The late Anna Nicole Smith has the right to rest in "peace and tranquility," a judge says, but the question over her burial is far from settled. The long-distance battles over what to do with Smith's body — and the paternity of her infant daughter — were taking place Tuesday in courtrooms in Florida and California. Smith's estranged mother, Virgie Arthur, and boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, were set to square off here. Lawyers for Stern were also set to argue in Los Angeles with those for Smith's ex-companion over who is the father of her infant daughter, Dannielynn. No immediate ruling on the burial question was expected from Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin. Without written proof of Smith's own wishes, Seidlin will be forced to hear testimony from those who claim to know what Smith wanted. Stern's expected court appearance in Florida came after Stephen Tunstall, the attorney representing Arthur, pushed for it Friday. Stern's attorneys resisted, but Seidlin ordered him to court. "I want him here," Tunstall said. "There is no reason why he can't be here." Stern wants Smith buried in the Bahamas in a plot that was purchased next to her son, Daniel, who died in September. Arthur wants her brought home to her native Texas. The mother has a perhaps unlikely ally in Larry Birkhead. A bodyguard, doctor, neighbor and friend all have submitted affidavits claiming Smith told them she wanted to be buried next to her son. Arthur insists, despite her estrangement, she has the right to bury her own daughter, not a man to whom Smith wasn't even married. "Since the dawn of civilization, the next of kin has been given the rights and responsibility of their dead," Tunstall said.
AP (story) and ET (photo)
I hope that the Judge in LA finally forces Dannielynn to get the DNA tests she so desperately needs. Now when it comes to Stern's supporters, is the bodyguard who claimed to be Dannielynn's father and that is the doctor who gave her methadone when she was pregnant? Just asking?
