MORE PICTURES & Updated Stories: STOLEN Photos: ANNA Nicole SMITH in BED with BAHAMAS Minister; PARAMEDICS Failed to REVIVE her with Drugs;
Domain name thestoryofannanicolesmith.com sold for $3,500
UPDATE: 14th Feb 2007Asked by a local TV station whether his friendship with Smith helped speed her application through the approval process,
Gibson replied: "Absolutely not." The interview was broadcast late Monday. Smith's death opened up a three-way paternity dispute over her 5-month-old daughter and questions of who owns the waterfront mansion she claimed she had received as a gift from a developer from South Carolina. An inquest into the death of her 20-year-old son Daniel is also pending. He died while visiting his mother and newborn half-sister in a Bahamas hospital in September. A private pathologist has said methadone contributed to Daniel Smith's death. Gibson said he and his family became especially close to Smith after her son died. "Whenever a stranger is in need I find it very difficult to turn my back," he said. Opposition leader Hubert Ingraham called Monday for police to investigate Gibson's role in the granting of residency to Smith. Cassius Stuart, leader of the Bahamas Democratic Movement, said Gibson has "shamed" the Bahamas and called for him to resign. The Bahamas granted permanent residency to Smith based on her claim of ownership of the $900,000 house. Smith claimed the developer G. Ben Thompson, a former boyfriend, had given it to her as a gift. But Thompson says it belongs to him because he had loaned Smith money to buy it and she had not paid the debt. On Monday, Ford Shelley, Thompson's son-in-law, said he found methadone in Smith's bedroom refrigerator when he went to secure the disputed Bahamas mansion after she died. Stern has since reclaimed the mansion and is staying there with Smith's baby, Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern. Stern is listed on a birth certificate as Dannielynn's father.
Two other men have challenged the paternity claim.
A former boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, has filed a lawsuit claiming he is the father. Prince Frederic von Anhalt, the husband of the actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, has said he had a decade-long affair with Smith and may be the father. He said Monday he plans to file a paternity challenge in court and wants a DNA test.
Since the death in 1995 of her 90-year-old husband, Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, Smith had been waging a court battle over his estate.
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ANNA in bed with Bahamian Immigration Minister
A newspaper published two photographs on its front page Monday showing Anna Nicole Smith lying in bed fully clothed in a romantic embrace with the Bahamian immigration minister, who approved her application for permanent residency.
Immigration Minister Shane Gibson has come under criticism from the political opposition for giving the former Playboy Playmate special treatment in granting Smith residency in the Bahamas last year. Smith died Thursday in Florida.
The residency application was based on Smith's purported ownership of a waterfront mansion. But G. Ben Thompson, a South Carolina developer who once dated Smith, has said he had not given Smith the house as a gift as her lawyers have asserted. Thompson is attempting to reclaim the house. A representative of Anna Nicole Smith's companion, Howard K. Stern, scrambled on Monday to control dissemination of items he said were stolen from the mansion over the weekend before he returned from Florida, including images from a computer taken from the house. Ron Rale, Stern's spokesman, said in a statement Monday that anyone who disseminates any of the items without his prior written consent "will be held liable to the fullest extent of the law." Rale said police have recovered all the missing property.
ABOVE & BELOW: These two stolen photos published embarassed the Immigration minister for helping Anna to obtain PR in the Bahamas
Two photographs published on the front page of The Tribune of Nassau show Smith and Gibson looking into each other's eyes with their faces only a couple inches apart while lying on a bed decorated with pink flowers and a white ribbon. The newspaper said the photographs were taken in Smith's bedroom and that it obtained the pictures Sunday from an unidentified source. Opposition leader Hubert Ingraham said he was looking into the matter. "I'm making some inquiries," Ingraham told The Associated Press. All of Smith's personal items, including the birth certificate of her 5-month-old daughter, whose paternity is being disputed by three men, had been taken from the house, Rale said. Stern over the weekend reclaimed the Bahamas mansion along with 5-month-old Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern. They had lived in the gated waterfront estate, known as "Horizons," before Smith died last week. Stern said he is trying to keep Smith's mother, Vergie Arthur, who traveled from the United States and went to the gates of the mansion on Sunday, from seeing Dannielynn. "She just despised that woman," Stern told "Entertainment Tonight." "As long as I have one breath left in my body that woman will not see Dannielynn," he added. Arthur told ABC's "Good Morning America" that she fears for Dannielynn's safety, pointing out that Stern has been present when Smith's 20-year-old son, Daniel Smith, died under mysterious circumstances in a Bahamas hospital room while visiting his mother days after Dannielynn was born. A coroner hired by Smith's family said Daniel died in September from a lethal combination of drugs, including methadone. An inquest into his death is scheduled to begin March 27. "I do have a problem with her being with Howard Stern," Arthur said. "I had a daughter and I had a grandson. He was there when both of them died. Now I only have a granddaughter left, and now he has her, and I'm afraid for her." Stern is listed on a birth certificate as Dannielynn's father. But two other men have challenged the claim.
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Bahamian Minister Responds Over Anna Nicole Pics
NASSAU, Bahamas (February 13, 2007) -- The Bahamas immigration minister denied that his friendship with Anna Nicole Smith influenced his decision to grant her permanent residency after a newspaper ran photos of him in bed with the former Playboy Playmate. The front-page pictures on Monday showed Smith and Immigration Minister Shane Gibson, both fully clothed, embracing on a bed decorated with pink flowers and a white ribbon. In one of the photos, they look into each other's eyes, their faces only a couple of inches apart. The 39-year-old Smith had been living in the Bahamas before she died Thursday in Florida. Her claim to an island mansion, which is now in dispute, was the basis for her residency application. Gibson, an elected member of Parliament from the ruling Progressive Liberal Party, has already been accused of showing Smith referential treatment by fast-tracking her residency application last year and the photos revived the scandal, with some demanding he resign.
ABOVE: The Bahamas Immigration Minister Shane Gibson vehemently denied he helped her excessively to obtain PR Status
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Stern's sister says he last saw Anna Nicole Smith asleep
By LINDA DEUTSCH; Associated Press; Posted February 13 2007, 9:06 AM EST
LOS ANGELES -- Anna Nicole Smith's partner, Howard K. Stern, was not with the former Playboy playmate when she died, but he knew she was very sick, his sister says. Stern had told his sister that Smith was running a fever of 105 degrees shortly before her death on Thursday, and that a nurse was ``icing her down'' earlier that day at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood. ``When he left her, she was sleeping,'' Bonnie Stern said. He had been gone only about two hours when news reached him that Smith was dead, she said. A private nurse had called 911 after finding the former model unresponsive. Bonnie Stern, who recently traveled from her Beverly Hills home to the Bahamas to comfort her brother, said that he had tried to get Smith to visit a doctor but Smith had refused because she was afraid that it would draw publicity.
``They had plans to get a yacht and to buy an engagement ring. They were going to get married Feb. 27. It was going to be a real marriage,'' she said. Asked what she thought caused Smith's death, Bonnie Stern said: ``Her immunity was so low. She was so depressed. She kept getting sick and her body just probably broke down.'' Smith had never recovered from the loss of her 20-year-old son, Daniel, who died in the Bahamas in September while visiting his mother and newborn half-sister at a hospital, friends said. She had also spent a decade battling in court over the estate of her late husband, the 90-year-old Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II. Alex Goen, the founder and CEO of TrimSpa, knew Smith well from working with her as a company spokes model and said she suffered from social anxiety, as well, even after years in the celebrity spotlight. ``She was clearly incredibly misunderstood,'' Goen told CBS's ``The Early Show'' on Tuesday. Smith had met Stern in 1996 when she was referred to his law firm, Bonnie Stern said. ``He started doing her legal work and then he became her confidant. They became best friends and then he fell in love with her,'' she said. Stern, 38, is listed on a birth certificate as the father of Smith's baby girl. He said in an interview with ``Entertainment Tonight'' that he is the executor of a will drafted for Smith that will leave everything to the little girl, Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern. Another man, Larry Birkhead, also claims to be the father, and actress Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband, Prince Frederic von Anhalt, recently said he had a decade-long affair with Smith and might be the baby's father. Von Anhalt said Monday that he plans to file a paternity challenge in court and wants a DNA test.
ABOVE: Who is the father of this Child, Dannielynn?. The courts would decide after DNA tests.
Birkhead told New York's Daily News that he and Smith had meticulously planned for the birth of the child, but that after they broke up he was pushed to the side. ``Howard has never liked me and he never wanted me and Anna to be together,'' Birkhead, 34, told the Daily News in Tuesday's editions. ``After she got pregnant, things went quickly downhill because of his difference of opinion on several matters.'' Birkhead recounted how he had tried to save Smith from her risky lifestyle. He said Smith left him because of his attempts to intervene. The couple split early last summer. ``I watched over her to make sure she was safe, and once I was basically pushed to the side,'' he said, ``I had no control over what she did or anyone else around her did.'' Bonnie Stern said ``there were times of some intimacy'' between Birkhead and Smith, but said, ``Larry Birkhead was not her boyfriend.''
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911 tape reveals little about Anna Nicole Smith's death;
Associated Press; Posted February 13 2007, 5:17 PM EST;
BULLETIN: Larry Burkett filed a request today for a judge to preserve Anna Nicole Smith's remains.
HOLLYWOOD -- Anna Nicole Smith was unresponsive and not breathing when an Indian tribe's police department requested help from paramedics, according to a tape released Tuesday.
ABOVE: The hospital she was sent to; BELOW: The Body wheeled into the hospital. Paramedics pumped in drugs but failed to revive her heart
In the 31-second call, the Seminole tribal police department asked Hollywood paramedics for help in assisting Smith, who was found unconscious in her room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on the tribe's reservation.
``She's not breathing, and she's not responsive. She's, um, actually Anna Nicole Smith,'' the woman from the Seminole Police is heard saying in asking for help in Room 607. ``Uh huh,'' a woman at Hollywood Fire Rescue responds.
``If you guys can please,'' the dispatcher said. ``Oh, OK,'' a woman at the Hollywood Police Department responds. Officials say they were on the scene six minutes after the call. Smith, a former Playboy playmate, model and reality TV character, was pronounced dead about an hour later at a hospital. Hollywood Police Capt. Tony Rode, who played the tape for the media, referred all questions to the Seminole Police Department, which did not immediately respond to a call for comment Tuesday. ``This investigation belongs to the Seminole Police Department,'' Rode said. ``You are looking at the extent of our role.'' The initial emergency call to the Seminole Police was not released; the Seminoles are a sovereign Indian nation and not subject to state open government laws.
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Zsa Zsa's husband to file claim for baby
Associated Press; Posted February 12 2007, 4:55 PM EST
LOS ANGELES -- Prince Frederic von Anhalt said Monday he plans to file a paternity challenge to gain custody of Anna Nicole Smith's infant daughter, even if it costs him his marriage to Zsa Zsa Gabor. ``If the court rules in my favor, I will go to the Bahamas and pick up the child,'' he said, noting that he would ask for a DNA test. Smith's companion Howard K. Stern and her former boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, also have claimed paternity of 5-month-old Dannielynn. The baby stands to potentially inherit a fortune from Smith's late husband, oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II. Von Anhalt, 59, and Gabor, 90, have been married for more than 20 years. The news of her husband's alleged affair has deeply upset Gabor, according to von Anhalt. ``She says, of course, 'If you bring a baby home then it's over,' '' he said. ``If my wife wants to divorce me then it's up to her.''
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Anna Nicole Smith memorabilia is big business on eBay By Marlene Naanes; South Florida Sun-Sentinel; Posted February 12 2007
After the news of Anna Nicole Smith's death broke Thursday, people weren't asking only about how she died. They also were asking how much she's worth -- and not just based on wills and legal claims. They were looking to sell anything and everything Anna Nicole, from Playboy centerfolds to autographed panties to bobblehead dolls from her stint as an E! network reality television star. Slews of online eBay listings followed. And so did the sales. A top seller, the domain thestoryofannanicolesmith.com, was listed just after the clock struck midnight the day of her death and sold for $3,500 just before 4:30 p.m. Friday. A phone line at a St. Petersburg store that helps people list on eBay was flooded with questions about how much copies of a 1993 Playboy magazine featuring the voluptuous centerfold were going for. "It was kind of a mad rush," said Lori Lombardi, manager of iSold it on eBay.
"I thought it was sudden, but that's just my opinion as a person, not as manager." The onslaught of sellers and buyers after Smith's death is not surprising, says economist Victor Matheson. The professor at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., has studied the effect the death of a baseball icon has on the price of his trading card. Short-lived spikes in the card's worth ensued after the death of greats such as Joe DiMaggio. Within a year, the price was back to what it was when the slugger was alive. The reason for an increase in sales prices isn't that people are worried about the limited stock of memorabilia or that they are looking for investment opportunities, he said. "It's the nostalgia associated with this, all the news associated with the death," Matheson said.
In Matheson's research, the bigger the star, the bigger the spike in memorabilia prices. As for Smith, how big the spike will be and how long it may last are undetermined for now. "I don't want to disparage Anna Nicole Smith, but there's some question down the line if she is going to be one of the most popular icons," he said. "Will someone know Anna Nicole Smith in a year? It's not clear at all to me that they will."
A comparison of some items listed on eBay before and after her death showed a definite spike. An 8-by-10, signed, seminude photo with a certificate of authenticity sold for less than $2 on Feb. 1. On Sunday, autographed prints of the same authenticated picture locked in bids upward of $50, and one print sold for more than $300 on the day of her death. A seller trying to hawk a bobble head version of Smith couldn't sell the doll in January. But hours after Smith was found dead, a buyer quickly snapped up one doll for $14.99, and hours later a case of 48 fetched more than $300, according to eBay's listings. Part-time eBay seller Stephanie Perry, of Missouri, sells magazine clippings of celebrities and said she once thought, what if one died? Would she make more money, faster?
Smith's death was the first time Perry was able to answer that question. She had posted Guess Magazine ads featuring Smith more than a year ago and twice failed to sell them. This time, two days after Smith's death, Perry made $19.99 off ads listed for just 24 hours. She has another bid for $20.50 listed for similar clippings.” It’s morbid, and I definitely feel bad about it, but I put them on as soon as I could," Perry said. "Everything with Marilyn Monroe is still very profitable. I don't know if Anna will be for long." Staff Researcher Jeremy Milarsky contributed to this report.
Marlene Naanes can be reached at mnaanes@hotmail.com or 954-385-7922.
UPDATE: 12th Feb 2007Anna Nicole Smith's companion, daughter staying at disputed Bahamas mansion By Jessica Robertson; ASSOCIATED PRESS; 1:22 p.m. February 11, 2007
NASSAU, Bahamas – Anna Nicole Smith's 5-month-old daughter and the baby's purported father have reclaimed the Bahamas mansion where they lived before the former Playboy Playmate died last week, her lawyer said.
Not only is the paternity of Smith's baby – who stands to inherit a fortune from Smith's late husband – in dispute, but so is the Bahamas mansion where Smith had been living. Smith, who died in Florida on Thursday, had claimed that a U.S. developer and former boyfriend, G. Ben Thompson, gave her the house. But Thompson said he had only loaned it to Smith – and during the weekend had the locks changed. Smith's lawyer and companion, Howard K. Stern – one of three men who claims to be the baby's father – had the locks changed again and on Sunday was once again at the gated waterfront estate, known as “Horizons.”
The baby girl, Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern, was also there, attorney Wayne Munroe told The Associated Press. An AP Television News reporter also saw Smith's mother, Vergie Arthur, enter the white house. Munroe said he has filed a robbery complaint with police over computer equipment, drawings and paintings allegedly taken from the home, and authorities interviewed the housekeeper. Police said Sunday they are investigating. Munroe said the house now belongs to Stern, Smith's companion.
“Right now, Howard is very happy to be reunited with Dannielynn but extremely angry that somebody had the gall to break into Anna's residence,” Stern's spokesman, Ron Rale, said Sunday by telephone from Los Angeles.
Smith's ownership of the mansion was the basis of her claim to residency in the Bahamas. In a lawsuit, Smith asked a court to recognize her as the owner and reject Thompson's claim on the house in the exclusive neighborhood. The island chain's Supreme Court has scheduled a Feb. 26 hearing on the matter, Munroe said. Munroe said Smith's will would be admitted to probate – under which the will is officially proved as authentic or valid – in the Bahamas and that the process can take from one year to 18 months. He said he has not been advised of funeral plans, but that he expected Smith would be buried in the Bahamas alongside Daniel Smith, her 20-year-old son who died here in September.
Who will get custody of the baby girl was not clear. Munroe said Stern, who is listed on a birth certificate as Dannielynn's father, was due custody. But two other men have challenged for paternity. A former boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, has filed a lawsuit claiming he is the father. On
ABOVE; ANNA NICOLE SMITH and her daugther Dannielynn and BELOW: Who is the father?. Three contenders: L to R; Larry Birkhead, Howard K Stern and Prince Frederick von Anhalt. Marshall her 90 year old husband could be the father; as she had his sperm frozen before he died in 1995
Friday, Prince Frederic von Anhalt, the husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, announced that he had a decade-long affair with Smith and he may be the girl's father. The New York Daily News also reported Saturday that a manuscript it obtained by Smith's half-sister, Donna Hogan, says Smith froze the sperm of her late 90-year-old husband, Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, before his death and may have used it to become pregnant. Since Marshall's death in 1995, Smith had been waging a court battle at her death over his estate. A federal court in California awarded Smith $474 million, but that was later overturned. But in May, the U.S. Supreme Court revived her case, ruling that she deserved another day in court. Experts say the decision of who receives custody could determine the child's inheritance.
Smith gave birth to Dannielynn on Sept. 7 in a Nassau hospital. Three days later, Daniel Smith, died while visiting her in the hospital. A medical examiner hired by the family concluded that he died from an accidental combination of methadone and antidepressants, but results of an official autopsy have not been released. An inquest into his death is scheduled to begin March 27. Smith's mother, Arthur, arrived Friday in Nassau to check on her granddaughter, said Reginald Ferguson, assistant commissioner for the Royal Bahamas Police Force.
ABOVE: Smith's mother believes her daughter died from a drug overdose
Arthur, who was reportedly staying in a resort in Nassau's famed Cable Beach, told ABC's “Good Morning America” that she believes her daughter died from a drug overdose. Ned Bruck, general manager of Reel Deal Yachts in Miami Beach, Fla., said Smith and Stern came to south Florida to take delivery of a 40-foot yacht they had named “Cracker.” Stern was on the boat when he received a call that something had happened to Smith, Bruck said. “He said 'I've got to go,'” Bruck said. “There was a horrible look on his face.” Stern later made arrangements to have a captain take the boat to the Bahamas.
Associated Press writers Adrian Sainz in Miami and Jason Bronis in Miami Beach, Fla., contributed to this report.
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Zsa Zsa's husband: I might be baby's dad;
By NOAKI SCHWARTZ, Associated Press Writer Fri Feb 9, 3:22 PM ET
LOS ANGELES - The husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor said Friday that he had a decade-long affair with Anna Nicole Smith and may be her infant daughter's father. The claim by Prince Frederick von Anhalt comes amid a paternity suit over Smith's 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn. The birth certificate lists Dannielynn's father as attorney Howard K. Stern, but former Smith boyfriend Larry Birkhead is waging a legal challenge, saying he is the father. "If you go back from September, she wasn't with one of those guys, she was with me," von Anhalt told The Associated Press in an interview Friday.
He said he would file a lawsuit if Dannielynn is turned over to Stern or Birkhead Von Anhalt, 59, and Gabor, 90, have been married for more than 20 years. Gabor, a onetime sex symbol and star of such 1950s films as "Moulin Rouge" and "Queen of Outer Space," has been in declining health in recent years and suffered a stroke in 2005. She was partially paralyzed in a car crash in 2002.
Von Anhalt, who is Gabor's eighth husband, said he and Smith met in the 1990s when Smith was still married to elderly oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II. He said Smith approached him and Gabor at the Plaza Hotel in New York. "She was a very big fan of Zsa Zsa and wanted to be like Zsa Zsa," he said. "She wanted to be a princess." He said the two started an affair soon after, meeting over the years in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. For much of that time, he said, Smith urged him to make her a princess like his wife. But short of divorcing the actress, he said the only solution would have been adopting Smith. Von Anhalt said he did consider that and even filled out adoption papers, but Gabor refused to sign them. He said he never admitted the affair to his wife, but that he's sure she knows. She would sometimes answer the phone when Smith called him, von Anhalt said.
"She was a very sexy woman," von Anhalt said. "To have an affair with her is the top, you know." Von Anhalt's royal credentials have been the cause of speculation over the years. According to stories in the British press, he was born Robert Lichtenberg, the son of a German policeman, and bought his title after being adopted as an adult by a bankrupt daughter-in-law of the last kaiser.
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The life of Anna Nicole Smith was marked both by extraordinary celebrity and frequent controversy. A one-time Playmate of the Year, Smith was
a successful model,
occasional actress and
star of her own reality TV show.
But it was her personal life that brought her attention -
her marriage at 26 to octogenarian millionaire J Howard Marshall, the subsequent battle for his fortune and her later
struggles with weight and tragedy. Born
Vicki Lynn Hogan in
Texas, Smith dropped out of school early and at 17 married her
first husband, Billy Wayne Smith. The couple had a son but divorced after two years, at which point Smith moved to
Houston to work in a topless bar. There her career as a
glamour model began to take off, with an appearance on the cover of Playboy in 1992. In 1993 she became the magazine's Playmate of the Year
and fronted a jeans advertising campaign, later breaking into movies with a role in the spoof
Naked Gun 33 1/3Financial battle
It was around that time that she met Marshall, the 89-year-old oil tycoon who in 1994 became her second husband.
ABOVE & BELOW: Married to 90 year old Marshall who gave her a fortune but was contested by the son, who also died after the old man passed away.
Their marriage generated enormous media interest, with Smith cast both as cynical gold-digger and ditzy blonde. Marshall died 14 months after they married and Smith spent several years battling his family over her late husband's fortune, a battle unresolved at the time of her death.
In 2002 she appeared in her own reality TV show and later went on to become the spokeswoman for diet supplement TrimSpa, after a well-charted struggle with her weight. But she was hit by tragedy in September 2006 when her 20-year-old son Daniel died just a few days after she gave birth to her infant daughter.
Smith then became embroiled in a legal dispute over the paternity of her baby daughter. (THREE persons claimin to be the father) Her death in a Florida hotel at the age of 39 comes as the final twist in a colourful life played out in the tabloid media.
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February 10, 2007
Anna Nicole's cause of death still a mystery; By Michael Connor
DANIA BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - An autopsy on former Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith on Friday did not immediately reveal what killed the billionaire's widow but police found no signs her sudden death involved a crime. Broward County medical examiner Dr. Joshua Perper said it could take three to five weeks to finish toxicological and other tests. He said he could not rule out drugs or natural causes but that the busty blonde former model and topless dancer who became a tabloid starlet did not die by violence. Smith's death on Thursday in Hollywood, Florida, at age 39, left myriad questions about her tumultuous last months, the future of her 5-month-old daughter and the fortune she fought to inherit from the oil tycoon she married when he was 89.
BELOW: The playtemate of the year tag in Playboy shot her to fame
A California judge on Friday refused to order an emergency DNA test on Smith's remains but ordered her body preserved until a Feb. 20 hearing in the paternity case surrounding her baby. Smith's ex-boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, sought the emergency order as part of his attempt to prove that he is the father of Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern. Smith's lawyer and companion, Howard K. Stern, has said he is the father and is named on the baby's birth certificate. Smith's DNA would not typically be required to prove paternity but Birkhead's attorney, Debra Opri, said she sought the test to make sure the infant being tested was Smith's.
Smith had been living in the Bahamas and collapsed at a casino hotel on the Seminole Indian reservation in Hollywood, Florida. A source familiar with the situation told Reuters that Dannielynn was cared for overnight by the mother of Bahamian Immigration Minister Shane Gibson but that Stern picked up the child on Friday morning and flew out of Nassau with her to an unknown destination. Smith's 20-year-old son Daniel died in September while visiting his mother at the Bahamian hospital where she had given birth to her daughter three days earlier. A pathologist hired by the model said her son apparently died from a drug overdose.
ABOVE: 1995 Smith the wild party girl balances a shot glass inside her T-shirt BELOW: then dramatically empties it
BELOW: without using her hands
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ABOVE & BELOW: Her Days of fun and fame
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AUTOPSY INCONCLUSIVE
At a news conference outside the medical examiner's office in Dania Beach, Florida, Seminole Police Chief Charlie Tiger said prescription drugs were found in Smith's hotel room but there were no illegal drugs, as had been reported by various media.
"No evidence has been revealed to suggest that a crime occurred," said Tiger, who did not identify the prescription medicines.
Perper said there was no immediate indication that Smith had taken any large amount of prescription medicine because there were no pills in her stomach. But he said he would have to wait for laboratory test results to determine if drugs were involved in her death.
"At this time we do not make a determination of the cause and the manner of death," he said. "Our findings are limited to what we can see with our eyes."
Smith's estranged mother, Virgie Arthur, suggested on the ABC program "Good Morning America," that drugs played a role in her daughter's death. "I tried to warn her about the drugs and the people she hung around. She didn't listen," Arthur said. "She was too drugged up. The last interview I saw of her, she was so wasted."
Smith, who was born Vickie Lynn Hogan, was dogged by talk of addiction to drugs, including prescription painkillers, that was fueled by her slurred words and unusual behavior at awards shows and other public events.
TANGLED LEGAL FIGHT
Smith, a voluptuous platinum blonde who idolized screen legend Marilyn Monroe, gained fame as Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Year in 1993 and as a model for Guess? jeans. She starred in her own short-lived reality television show and had several film roles. In 1994, she married oil billionaire J. Howard Marshall, when she was 26 and he was 89. Marshall, who was worth $1.6 billion, died 14 months later and Smith, spent much of the following decade battling his family over the estate. Marshall's family called her a gold digger. But the tangled legal fight is unresolved. A California court awarded her $474 million but another court cut the award to $88 million and an appeals court then ruled she was entitled to nothing. The U.S. Supreme Court last May overturned that ruling and gave Smith another chance to pursue Marshall's fortune.
(Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb and Gina Keating in Los Angeles, Jane Sutton in Miami and John Marquis in Nassau, Bahamas)
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Shots before dying ; Anna seen pounding booze, and her room was full of pills
BY ANGELA MOSCONI in Hollywood, Fla.
and CARRIE MELAGO in New York; DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Anna Nicole Smith's final days were a booze-fueled frenzy that ended in a hotel room so stocked with meds that it resembled a "pharmacist's shop," according to reports. While an autopsy performed yesterday could not immediately determine what killed Smith, witnesses who saw the troubled bombshell in the days before her death say she was partying and falling-down drunk. A bouncer at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, where Smith later died, said the centerfold was drinking into the early morning on Tuesday. "I saw two guys walking her out. She was pretty much all trashed. She was messed up. She couldn't walk on her own. ... Her bouncer was on one side and her lawyer friend on the other," the bouncer said. Just hours before she died, Smith was back at the Hard Rock's 24-hour Center Bar in the middle of the casino floor. A bartender named Mike told the Daily News that Smith was tossing back double shots. "Her eyes were droopy. It looked like she was really, really drunk. She was slurring her speech. She looked plastered," he said. Mike said fans surrounded Smith that night, snapping pictures of her as she laughed and downed drinks. "She talked to a few people but she was mostly concentrating on the drinking," he said. "She was wasted out of her mind, but that's the Anna Nicole me and my friends have grown to know." Smith's hard-partying ways appeared to extend into her posh suite on the sixth floor of the hotel. A source told Star magazine that entering the room was like "walking into a pharmacist's shop." Outfitted with a canopy bed, tall plants and leopard-print hangers, the room was filled with prescription medication including Xanax, Provigil, Vicodin and "a ... lot of methadone," Star reported. During a press conference yesterday, Seminole Police Chief Charlie Tiger confirmed that the hotel room contained "no illegal drugs, only prescription medicine" but would not reveal the types of drugs or to whom they were prescribed.
Tiger also said the surveillance tapes at the hotel had not detected any unusual activity and that there was no evidence that a crime had occurred. According to Dr. Joshua Perper, the Broward County medical examiner, the autopsy was able to exclude as the cause of death any physical injury, blunt-force trauma or asphyxia - meaning she didn't choke to death on her own vomit, though Smith did have a bruise on her back from a fall. "This is clearly a sudden, unexpected and unexplained death," he said, describing his work as having to solve a "medical puzzle." The former Playmate had suffered from a stomach flu in the days before she died, Perper said, and did have "subtle" abnormalities in her heart and intestines that will need to be examined microscopically. While she had no "intact" pills in her stomach, toxicology tests will need to be completed, lasting three to five weeks, Perper said. "We do not exclude any kind of contribution of medication to the death, and this will have to await the results of the toxicology," he said. Virgie Arthur, Smith's mother, said on "Good Morning America" that she believes her daughter's death was the result of drug use. "And I tried to warn her about drugs and the people that she hung around with," Arthur said. "She wouldn't listen."
With Tamer El-Ghobashy in Montgomery, Tex.
Anna Nicole's personal pharmacy
Among the prescription drugs reportedly found in Anna Nicole Smith's death room:
Methadone: A powerful opiate painkiller, it is in the same drug category as morphine and codeine — often used to help heroin addicts beat their habit. Causes severe drowsiness and can potentially interact with hundreds of other drugs.
Provigil: A secret favorite of pilots and hospital doctors working graveyard shifts, this central nervous system stimulant keeps users alert and awake. Side effects include anxiety, nervousness, depression, irregular heartbeat and dozens more.
Xanax: Prescribed for depression, anxiety disorders and panic attacks — and, occasionally, fear of open spaces — this brain-bending benzodiazepine drug is notoriously habit-forming.
Fentanyl lollipop: A powerful narcotic painkiller often given to cancer patients, especially children. A berry-flavored one sold under the name Actiq sells for about $25 a "pop" on the street.
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TrimSpa in trouble after Smith's death
Marketing experts say TrimSpa's close association with its spokeswoman could spell disaster for the business. By Jessica Dickler, CNNMoney.com staff writer
February 9 2007: 3:39 PM EST ;NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The death of sassy spokeswoman Anna Nicole Smith coupled with growing doubts about TrimSpa's controversial weight-loss products may prove too much for the closely held company, marketing experts said Thursday. "Given the double whammy of who their spokesperson was and the other tangential difficulties, I don't think they're going to come back," said Robert Passikoff, a New York brand consultant. Anna Nicole Smith had been a spokeswoman for TrimSpa since 2003. Passikoff said news that Smith died in Florida Thursday could spell disaster for the small business. In fact, TrimSpa had suffered from sinking sales figures for the past three years.
Right after Smith came on board, TrimSpa sales ballooned 172 percent to $43 million in 2004 from close to $16 million in the year earlier. But by 2006, sales had shrunk to $19.5 million, according to Information Resources, Inc., a data-tracking firm. A spokeswoman for TrimSpa said the company did not know if Smith was taking the weight-loss drug, which does not require a prescription, at the time of her death. Authorities said they retrieved a "large amount" of prescription medicine from Smith's hotel room, according to CNN. "The company was in trouble with or without Anna Nicole," said a source familiar with the company.
CNN: Smith can't be buried until paternity hearing "When you mention TrimSpa, the image that came to mind was Anna Nicole Smith and that's the difficulty with being so closely tied to a celebrity," Passikoff said. "You've just pulled the rug out from under what the brand was standing on," he added. The former Playboy Playmate and reality TV star became a spokeswoman for TrimSpa in October 2003, after losing a reported 60 to 70 pounds.
But Smith and TrimSpa have faced repeated legal difficulties over allegations that advertisements for the weight-loss pills were misleading. "It's a matter of making reasonable and moderate claims that are backed by real substantiation," said Ralph Fucetola, former lawyer for the company. Last month, the Federal Trade Commission said it fined the marketer of TrimSpa and other over-the-counter diet drugmakers $25 million for false advertising. The government agency said that the company's weight-control claims were not supported by scientific evidence. "While TrimSpa disagreed with the FTC it made a business decision by consenting to a $1.5 million payment in order to end the FTC's over two-year investigation," a spokeswoman for TrimSpa told CNNMoney Friday.
The company still contends that its weight-loss drug, along with diet and exercise, can yield successful results. "TrimSpa has some major challenges given the loss of credibility about their product and [now] losing their spokesperson," said Britt Beemer, the chairman of strategic marketing firm America's Research Group. "It's a one-two punch and it does damage their marketing position dramatically." TrimSpa, which is owned by privately held Goen Technologies, is based in Cedar Knolls, N.J. TrimSpa founder Alex Goen expressed regret at Smith's death. "Today, Anna Nicole Smith's grief-stricken and tumultuous personal life came to an end. Anna came to our company as a customer, but she departs it as a friend," Goen said in a brief statement. "While life for Anna Nicole was not easy these past few months, she held dear her husband, Howard K. Stern, her daughter, Dannielynn Hope, her most cherished friends, beloved dogs, and finally, her work with TrimSpa," he said.
ABOVE: Logo Adapted from Kickdefella
ABOVE: The Largest "Nien Ko" (CNY Year Cake") you can buy (in KL Petaling Street) ...more pics loading for those interested .. Check back
ABOVE: A typical 7-course dinner, TOP right; Big Prawns (RM35, 13 pcs 1/2 Kg); 1/2 Roast Duck (RM18); Promfet (RM70 1kg +); Gingko Kai Choy (Rm10); Kow Yoke (Siew Yoke & Yam slices) (RM25); Kampung Chicken (RM18) & Yee Sang (RM24) & BELOW ( The "low hei" for 4 with plenty of left overs. It is doubtful the restaurant could give you value for money
ABOVE & BELOW: At the Store Supermarket, located Pudu Plaza, Pudu, Feb 1st 07 barely two weeks before the CNY, you will find more goods than people buying; the crowds were no longer there. All their pockets are sick - empty. You can drive up and find the parking lots are not fully occupied most of the time.
ABOVE:: In contrast, the Giant Supermart, Ulu Kelang, 11 Feb 07, a week before CNY; ALL the lower prices and variety are there and BELOW: The check out counters are full and you can spot only one "pony-tail" non-Malay. Who are the people with the cash and buying powers?
ABOVE & BELOW: The traditional florists along Jalan Sultan were stocking up with all sorts of varieties and the wishy washy willow "lan fa" were a plenty with no takers.
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ABOVE: The Lime tree (Kut) can be found in abundance in the Sugai Buloh nursery (RM35 - RM38 per pot)and BELOW: the unique and decorative "Chun Chee" -Pearl plant with purple coloured berries which have medicinal value; rtetailing RM88
