Smith's Saga Continues

Blubbering as he announced his decision, a judge said Feb. 22, 2007, that the guardian of Anna Nicole Smith's baby daughter can decide where the model should be buried. Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin steered a surprise middle course in the dispute. The judge gave custody to attorney Richard Milstein, the guardian for Smith's 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn.

Anna Nicole Smith's former boyfriend Larry Birkhead talks to the media Feb. 21, 2007, as he leaves court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Birkhead, who said he began an intimate relationship with Smith in July 2004, claimed she spent two weeks in an in-patient detox program in April 2006, while she was pregnant with her now 5-month-old daughter Dannielynn. Birkhead says he is the baby's biological father.

In court Feb. 21, 2007, Howard K. Stern testified that Anna Nicole Smith paid all his expenses after he left his law practice in 2002 until she died. The line of questioning sought to establish whether Stern, Virgie Arthur or Larry Birkhead were motivated by money.

Virgie Arthur, the mother of Anna Nicole Smith, wipes a tear during her testimony in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Feb. 21, 2007. Arthur acknowledged that her daughter last told her she wanted to be buried in California, testimony that could hurt the woman's fight to put the starlet in a family plot in Texas. She also testified that drugs soured her relationship with her daughter.

Susan Brown, left, the lawyer for Anna Nicole Smith's ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead, accompanied by an unidentified man, stops to answers a few questions from the media, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2007, as she enters the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for another day of hearings on where Anna Nicole Smith should be buried. The judge in the case has promised a ruling by Friday.

Smith's lawyer and companion Howard K. Stern puts his hand to his head during a hearing at the Broward County Circuit Court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2007. He said that initially Anna Nicole wanted to be buried next to Marilyn Monroe but that was not possible. When her 20-year old son Daniel died in late 2006, she wanted to be buried next to him in the Bahamas.

Anna Nicole Smith's former boyfriend Larry Birkhead, right, receives a hug from her mother, Virgie Arthur, in the courtroom at the Broward County Circuit Court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2007. Arthur wants a judge to allow Smith's body to be brought home to her native Texas for burial. Birkhead is fighting for another DNA sample in his quest to prove he is the father of Smith's infant daughter.

Anna Nicole Smith's father, Donald Hogan, enters the Broward County courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2007, where lawyers are battling for control of her body.

In this photo released by the Bahamas Information Services, Shane Gibson, right, Minister of Immigration, Labor and Training, speaks on a live television broadcast as Prime Minister Perry Christie listens, in Nassau, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2007. Gibson resigned Sunday night in a flap over his relationship with Anna Nicole Smith after photos surfaced of him embracing the former Playboy playmate before her death.

Bahamian taxi driver Vaughn "Tiger" Nairn, left, takes a photograph of a group of tourists he brought to the "Horizons" mansion, where the late reality TV star Anna Nicole Smith lived, in Nassau, Bahamas, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2007. The gated, waterfront mansion has become one of the hottest sightseeing attractions for tourists visiting the island chain south of Florida.

A copy of Anna Nicole Smith's will, with her legal name, Vickie Lynn Marshall, is shown at the Broward County Circuit Court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Feb. 16, 2007. The will states that her estate should be given to her longtime companion to hold in trust for her son, who has died. The 19-page document was never amended to include her 5-month-old daughter.

Anna Nicole Smith is shown on March 3, 2005, in Sydney, Australia. Smith's 2001 will states that all property of her estate should be given to companion Howard. K. Stern to hold in trust for her son, Daniel. The will quoted Smith as "intentionally" omitting to provide for her spouse and other heirs, including future spouses and children and other descendants now living and those hereafter born or adopted.

Stephen Tunstall, attorney for Virgie Arthur, Anna Nicole Smith's mother, covers his face during the hearing at the Broward County Circuit Court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Feb. 16, 2007. A judge approved the embalming of Smith's remains Friday as he tried to broker an agreement among the three people fighting over the former Playboy Playmate's body.

Broward Co. Circuit Court Judge Larry Seidlin gestures during a hearing in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Feb. 16, 2007. Seidlin said the hearing over the final resting place of Anna Nicole Smith's body, which was into its third day Friday, could be lengthy. "I want every loose end tied up," he said. "I want peace and tranquillity. Not only for the dead, but for the living, for the living that want to visit her site."

Krista Barth, the attorney for Howard K. Stern, makes an objection in the courtroom at the Broward County Circuit Court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Feb. 15, 2007. A hearing on who should get custody of the body of Anna Nicole Smith was presided over by Judge Larry Seidlin, who ordered another DNA sample to be taken from Smith's body.

Vergie Arthur, the mother of Anna Nicole Smith, reacts to hearing the county medical examiner describe some of the work he had done on Smith's body during legal arguments at the Broward County Circuit court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Feb. 15, 2007. It's up to the judge to decide whether Smith will be buried in her home state of Texas, as her estranged mother wants, or with her son in the Bahamas.

Prince Frederic von Anhalt, center, husband of Zsa Zsa Gabor, and his lawyers, Christopher Fields, left, and Edward Lee, take questions from the media outside a Santa Monica, Calif., courthouse on Feb. 15, 2007. Von Anhalt has filed legal documents seeking a DNA test to determine if he is the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby girl, Dannielynn Hope.

Broward County Medical Examiner Dr. Joshua Perper, left, testifies before Judge Larry Seidlin, right, in the courtroom at the Broward County Circuit Court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Feb. 15, 2007. A hearing on who should get custody of the body of Anna Nicole Smith was presided over by Seidlin, who ordered another DNA sample to be taken from Smith's body.