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.

The court secretly arranged for a viewing of Smith's remains for Arthur, Stern and Birkhead during today's midday break. Several media organizations followed on the ground and in the air to capture footage of the parties leaving the medical examiner's office.

The key to Seidlin's decision regarding the custody of Smith's remains is the late Playboy centerfold's expressed wishes. Today there was more contentious testimony about what Smith's wishes were and whether drug use clouded her statements.

A Mother's Remembrance

Arthur described Smith as a carefree child. "When she was young she was sweet, she was funny?She was giving, she was loving she was a good child."

But according to Arthur, her relationship with her daughter grew strained when Stern entered her life. "It was when she met Howard Stern that I started not being able to get a hold of her or being able to talk to her."

Yesterday Stern's attorney played a videotaped interview that Smith and Stern gave to "Entertainment Tonight." In the interview, Smith expressed anger toward her mother, saying she would never allow her to touch her new daughter, Dannielynn. Today, Arthur said Smith's statements were influenced by drugs and by Stern. "I love my daughter very much, she knew that I loved her and I know that she loved me."

Smith's former boyfriend Larry Birkhead had his first opportunity to testify today. He is contesting Stern for rightful paternity of Dannielynn. Birkhead claimed Smith and Stern never had an intimate relationship. He said, "She depended on Stern a lot for advice personal and professional matters

Birkhead also claimed that Smith had previously miscarried his child. When Smith told him she was expecting another child, Birkhead told the court he asked her who the father was. "We were trying to figure out whether me or South Carolina [referring to a man Smith had met in South Carolina]," he told the court. Birkhead said Smith then "smacked me and said, 'I'm not a whore, dummy.'"

Arthur and Stern traded accusations that each was attempting to profit from Smith's death. Stern also took the stand to answer extensive questions about Smith's drug use. He told the court he did not believe drugs affected her statements.