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New Suits Being Filed as Anna Nicole Circus Packs its Tents for Bahamas

February 23, 2007

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The fairly riveting sideshow is over now that Judge Seidlin tearfully declared Anna Nicole’s body would be shipped to the Bahamas and laid to rest beside her son Daniel. Center ring action is about to begin despite the warring parties’ proverbial group hug on the courthouse steps.

Within minutes of the Smith’s mother Virgie Arthur, companion Howard K. Stern and ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead saying they had all gotten together for the good of Anna Nicole, their lawyers were sharpening their knives for fresh kill.

The fate of five-month-old Dannielynn is now in full play with millions at stake, whether she inherits the fortune of billionaire Howard Marshall or not.

Attorneys for Birkhead immediately filed emergency papers in the Bahamas, and prepared for a court appearance there on Monday where they will “ask for immediate custody and the DNA determination so that the biological parents can take custody of Dannielynn,” said Birkhead’s lawyer.

Even prior to that, they will ask a Florida Family Court judge today to either order that a sample of Dannielynn’s DNA be collected in the Bahamas, or require the girl be brought to Florida for testing. His sister Judy Birkhead said he would fight for custody “to the bitter end.”

Anna Nicole’s mother almost immediately said she would appeal Judge Siedlen’s decision to allow Richard Milstein, the court-appointed lawyer for Dannielynn, to take the body to the Bahamas on the baby’s behalf.

“She was very hurt by the ruling, but she is not going to delay this funeral,” said her attorney Tom Perlte. “Clearly Mr. Stern did not have a right to the body, he was not her husband, Mr. Birkhead didn’t have a right.”

Then there is the matter of the Bahamas trial, which adds new players to the table, G. Ben Thompson, who apparently owns the old Smith house that Stern and Dannielynn are living in. His attorney Godfrey Pinder said “Howard Stern has no right to live there. Anna Nicole never gave any money to live there. I gave her a legal notice and she tore it up in rage. So she basically had no right to live there and neither does Stern.”

Which CNN said meant Dannielynn could become a ward of the Bahamas.

If the baby went with Stern, his transient status could add to a challenge of his fitness to be a father, which is already going to be challenged on matters of drugs and money.

Furthermore, there are parties in the Bahamas who don’t want any of them, even Anna Nicole’s hotly-contested corpse. "She died outside of our country and I don't see any good reason for her to return to my country," said Hubert Ingraham, leader of the Free National Movement.

The opposition party says the country has been embarrassed by Smith's relationship with former Immigration Minister Shane Gibson, who fast-tracked her application for permanent residency. Gibson resigned on Sunday after a newspaper published photographs of him embracing Smith on a bed.

Photographs of Anna Nicole’s implied sexual romps with others in the periphery of the case may hurt them as well. The doctor who prescribed her methadone, Sandkeep Kapoor, was taped shirtless kissing her. – which does not bode well for his chances in the upcoming misconduct inquiry by the California Medical Board.

One question is who will get the million-dollar bounty mentioned in court that “Entertainment Tonight” and perhaps others might pay for exclusive video rights to the funeral?

Though its first port is only 40 miles from Miami, the Bahamas is a world away in terms of legal proceedings, which are based on Old English law. The platoon of lawyers we saw on TV all week are likely to find Bahaman court very different than anything they’ve ever seen in U.S. courts or in freewheeling Judge Seidlin’s court, though that was very different than anything ever seen in U.S. courts as well.

There will be old faces at the Lakeview Memorial Gardens in Nassau for the funeral, which could be as early as Monday as the corpse is rapidly decaying. Besides the attorneys, fans and hundreds in the press corps we will see Broward County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Joshua Perper, who for some odd reason will accompany the body to the to the Bahamas along with guardian Milstein.   

 “Enough baloney here. The parties should submit to a DNA and find out who the father is,” Seidlin said in his sometimes rambling, though emotional discourse. “We cried for her, we had a service here for her here today, and all the other days.”

 “This is a private family matter now” Stern’s lawyer repeatedly told the hundreds of media members outside the courthouse. “You guys can go home.” 

Ha.

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