Anna Nicole Smith Fighting Paternity Suit, Now Eviction

Oct. 24, 2006 — -- You just can't make this stuff up.

Anna Nicole Smith, already under heavy fire from a Los Angeles lawyer representing her ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead, who is demanding a paternity test to prove he fathered the former Playboy pinup's new baby, is now reportedly being evicted from her home in the Bahamas.

The situation is significant because it could potentially threaten her Bahamian permanent resident status.

Home ownership is reportedly a requirement of her current status on the island nation, and could become a cornerstone of her paternity battle defense.

Bahamian legal experts have told ABC News that it's far more difficult to compel a paternity test with a child who was born in the Bahamas than it is in the United States.

Birkhead has alleged that Smith and her personal attorney, Howard K. Stern, who also says he is the newborn's father, moved to the Bahamas at least in part to place the child outside the reach of the U.S. court system.

In the same hospital room where the ex-model gave birth to her new daughter, her 20-year-old son, Daniel, died Sept. 10 from a combination of methadone and two antidepressants.

Autopsy results showed the young man had ingested methadone, Zoloft and Lexapro, which had a lethal "cumulative effect on the central nervous system," according to Cyril Wecht, a U.S. pathologist who conducted a private autopsy.

On Friday, the day after Daniel's funeral, Smith was reportedly handed an eviction, and ordered off the property by Oct. 31.

The letter was delivered at the behest of South Carolina developer G. Ben Thompson, who told People magazine he had purchased the house in August as a favor to Smith, whom he apparently met through neighbors in 2005.

Thompson told the magazine that Smith was supposed to sign a mortgage and buy the home from him. He said that she alleged the house was a "gift."

"I never said that," Thompson told People. "I don't have that kind of money."

He went on to say that he didn't want to "embarrass her or humiliate Anna."

"I just need my money, or collateral, back," he said.

Ron Rale, who is representing Smith in the paternity suit, would not confirm or deny receipt of the eviction letter to People Magazine.

"If that's the case, it's amazing the sequence of events that poor Anna Nicole has had to endure, the one bright light being [baby] Dannielynn," he said.

Neither Smith nor her attorneys could be immediately reached for confirmation.

Trouble seems to stalk her at every turn.

On Monday, Smith declined to show up for a meeting in the Bahamas with Birkhead's attorney, prompting the Los Angeles lawyer to issue an aggressive, rhyming news release imploring Smith to allow a paternity test.

"Put this to rest and allow the test," reads the release from Debra Opri.

In the release, Opri cautions Smith that Birkhead's earlier offer to settle the paternity question in private is "now off the table" and says that Smith sold photos of her baby daughter to tabloid publications.

"This is a shameless, despicable act," Opri writes.

Birkhead has alleged that Smith told him during her pregnancy that he was the father, then moved to the Bahamas with Stern, her lawyer and companion, to avoid a paternity fight.

Just weeks after her son died, Smith and Stern surprised everyone when they announced they'd "married" in an exchange of vows that one of Smith's lawyers later clarified as not legally binding.

One former Smith attorney, Michael Scott, said at the time that the ceremony was "to reaffirm a commitment they have made to each other."

"It was also to give them a shot of emotional adrenaline," he said to ABC News.

Birkhead, a photographer, recently filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles in an effort to legally compel Smith to return the child to California and submit to a paternity test. Smith's attorneys have countered that the California court does not have the proper jurisdiction.

Smith has obtained permanent resident status in the Bahamas, where she gave birth to the baby last month.

In response to the news release, Stern told ABC News on Monday that "Ms. Opri might be better served spending a few minutes in front of a legal book instead of calling for press conferences and spouting off to the media."

He called the news release a "publicity stunt" and challenged the jurisdiction of the California court.

Apparently in response to allegations that photos of the baby were sold for profit, Stern said that he would "love to know how much money Larry Birkhead had made licensing photos of Anna Nicole since the death of her son, Daniel."

In the latest twist to Smith's ongoing saga, the celebrity Web site TMZ.com reported on Monday that a third potential father to Smith's baby had emerged, however briefly.

Last May, a pregnant Smith approached Thompson -- the man reportedly now seeking to evict her -- to inform him that he was the father of her unborn child.

Thompson reportedly balked, telling Smith that was impossible because he had a vasectomy.

Days later, TMZ.com said, Smith "confessed" to Thompson that the baby's real father was Birkhead.