The body of Anna Nicole Smith was embalmed Saturday at the Broward County Medical Examiner's office, officials said.
Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin ruled on Friday the embalming could proceed, and although the move takes the former Playboy Playmate's body one step closer to burial, the fight over where she will be buried has only begun.
Smith's attorney and longtime partner, Howard K. Stern, says Smith wanted to be buried next to her son Daniel, who died in the Bahamas last year. But the reality TV star's estranged mother, Vergie Arthur, wants her buried in her native Texas. (Watch how the will gives Howard Stern legal clout )
Stern's attorneys say Smith bought a plot in the Bahamas, next to the plot where Daniel is buried. He died in September while visiting his mother, who had just had a baby.
Stern filed an emergency petition this week stating that, under Bahamian law, he should have custody of the body because he is the executor of her estate.
The executor is authorized to set up and oversee a trust on behalf of Smith's beneficiaries, and to make investments.
Stern and Smith's baby, 6-month-old Dannielynn, are in the Bahamas, where the child was born three days before Daniel's death.
Seidlin on Friday ordered Stern to appear at a Tuesday hearing to take up the burial issue. His lawyer, Krista Barth, argued unsuccessfully to have Stern appear by video phone from the Bahamas, where he is caring for Dannielynn.
A decision about releasing Smith's body for burial isn't likely until next week.
Meanwhile, a court-appointed administrator, Shane Kelley, was to interview the parties and recommend to the judge who should receive Smith's remains.
Seidlin also appointed a guardian, Miami attorney Richard Milstein, to protect Dannielynn's interests.
Smith died February 8 after collapsing at a Florida casino hotel. The cause of her death has not been determined. Seminole Indian Reservation police are still investigating. (Watch plans for Anna Nicole's burial dress come out in court )
In her will, which was made public by the Broward County court Friday, Smith left everything to her son Daniel and named Stern as executor. The document is dated July 30, 2001, more than five years before Daniel's death and Dannielynn's birth.
The 16-page will was never updated. The document is signed "Vickie Lynn Marshall," her legal name at the time. (Read the will -- pdf)
Further complicating the legal problems, some language in the will seems to exclude any of Smith's future spouses or children.
Yet in other sections, it refers to Smith's "children," instructing the executor, for example, to manage the estate "such that my children are distributed sufficient sums for their health, education and support."
The stakes are huge -- perhaps $88 million or more. Smith's heir or heirs stand to inherit a stake in her longstanding claim to the fortune of her late husband, Texas oil baron J. Howard Marshall II.
In a separate but related legal battle, Smith's former lover, Larry Birkhead, is seeking a paternity test to prove he is Dannielynn's father.
Birkhead and Stern each claim to be the girl's father. Stern's name is on the birth certificate. (Watch CNN's Jeff Toobin try to untangle the legal mess )
Two more men -- Smith's former bodyguard, Alexander Denk, and Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband Frederic von Anhalt -- have said they could be the fathers. Von Anhalt filed court papers seeking a paternity test on Thursday.
2007-02-20 11:17:42
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answer #1
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answered by eiplanner 3
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i think of Anna Nicole would be positioned to relax along with her son. As for the infant, i'm hoping it is not Howard ok. Stern's. the guy has stood via and allowed 2 human beings to die from drug overdosing. ok so we don't comprehend what precisely killed Anna Nicole whether it is been we do comprehend they discovered lines of Methadone in her equipment. i'm attentive to Methadone (I truthfully have severe persistent discomfort and that was the medicine I took for it) and that i comprehend how addicting and straightforward that's to overdose on those drugs (I in no way overdosed, however the pamphlet the pharmacist supplies tells you approximately it). i think of it would be unhappy in the event that they allowed Mr. Stern to enhance Anna's daughter as i've got not got self belief he's in high-quality condition to accomplish that. it is not perplexing to tell whilst human beings are severe on discomfort drugs; whether you're oblivous to it - for him to be so on the factor of Anna and her son & stand via without intervening says lots for his character. i in my view sense the infant could be raised via her kinfolk in Mexia and all and sundry could provide up waisting the courts time on paternity wholesome after paternity wholesome. whilst she turns 18 and needs to comprehend who her father is, then run the DNA - or run it now (if human beings are worried related to the father's death in the previous then or disappearing) and seal the outcomes; carry onto them till she is eighteen. the only human beings definitely attracted to who the father is, is the regularly occurring public, i will guarntee all and sundry else isn't in any such frenzy to ascertain yet extremely - curious (or they p.c. their hands on the little women money, if she has any to inherit from Anna - and that certainly would be unhappy). Mexia could be a small city, yet to allow the little lady enhance up out of the limelight is the final difficulty.
2016-10-02 05:44:34
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answer #2
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answered by whiteford 4
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it,s up to her family to decide this,as for the baby last that i heard the father wants her and is trying to get custody but i don,t think ana nicole family going to make it easy for him.yes i also feel bad for the baby having to loose a brother first then her mom,it is most certainly a bad deal.
2007-02-20 11:56:20
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answer #3
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answered by Baby Doll 3
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They should just throw her carcass into the ocean and watch the sharks rip it apart, and as for her kid, give it to her mother to take care of, then maybe it will grow up to be another Anna Nicole!
2007-02-21 04:45:07
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answer #4
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answered by Daniel-san 4
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I think the mom should decide where is place the body at peace.
2007-02-16 19:56:27
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answer #5
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answered by Anonymous
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i think its the best thing in the world for that baby. look what would of happened if shje hadnt of died. the baby would have grown up without her mother anyways. look where she was when she died. bahamas smith in florida. baby 5 months old.
2007-02-21 14:18:35
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answer #6
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answered by duc602 7
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