California Baby?

Oct. 12, 2006 — -- By any measure, Anna Nicole Smith has had a bittersweet two months. She has gained a daughter and lost a son, declared her baby's father and been scorned by her mother.

Now an ex-boyfriend -- Larry Birkhead -- is suing the former Playboy playmate, saying he is Dad to her newborn baby girl, Dannie Lynn Hope. Smith and attorney Howard K. Stern, however, claim that Stern is the father and have since had a weddinglike commitment ceremony -- white dress, catamaran and all.

The question now is, with the paternity in question, how long will this declaration hold up? And whose business should it be?

California state law assumes that if you're the husband, you're the father, and Stern maintains that he and Smith do plan to wed. But Birkhead's camp said not so fast -- Birkhead wants a DNA test and wants the state to force Smith back to California to make it happen.

But is it that easy? Michael Kelley, longtime family lawyer and former chairman of the California State Bar Custody and Visitation Committee, specializes in paternity lawsuits. Kelley said Birkhead will have difficulty forcing Smith and baby back to California, adding that Birkhead has no recognized legal connection to the two.

"It's not going to happen," Kelley told ABC News. "He [Birkhead] can't order her anywhere -- there is no jurisdiction in California. He is not the father or the presumed father at this time. He wasn't even at the birth."

As for Birkhead's claim that Smith's household is dangerous for the baby (he requests drug testing for mother and child), Kelley said there could be a countersuit in line for Smith and Stern.

"This could be the biggest slander libel suit of all time," Kelley said. "All of it could just be hearsay and I'm gonna bet $9 million that Smith hasn't yet gotten any order ordering her anywhere. It is ex parte and any lawyer practicing six months would say so."

Debra Opri, Birkhead's lawyer, issued a press release last week saying she has requested that California force Smith's return. The release states that "Anna Nicole Smith deliberately fled the state of California to cut off paternal rights to [Birkhead's] daughter" and "that legal and physical custody be awarded to Birkhead, pending the results of drug testing."