The 247m Pound Baby

By Anna Millar

IT SHOULD have been one of the happiest moments of Anna Nicole Smith’s life – the birth of her beautiful baby girl, Dannielynn Hope, an innocent born to a woman ravaged by drink, drugs and speculation about her notoriously busy love life.

Last night the media circus was in full swing as those close to the 39-year-old Playboy Playmate and billionaire’s widow considered the implications of Smith’s legacy for the five-month-old baby she leaves behind.

Following the death of Smith’s 20-year-old son Daniel, just three days after baby Dannielynn was born last September, and Smith’s death in a Florida hotel room last Thursday, three men are set to battle it out to prove their paternity of Dannielynn – a baby that holds the key to a potential dollars 475m (GBP 247m) fortune.

At the time of her death, Smith was still fighting her decade- long battle for inheritance following her marriage to, and the death of, her 90-year-old Texan oil billionaire husband, J Howard Marshall II.

Just like the very public 10-year legal battle that surrounded Smith’s struggle with Marshall’s now deceased son, the fight over Dannielynn looks set to be just as heated.

Even before Smith’s death, two men – her former boyfriend Larry Birkhead and her attorney-turned-lover Howard K Stern – had claimed to be the child’s father.

On Friday, just hours after the Playboy model’s death, Prince Frederick von Anhalt, the husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, became the third man to claim paternity rights.

A birth certificate currently lists attorney Stern as the girl’s father, but his paternity has been challenged by Birkhead, whose lawyer asked that DNA be taken from Smith’s corpse to resolve a paternity case.

While a judge in Los Angeles refused to order the DNA test, he ordered that Smith’s body be preserved until a hearing on February 20.

Experts say the decision over who receives custody of Dannielynn could determine the child’s inheritance.

Smith’s claim on Marshall’s multi-million-dollar fortune started in 1993 when she married the oilman.

Following his death 14 months later, she and her stepson, E Pierce Marshall, began fighting for the estate.

If Smith had a current will, that document will govern who gets what, lawyers said last night.

But without a will, the heirs would be determined first by marriage. Things are further confused by speculation that Smith’s marriage to Stern – it took place on a 50ft catamaran anchored off Blackbeard’s Cay in the Bahamas – may not have been legal.

If the marriage is recognised in California, Stern could be entitled to half of Smith’s money, while the other half would go to her daughter.

If the courts don’t recognise the marriage, the whole sum, minus court costs, would go to Smith’s daughter.

Last night, experts said the case could still take several weeks to resolve. The messiness of Smith’s death – its unknown cause and the continuing legal battles about the inheritance and the little girl’s paternity – have made its aftermath just as high-profile as her life.

Smith’s death, like her life, remains shrouded in mystery. An autopsy on Friday did not reveal what killed her, although police have admitted they found no signs that her sudden death involved a crime.

To add to the frenzy, Smith’s estranged mother and sister have emerged from the wings asking to see the child.

Donna Hogan, Smith’s half-sister, talked to television presenter Larry King on the phone about her forthcoming book (announced long before Smith’s death), Train Wreck: Anna Nicole Unauthorised. She said she had not seen her sister in about a decade.

Smith’s mother, Virgie Arthur, told ABC’s Good Morning America that she believed her daughter died from a drug overdose and said she was unsure of her granddaughter’s current whereabouts.

Arthur said: “I think she had too many drugs, just like Danny [Smith's late son].”

Smith’s lust for fame bred such television highlights as The Anna Nicole Show on the cable channel E! and, after years as a Playboy Playmate, she became better known for her yo-yo dieting and reported drug use.

Her story took a tragic turn last September when her 20-year-old son, Daniel, died days after the birth of Dannielynn.

His death is still the subject of considerable speculation. Smith later sold photographs of her son and newborn daughter in the hospital room where he died to a US magazine. A video of her Caesarean section is also available on YouTube.

Last night, as experts across the globe tried to predict the future, the words of Smith’s mother seemed to ring true. She told one show that her daughter had once said to her before her death: “If my name is out there in the news, good or bad doesn’t matter, good or bad I make money, so I’m going to do whatever it takes.”

Ironically, the final images of Smith are captured on grainy video footage which show paramedics working on her limp, unresponsive body. The brief video was immediately uploaded to the internet and paraded on German television. A typically disturbing and surreal end to a totally unpredictable life.

Sadly, with both her mother and her brother dead, it will be five- month-old Dannielynn who lives to inherit her legacy.

(c) 2007 Scotland on Sunday. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.