FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Controversy Doesn’t End with her Death – Anna Nicole Twists: Paternity Battle Heats up Today Over “Billion-Dollar Babyâ€
Stern, present at son’s death, also on scene when paramedics arrived for Smith; methadone may be a factor in both cases
HOLLYWOOD, CA, (rushprnews) 02/09/2007 — Anna Nicole Smith seems as likely to remain tabloid fodder in death as she was in life. To begin with, her mysterious death in a Hollywood, Florida hotel has already sparked legal action from one of two men claiming to be father of six-month-old Dannielynn — who may be a billion-dollar baby, depending on inheritance battles also playing out in court.
Both Smith’s unofficial husband, attorney Howard K. Stern, and ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead, an entertainment writer, have claimed to be the father of the girl. A judge in Los Angeles ruled yesterday that Smith and her daughter must undergo genetic paternity testing by February 21 or appear before him to explain the delay.
Police investigators found illegal narcotics and prescription medications while searching her room late Thursday afternoon, according to WCBS-TV of New York.
Which sparked Birkhead’s lawyer Debra Opri to demand a DNA sample is taken from Smith’s corpse, which in turn caused Smith’s attorney to go ballistic.
Stern was with Smith’s son Daniel when he died from drug-related causes in Smith’s hospital room on Sept. 10, three days after she gave birth to her daughter. He was accused by Smith’s mother of supplying drugs to Daniel and went on Larry King’s show on CNN, vehemently denying he did so.
Questions are likely to be asked of him again as he was on the scene when paramedics arrived to try and revive Smith,39, according to Captain Dan Fitzgerald of Hollywood Fire and Rescue. He supplied Smith’s medical history to paramedics as they desperately worked to save her.
In addition, methdone, a potentially fatal synthetic narcotic often used to get junkies off heroin, may be a factor in both cases. A medical expert hired by the family said it was present in Daniel’s bloodstream and interacted with other drugs to cause his death.
Birkhead’s paternity suit claimed Smith was on methadone when pregnant with Dannielynn. Another Smith lawyer, this one her former attorney in the Bahamas, told the media yesterday drugs were again to blame. “Undoubtedly it will be found at the end of the day that drugs featured in her death as they did in the death of poor Daniel,” said Michael Scott.
Read the rest of this article by Jeffrey Jolson in Hollywood Today (www.hollywoodtoday.com).
Permission to reprint GRANTED providing Hollywood Today is credited and link www.hollywoodtoday.net used when appropriate.
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