Anna Nicole Smith Death opens huge can of wormsÂ
A California judge on Friday refused to order an emergency DNA test on the remains of former Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith but ordered her body preserved until a February 20 hearing in the paternity case surrounding her baby.
The ruling was issued as a Florida medical examiner was performing an autopsy on the body of the billionaire’s widow, whose sudden death on Thursday in Hollywood, Florida, at age 39 left myriad questions about her tumultuous last months and the future of her 5-month-old daughter.
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Smith’s ex-boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, sought the emergency order as part of his attempt to prove that he is the father of Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern. Smith’s lawyer and companion, Howard K. Stern, has said he is the father.
Birkhead’s attorney said the DNA test on Smith was necessary to prevent a “bait and switch” and ensure that the baby who is eventually tested in the paternity case is Smith’s.
The Broward County medical examiner was expected to hold a news conference on Friday afternoon after examining the body of Smith, a former exotic dancer whose flamboyant life was constant fodder for the tabloid press.
Her estranged mother, Virgie Arthur, suggested on the ABC program “Good Morning America,” that drugs had played a role in the death of her daughter, who often appeared to be intoxicated in public appearances.
“I think she had too many drugs, just like (her late son) Danny. And I tried to warn her about the drugs and the people she hung around. She didn’t listen,” Arthur said. “She was too drugged up. The last interview I saw of her, she was so wasted.”
WCBS television reported that investigators found illegal narcotics and prescription medications in her hotel room.
Her lawyer said that at the time of her death, Smith was still grieving for her 20-year-old son, Daniel, who died from a possible drug overdose in his mother’s hospital room in the Bahamas just three days after her daughter’s birth.
Smith, a voluptuous platinum blonde who idolized and emulated screen legend Marilyn Monroe, gained fame as Playboy magazine’s Playmate of the Year in 1993 and as a model for Guess? jeans.
She starred in her own short-lived reality television show and had film roles in “The Hudsucker Proxy” and “Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult.”
In 1994, she married oil billionaire J. Howard Marshall, when she was 26 and he was 89. Marshall, who was worth $1.6 billion, died 14 months later and Smith spent much of the following decade battling his family over the estate. Marshall’s family called her a gold digger.
But the tangled legal fight is unresolved. A California court awarded her $474 million but another court cut the award to $88 million and an appeals court then ruled she was entitled to nothing. The U.S. Supreme Court last May overturned that ruling and gave Smith another chance to pursue Marshall’s fortune.
Smith, who was born Vickie Lynn Hogan, was dogged by talk of addiction to drugs, including prescription painkillers, that was fueled by her slurred words and unusual behavior at awards shows and other public events.
Smith’s final months were filled with turmoil. Her son died under what Bahamian authorities said were suspicious circumstances. A pathologist hired by the model said her son apparently died from a drug overdose.
Broward medical examiner Dr. Joshua Perper said on Thursday Smith’s autopsy could provide answers to her death quickly.
“It depends on the findings. Sometimes the findings are very obvious at the time when the autopsy is done, sometimes the findings are more subtle and require microscopic and technical examination,” he said.
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1 response so far ↓
1 paribanou // Feb 27, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Why don’t they toss her in with James Brown and end all of this trailer trash drama? I’m sure he wouldn’t mind waking up in jeaven with Anna Nicole beside him.
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