Not Resting in Peace Yet -- Lovers, Mother Battle for Anna Nicole's Remains

Feb. 21, 2007— -- Broward County Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin will decide Friday morning who will take custody of Anna Nicole Smith's remains and, ultimately, where she will be buried. Smith's mother, Virgie Arthur, hopes to take the remains to Texas for burial. Arthur said today she plans to go to the Bahamas to exhume the remains of her grandson Daniel Smith to bury him in Texas as well. Meanwhile, Anna Nicole Smith's companion, Howard K. Stern, is fighting to take his former lover's remains to the Bahamas.

More than a dozen attorneys for the various parties jammed the courtroom. Outside the courthouse, a legion of reporters swarmed the parties each time they entered and left.

In court, Judge Seidlin took vociferous objection to one attorney's statement that the proceedings were becoming a circus.

"No circus here my friend!" Seidlin said. "That's offensive to all of us. Don't use that term. It turns me off. It's not the way it is. I mean sometimes, maybe, we are a little casual, that's just to disarm us so we can get a lot done."

Seidlin has been the focus of some media attention for his unconventional courtroom demeanor. Today he gave his critics more fodder, referencing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Our sons and daughters who have been fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq and other parts of the world … the decisions they make are so much more life threatening than the ones we are dealing with today."

Seidlin also expressed frustration about the parties' unwillingness to work together toward a resolution.

"If it was a case in a normal course of time, I, as a family judge, would take you to the woodshed a few times and demand that you all cooperate."

For the second consecutive day, Broward County medical examiner Dr. Joshua Perper called the court to emphasize that time was running out for an open viewing of Smith's deteriorating remains. Though Smith's remains were embalmed by court order last week, Perper said the discoloration of the body was growing more difficult to mask.