D-Day for Dannielynn's Daddy
NASSAU, Bahamas, April 10, 2007 — -- More than two months after Anna Nicole Smith's death and 10 months since the birth of her daughter Dannielynn, another chapter in the former model's saga is likely to be written when the baby's father is revealed. DNA test results ordered by a Bahamian judge are scheduled to be released this afternoon.
Several men claim paternity in what has become a heated custody battle. The key players -- Smith's ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead and her lawyer and companion Howard K. Stern -- are expected to be in court today. At least two other men also claiming to be the baby's father are not on the island, including Prince Fredrick von Anholt, Zsa Zsa Gabor 's husband.
What's made the paternity question so compelling is another, ongoing legal battle that could see Dannielynn Smith inherit hundreds of millions of dollars from the estate of Smith's second husband, the late Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall.
Smith was married to Marshall -- roughly 60 years her senior -- for slightly more than a year in the mid-1990s. She battled his son Pierce Marshall for years, the case going all the way to the Supreme Court in in 2005 before being sent back to lower courts, where it now stands.
Also pending is a legal case involving Smith's estranged mother, Virgie Arthur, who is trying to wring custody of the baby away from Stern, who she says is an unfit father, if he is even the biological father at all.
Today's expected ruling may bring closure to the custody firestorm that began in earnest after the former Playboy Playmate and reality TV star died on Feb. 8 after being found in a Florida hotel room.
A medical examiner ruled Smith died of an accidental overdose of a toxic drug cocktail of nine prescription medications: a powerful and rarely used sleeping medication, chloral hydrate, along with least eight other prescription drugs. She also had a bacterial infection from injecting anti-aging drugs into her buttocks.
An extensive six-week investigation found no signs of foul play, according to Florida authorities, but the medical examiner found that most of the drugs Smith was taking were prescribed in Stern's name.
The medical board of California said last Thursday that it is investigating the Los Angeles doctor, Dr. Khristine Eroshevich, who, according to documents, authorized all 11 prescription medications found in Smith's hotel room the day the starlet died.
After a preliminary hearing in the Bahamas last month, Birkead came out of the courtroom jumping up and down and announced that the judge had ordered a paternity test. Because of a strict gag order -- Bahamian courts are very secretive -- news stemming from today's announcement will likely be revealed in a similar fashion.
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