dannielynn, was born at a Bahamas hospital.
BICKERING LAWYERS
Anna Nicole Smith And Larry Birkhead
Besides the lawyers for Stern and Arthur, there are attorneys for Smith, daughter Dannielynn, and Smith's former lover, Larry Birkhead, who is seeking a paternity test to prove he is Dannielynn's father. The lawyers have frequently traded barbs. "The woman sitting across from me was estranged from her daughter. I have people who loved her," sniffed Barth, attorney for Stern, on Thursday. "She stands here today to take her to Texas and put her in the ground all alone. It's sad and it's sick." Retorted Arthur's lawyer, Stephen Tunstall: "Counsel is trying to trash my client in some kind of emotional appeal. My client is her mother. She wants to take her back to Texas to be buried with the rest of the family. She has the right." And so it went, all day Thursday for half a day on Friday and, from the looks of things, for many more days to come. The judge worked hard to keep things on track. "We're trying to balance the rights and respect of the body with the legal issues," Seidlin said. "When we bury her, I want it to be forever," The judge has appointed a guardian, Miami attorney Richard Milstein, to protect the interests of Smith's infant daughter, Dannielynn. He also appointed Kelley, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer, to sort through the competing interests and advise him.
Witnesses, including people close to Smith, are expected to testify Tuesday.
SO MANY FATHERS
Birkhead and Stern each claim to be the father of Smith's nearly 6-month-old daughter, Dannielynn. Stern's name is on the birth certificate. Smith's former bodyguard, Alexander Denk, told CNN's Larry King that he, too, could be Dannielynn's father, saying he and Smith had an off-and-on relationship for years. Denk is the fourth person to claim he could be the child's father. Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband, Frederic von Anhalt, has said he and Smith had a decade-long affair and that he could have fathered the child. He filed court papers seeking a paternity test on Thursday. Seidlin repeated several times that the most important issue to his court was the welfare of the baby. He also stressed the importance of maintaining dignity. "We want to preserve the beauty and model figure of Ms. Smith," he said. "Beauty was important to her, as you all have indicated to me, and we want her to look beautiful when she is placed in her final resting place." Smith, 39, died February 8 after she was found unconscious in her room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino near Hollywood, Florida.
Among the issues the attorneys wrangled over was whether Stern had legal standing to determine a burial place, or even to take part in the proceedings; and who was Smith's next-of-kin under Florida law. Tunstall, the attorney for Smith's mother, argued that Dannielynn did not qualify because a child must be over 18 to be legally considered next-of-kin. The release of Smith's body -- and even the embalming process -- was delayed because attorneys for Birkhead wanted a DNA sample for a paternity test. The judge ordered an additional sample be taken.
Labels: ANNA NICOLE SMITH, BRUCE WILLIS, DANNIELYNN, DEATH, DIES, EMBALM, HOWARD K. SMITH, VIRGIE ARTHUR
