Blonde Ambition (20 page)

   Speer told me that Larry's mission at the time was to get Howard arrested and convicted for the death of Daniel and the continued drugging of Anna Nicole. After his meeting, Bahamian police told Larry that this information would be very helpful with the inquest into Daniel's death, which was in their jurisdiction. "We'll need you to testify at the inquest," he was told, "as you'll be important to this case." Speer said by the way the officers were acting, "You could tell they felt the information was big."

   But, according to Moe's statements to private investigators, Larry wasn't completely without fault when it came to drugs and Anna Nicole. Moe said, Larry is "no choir boy," in fact, he also joined the party, giving Anna drugs while she was pregnant. Moe said he's seen "Howard give her plenty of prescription drugs," but he also saw "Larry give Anna ecstacy and cocaine."

• • •

Though Larry Birkhead testified that he fought Anna about her drug use, his last fight, he said, with Anna was over a pair of sunglasses that he refused to buy her, showing how unpredictable she was. Ford Shelley, Ben Thompson's son-in-law, told me he knows about that fight, but Jackie Hatten says that Larry Birkhead and Anna had a much bigger blow-up over Anna finding out that Larry had sold a photo of her behind her back. As a photojournalist, this was, after all, what he did for a living, but Anna always wanted to be aware of what pictures were going where and who would get a cut of them.

   According to Jackie, Anna wanted to get pregnant by Larry Birkhead so she could have a blonde-haired, blue-eyed baby. In a letter Anna had written her mother on March 3, 2000, Vickie said, "I want to get pregnant and have another baby before Daniel leaves me . . . I'll find someone just to get pregnant and not let him no [sic]. Is that so bad? I don't think so. Men are pigs." Larry may have fit the bill. She told Jackie that Larry was "cute, young, and not dangerous," but Jackie says, that after the photo incident, "She felt betrayed and taken advantage of."

   "One thing that infuriated Anna was if anyone did any deals behind her back," Jackie said. "She always wanted to be the one brokering where the pictures would be sold, she always wanted to know about it. When she saw a picture in a magazine one day and knew it was one Larry took, but didn't tell her about selling, she went ballistic."

• • •

The dramatic court testimony of Anna Nicole Smith's abuse of prescription drugs culminated in the showing of a home video of a pregnant Anna in clown makeup pushing a baby carriage. Anna appeared drugged, silly, or as several commentators noted, "completely whacked out of her mind." Her bizarre behavior apparently frightened Riley, the nine-year-old granddaughter of Ben Thompson, who was visiting them in the Bahamas prior to the brouhaha over who owned the Horizons house. Riley had painted Anna's face to look like a clown.

howard: Riley thinks you've absolutely lost your mind.

anna: Huh?

howard: Riley thinks you've lost your mind.

anna: I didn't lose my mind.

howard: She thinks you have.

anna: I didn't.

howard: Is this a mushroom trip?

anna: Huh?

howard: Is this a mushroom trip?

anna: What do you mean?

howard: I'm kidding.

anna: What does that mean?

howard: I'm kidding.

howard: I said this footage is worth money.

anna: Why? What footage?

howard: This thing you're looking into.

anna: That's a camera.

howard: Exactly.

   Howard was later infuriated that someone had stolen the video from the Horizons house soon after Anna died and released it to the media.

   Meantime, while this circus of a courtroom scene was continuing, Dr. Perper, the coroner in charge of Anna's body, was getting nervous. It had been almost two weeks since Anna had died. He called the court several times from the Broward County morgue to report on the condition of the body. His words were being broadcast globally as many people were glued to their TV sets watching the daily courtroom theatrics. The body was, he said, rapidly decomposing and it was now a race against time. Dr. Perper told me he was shocked by the delay in the court proceedings and hoped his call would hasten the hearing that had now become must-see entertainment for millions of Americans.

During the hearing, there was discussion over Anna's will. Signed on July 30, 2001, the will was drafted by California attorney Eric Lund and was witnessed by Anna's purple-haired assistant, Kimberly Walther, and James Khavarian, a former law partner of Howard K. Stern's. Two days after signing the will, Khavarian was suspended for lying to a client and eventually he was disbarred.

   It has been suggested that the first page of Anna's will has been newly inserted, indicated by a slightly different "VLM" initialing than on the other pages. In Article I on this first page, Anna states that she has "intentionally omitted to provide for my spouse and other heirs, including future spouses and children and other descendants now living or those hereafter born or adopted," except for Daniel.

   In court, the will was presented to show Howard was nominated as the personal representative, but it was the other parts of the document that attracted unwanted attention.

   On the top of the faxed copy of the will sent from Anna's attorney and Howard's good friend, Ron Rale, to Howard's Florida attorney, Krista Barth, it said "2/3 RAR" and "2:18 a.m." February 3—which would indicate that it was sent just five days before Anna died and several months after Daniel was already dead. Her will possibly being faxed five days before her death had tongues wagging outside and inside the courthouse. On the face of it, such an action would seem to be quite suspicious.

   Meantime, legal experts differed over whether the will entitled Dannielynn to a share of Anna's estate since it oddly and expressly excluded children born after Daniel. Howard K. Stern's attorney, Krista Barth, did not think that part of the document pertained to the matter at hand. She told Judge Seidlin, "The will is presented to show that Mr. Stern is the nominated personal representative under the document."

   "You—always want me to look at things in isolated ways," Judge Seidlin told her. "You take me to a museum and you tell me, 'Just look at this wall.' . . . 'Don't look at the other paintings . . . Just keep your eye on this one painting here.' How can I do this?"

krista barth: Because the law recognizes the illegality of certain contracts. And most things in it have a severability clause. And I've reviewed it for that. But it says, most things say if one provision sells, the whole document doesn't sell.

judge larry seidlin: But you're now giving me contract law. And I respect that . . . . I'll tell you, it, it's when—a fish has a little smell, you get rid of the whole fish. This will is not just to take away a clause. You got to ask yourself, "
Did she read this will? Would
any woman in America who read this will, sign this will?
What state of mind was she in when she wrote the will
?"

     But I'm telling you what I'm gonna do, though. I'm gonna tell you what I'm gonna do. It's a piece of evidence that'll be submitted to the court. And it'll, it has its holes in it, like we talked about. That balloon has plenty of holes in it, plenty of holes.

     And one day, even to Bahamas or California, you'll try to admit it there. And then you, you let the chips fall as they may. I don't have the time to decide whether or not it's a valid will. It's a, it's a piece of paper that's purported to be a will that—causes me to lose more hair than I already lost. And you know it and I know it, because we can't fool each other. We're too good. We'll get a move on. You don't need to cross-examine this document anymore. We've done all the work for you.

   Judge Seidlin pointed out what many were thinking—no woman in her right mind would ever sign a will that excludes her future children. But then he took Krista Barth's word that her fax machine in her office was messed up since she was claiming her daily office logs could confirm that the fax came after Anna died. But it seemed to go unnoticed that normally the time stamped on top of a fax is from the outgoing fax machine, not the incoming fax machine. The outgoing fax machine belonged to Ron Rale, Howard's long-time friend.

   Even though Howard K. Stern admitted Anna was his only client, he testified that he doesn't really remember the will. When Judge Seidlin asked to see the original, attorney Krista Barth said they had their hands full and didn't have it. Though they did have time to get a written statement from Eric Lund, the will's drafter, to say he saw Anna sign it. Howard maintained he is not a beneficiary of the will.

krista barth: She didn't leave you any money did she?

howard k. stern: Absolutely not.

barth: But she left you Daniel?

howard: That is correct.

   Howard K. Stern was listed as executor to oversee her estate and the affairs of Daniel, who was now dead. And Anna Nicole specifically excluded any future children from benefiting from her estate. Therefore, the executor, Howard K. Stern, would at his discretion determine how the funds of Anna's estate would be divided and utilized.

On February 22, after enduring six days of weirdness and a body that had been chilling in the morgue for two weeks, Judge Seidlin surprised everyone—a day earlier than previously scheduled—and made his decision. My contacts in the Florida court system told me that Judge Seidlin had been called behind closed doors the day before and scolded by the chief judge. He was told to stop showboating and wrap it up as soon as he could.

   "I have suffered for this," Seidlin announced, beginning to render his decision. "I have struggled with this, I have shed tears for your little girl." He turned to Virgie and choked up. "This is not a happy moment," he said, his voice cracking. "She's going to be with her son. She's going to have her son next to her."

   Judge Seidlin ultimately left the decision of Smith's burial to court appointed guardian Richard Milstein, an attorney who specializes in guardianship, probate and mediation, and who was now the "guardian ad litem" of Anna Nicole Smith's fivemonth-old daughter. Seidlin then instructed Milstein to work with the three warring parties and the judge pleaded that they arrive at a decision for the burial that would be of mutual agreement. He told the packed courtroom that he hoped the former Playboy Playmate would be buried in the Bahamas next to her son Daniel.

   "I want them to be together," he said.

   Openly weeping, he urged all of the possible fathers of Smith's infant daughter to get a paternity test, and said, "I hope to God here that you two guys will give the kid the right shot." He then relinquished jurisdiction for the paternity and custody issues to another judge, and announced to the parties, "You're done with me. I'm prepared to handle any other tasks, but I've completed all my tasks in this case. Godspeed."

   Virgie Arthur, Larry Birkhead, and Howard K. Stern all wiped away tears upon hearing the ruling.

   Directly after the ruling, Judge Seidlin came over to Virgie Arthur and tried to put his arm around her, telling her, "I did the best I could."

   Virgie pushed him away. She was enraged that this man, whom she later referred to as "a clown," had the audacity to say he'd done the best he could. "You kept talking about your six-year-old daughter in court," she said, seething. "One day she's going to have trouble and you're going to need help. Look at me. Look at my face. When you can't help her, remember my face."

• • •

Within less than an hour, Howard, Larry, and Virgie surprised the world by walking arm-in-arm outside the courthouse to hold a press conference to announce that the funeral would be in the Bahamas. Despite the show of solidarity, Virgie was visibly awkward. That night, when a secret meeting took place at Howard's hotel, The Riverside Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Virgie Arthur was left out.

   A driver took Ford Shelley, Larry Birkhead, and Mark Speer, Larry's security detail, to the hotel where they were greeted by Ron Rale and soon after Krista Barth, two of Howard's attorneys.

   The attorneys left the room and the men talked for almost an hour. At first, Howard presented Ford and Larry with a confidentiality agreement to sign, saying that what they talked about could not be discussed. Both of them refused to sign the paper.

   They ended up talking little about the funeral and instead listened a lot to Howard offering deals. When I saw Larry soon after the meeting, he told me Howard had said, "I want you to see your child." But then, Howard started dancing around it, saying "it could be your child or my child since Dannielynn came two weeks early." Ford Shelley repeated the same story and says it was clear in the conversation that Howard knew he wasn't the father. He says that Howard even floated the idea of bringing Dannielynn to Fort Lauderdale in a few days to get swabbed and tested, but it never happened.

   When Debra Opri heard Howard was making such an offer, she knew he would never do it without Larry cutting a deal with him. Ford Shelley has said that Howard wanted them to drop all of their suits—Larry's paternity action and Ford and Ben Thompson's property action with the Horizons House—and settle out of court. "You could see Larry was desperate to see his child," Ford told me. "He wanted to see his child at whatever cost."

   Though Ron Rale came out publicly saying that talks were happening, and they were trying to keep the lawyers out of it, Debra Opri made a statement that "Mr. Birkhead will not compromise his child for financial gain. There are absolutely no deals to get this child. The child will not be used as a financial pawn." She added, "If Stern was sincere about resolving this without lawyers, then he should simply appear with the baby and get the DNA test done."