Courtroom Drama in Anna Nicole Smith Hearing

Feb. 15, 2007 — -- In a room packed with the four sets of lawyers, a joking judge, litigants, police officers, a Romanian medical examiner and the media, the dramedy over who would take control of Anna Nicole Smith's body unfolded in a way that only the late model could have fully appreciated.

Judge Larry Seidlin, of Broward County Circuit Court, mediated between four sets of lawyers packed around a small conference table. They represented Smith's mother, who wants the body buried in Texas; Howard K. Stern, Smith's companion who wants the body buried in Florida; Ron Birkhead, who has claimed he's the real father of Smith's child and is demanding that his experts be allowed to take DNA; and Ron Rail, a lawyer for Smith's estate.

The high-pitched tone of the proceedings alternated between nasty and bizarre as the competing sets of lawyers querulously demanded possession of Smith's remains.

At one point, Krista Barth, attorney for Howard K. Stern, accused Virgie Arthur, Smith's mother, of ulterior motives.

"This woman across from me was estranged from her daughter. I have people who loved her and the woman sitting across from me has not laid eyes on her daughter since 1995," said a heated Barth.

"There was no greater love than the love of Mr. Stern," Barth proclaimed.

Arthur, sat silently with a piece of crumpled Kleenex in her hand. Her husband, sitting behind her, held her shoulders.

Stephen Turnstall, Arthur's attorney, fired back. "Estranged? They want to trash my client in an attempt [at] some kind of emotional appeal. My client is the woman's mother, and she wants to take her home. Does Mr. Stern have the right to file this petition?"

Stern's lawyer, Barth, insisted that she had Smith's will, which stipulated that Smith wanted to be buried next to her deceased son, Daniel, but the circumstances of the case didn't permit her to release it.

"The reason I haven't disclosed this will is because we have enough of a media circus here. People are calling this baby a golden ticket."