Feb 18, 2007 11:27 pm US/Eastern
Judge Wants Howard K. Stern In Court
(AP)
-
-
Anna Nicole Smith with Howard K. Stern in September 2006.
AP
A judge tried to broker an agreement Friday among the three people fighting over Anna Nicole Smith's remains on how and when to embalm the former Playboy Playmate's body.
Even if they settle that, as expected, lengthy legal fights loomed over where she will be buried and who will get custody of her infant daughter. The hearing over Smith's final resting place was already in its third day.
"I want every loose end tied up," Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin said. "I want peace and tranquility."
Friday's proceedings moved out of Seidlin's chambers and into a courtroom to accommodate the horde of media and attorneys.
On Thursday, Seidlin ordered that additional DNA be taken from Smith's body, saying he wanted to make sure her body wouldn't have to be exhumed.
"When we bury her, I want it to be forever," Seidlin said.
Seidlin warned attorneys he would schedule as many sessions as it takes to resolve the issue. He ordered Smith's longtime companion, Howard K. Stern, to appear in court Tuesday.
Stern, who isn't related to the radio host with a similar name, claims he is executor of her will and wants her buried next to her son in the Bahamas. Her estranged mother, Vergie Arthur, wants her buried in Smith's home state of Texas.
Photographer Larry Birkhead hopes DNA taken from Smith will help prove he fathered the former centerfold's 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn, who could inherit millions.
Smith, 39, died Feb. 8 after collapsing at a Florida hotel.
On Wednesday, Seidlin declared Smith's corpse would stay refrigerated in the medical examiner's office until he said otherwise.
In California, Prince Frederic von Anhalt, the husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, filed legal documents Thursday seeking a DNA test to determine if he fathered the baby. Von Anhalt, who says he is 59, has said he and Smith had a decade-long affair.
Also in California on Thursday, the state medical board said it is investigating a doctor who may have prescribed methadone to Smith through a prescription that contained an alias.
The Medical Board of California began looking at Dr. Sandeep Kapoor after receiving information about possible misconduct, board spokeswoman Candis Cohen said. Cohen declined to give details on the allegation or its source but said it was connected to Smith.
Among other things, the board is investigating whether it is legal to prescribe drugs for someone using an alias, Cohen said. She described the review as routine and said the board is obligated to review all allegations of physician misconduct.
A woman who answered the telephone at a listing for Kapoor in Los Angeles hung up when The Associated Press called Thursday.
Smith was the widow of Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, whom she married in 1994 when he was 89 and she was 26. She had been fighting his family over his fortune since his death in 1995.
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
Click to enlarge
CBS 2 Preview: Back From The Dead 
2 Indicted On Weapons Charges In Undercover Sting 8 mins ago
Stumble It!
Comments