Former Playboy centerfold Anna Nicole Smith will be buried in the Bahamas after most of the parties feuding over her corpse reached a deal on Thursday to lay her to rest next to her dead son.

Choking back tears, Broward Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin had earlier placed Smith's body rapidly decomposing two weeks after her unexplained death at age 39 in a Florida hotel casino into the custody of a court-appointed guardian of her 5-month-old daughter Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern.

The guardian, Miami lawyer Richard Milstein, decided on the Bahamas after Seidlin stopped short of issuing the order himself at the end of six days of theatrical and melodramatic court hearings, and then persuaded at least two of the three warring factions to agree to it.

"I'm very grateful that Anna Nicole's wishes are going to be carried out," said Smith's longtime lawyer and companion, Howard K. Stern, who wanted to have her buried next to her son, Daniel, in the Bahamas, where he died five months ago.

Speaking to reporters outside the Fort Lauderdale court where Stern, Smith's former boyfriend Larry Birkhead and Smith's mother, Virgie Arthur, fought over the corpse, lawyers for Stern and Birkhead said they could not give any details about the funeral, but hoped it would be private.

The decision appeared to mean the legal tussle over the former topless dancer, famous in life for her bountiful bust, was all but over. But Milstein and Arthur's attorney said Smith's estranged mother would appeal, likely delaying the release of the body.

The sudden death of the tabloid queen and billionaire's widow, and the legal battle over her body, have brought swarms of television crews and tabloid journalists to Fort Lauderdale and to the Bahamas, where Smith most recently lived.

During the proceedings, an animated and emotional Seidlin berated shouting lawyers, took over their questioning of witnesses and fired off jokes and off-the-cuff remarks.

The saga is about more than the location of a tombstone. Smith's estate could be worth a fortune one day if a decade-long court battle to inherit the wealth of her late husband, Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall, prevails.

And much of the focus has been on who fathered Dannielynn her legal next of kin.

Birkhead says he is her father and has launched a paternity suit in California, while Stern is listed on Dannielynn's birth certificate as the child's father.

A hearing was scheduled for a Fort Lauderdale family court on Friday local time. Birkhead's lawyers said they would attempt to persuade Judge Lawrence Korda to move the entire California paternity case to Florida and have Dannielynn subjected to a DNA test.

"At this point, I think everyone wants to know who the father is," said Nancy Hass, one of Birkhead's lawyers.

"Our client has said at all times that he is willing to undergo paternity testing. He is 110 percent certain that he is the biological father of Dannielynn."

Seidlin, a former Bronx taxi driver whose chambers are decorated with old movie posters, spent the last day of his hearings asking questions about those vying for the remains: Did Smith's mother, Arthur, provide strong support for her daughter?; Was Stern "an enabler" who aided and abetted her prescription drug problem?

Agencies

(China Daily 02/24/2007 page6)