Blonde Ambition

by Rita Cosby

  The Will

  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.

  The Decision

  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."

  On the drive home from that secret meeting, Mark Speer, who was in the car, overheard the discussions taking place between Larry Birkhead and Ford Shelley. They were talking about Howard's offer to Larry behind closed doors. The deal was if Larry agreed not to contest Howard remaining as executor of Anna's estate, then Larry could have his baby.

  Mark Speer said later that he was surprised Larry seemed receptive to the idea. As conversations with Howard continued over the next few days, Howard sweetened the deal. If Larry agreed not to contest the will and allowed Howard to remain executor of Anna's estate as well as keep control of Anna's "name and likeness," Howard would:

  • Drop all legal claims for custody of Dannielynn and "give you your baby."

  • Allow Larry to "run the show" in California.

  • Let Larry live in Anna's Studio City house. . . .

  • Pay all the bills.

  • Provide several thousand dollars a month in allowance . . . and pay for a rental car.

  He also promised Larry that he would "take care of you the way I took care of Anna."

  • • •

  With word of all these offers, Debra Opri began arguing with her client, telling him not to talk to Howard. She felt that by his talking to the enemy of this litigation, he was allowing Howard to lure him in. She worried that since they were so close to getting a positive resolution in court without any side deals, Larry would be making a big mistake cutting a deal.

  As they prepared for the funeral of Anna Nicole Smith, why was Larry going against both his family's wishes and those of his counsel?

  What did Howard K. Stern have on Larry Birkhead?

  chapter 11

  Rest in Peace

  There was a Hollywood-style red carpet—suitable for premieres and award ceremonies—though Anna Nicole Smith wouldn't walk it and no one would get to see her pretty dress. Anna would make her last trip down the red carpet in a casket draped in a pink coverlet, adorned with feathers, ribbons and her big inimitable autograph in a trail of Swarovski crystals. The final embellishment on the coffin drape was a big smiley face, Anna's cute trademark in her famous signature.

  Many onlookers from around the world gathered outside the church. The majority were Bahamian and American tourists. They watched the white hearse roll in, which was being escorted by three sheriff cars, a police van and five motorcycle police. They also bought snacks and sodas from vendors who had set up in the parking lots of the church and the adjacent shopping mall. Three helicopters hovered in the blue skies above the crowd, capturing aerial photos and video for media outlets around the globe.

  With his balding pate shining in the hot sun, Richard Milstein, the court appointed guardian ad litem for Dannielynn, pontificated to those congregating outside the church, asking for "respect and solemnity." He told the crowd, "Today we share our grief with all of you. . . . Today we come to you to carry out the final, most sacred, solemn act provided to any individual.

  "Unfortunately, in a time when life should have been reaching its highest peak for her, she received both a blessing and a curse," said Dannielynn's temporary guardian, the man that Anna Nicole never even knew. "She joyously gave birth to her only daughter, Dannielynn, and devastatingly, three days later, she lost her only son, Danny. If one were to write a Greek tragedy, one could not write a script as sorrowful and as hurtful as this."

  Like a crowd at a Roman coliseum, the spectators, held behind steel barricades, booed and cheered as guests arrived at the white columned church. Walking into the church, attendees were judged by the crowd on an unwritten set of parameters and given either a cheering thumbs-up or a jeering thumbs-down. It was a fittingly inappropriate scene for the finale of the Anna Nicole Show.

  But overall the Bahamian people themselves could not have been more gracious and endearing to their visiting guests. Many Bahamian citizens and reporters wanted to make sure their island was portrayed in the best and fullest light possible, not just by the Anna Nicole Smith saga. Fearful of becoming "another Aruba," a reference to the unsolved Natalee Holloway case, islanders were worried about how the story might affect tourism on their idyllic vacation spot. Officials handled it as best they could. There was no way they could have foreseen the crush of people who would surround every event even remotely related to Anna Nicole.

  In fact, a few days before the funeral, when I was interviewing Virgie Arthur outside the main downtown courthouse in Nassau among a pack of many other reporters and cameras, the scene turned into sheer bedlam. With no crowd control to protect her from the voracious media and onlookers, a mob scene overtook Anna Nicole's mother. The horde swarmed around her, packed in like sardines, trying to get any words from Anna Nicole's mother. It became so crowded and chaotic that my feet were literally not even touching the ground for a few seconds. There were spectators climbing on top of her limousine just to take a quick picture, just to get a glimpse.

  It had been a week not just of in-your-face maneuvering by the media, but also of a lot of behind-the-scenes negotiations among the interested parties. Howard K. Stern had been privately floating the idea to Ford Shelley that he would give up Anna's new boat and her new yet to be lived in waterfront home in Nassau in exchange for keeping "Horizons," the house in which Howard was currently living and the one Ben and Ford were trying to kick him out of.

  The night before the funeral, Howard presented Larry with a contract and tried "strong-arming" him into signing a $250,000 deal with Entertainment Tonight. The arrangement gave the media outlet sole access to the funeral with the proceeds supposedly going to a trust fund for little Dannielynn. Several people involved feared that even if Entertainment Tonight had good intentions, the parties were wary the money might not end up where Howard claimed, or he would cut a separate deal on the side.

  According to sources close to the case, Richard Milstein himself was sending around the contract to the parties. Both Virgie's and Larry Birkhead's legal teams were suspicious of Howard and, by now, also Milstein. Neither Virgie nor Larry wanted to sign the document. Milstein told the parties he also didn't want to be the one to have to sign it, leading some to think that he didn't want to get his hands dirty with any media related deal. The parties found it ironic that he personally was circulating this deal, given that he had slammed everyone in the Florida courtroom for accepting anything from the media—whether it be money, a flight, or a free hotel.

  Each of the parties worried that it would look bad to sign any media deal on the eve of Anna's funeral. But in the end, Entertainment Tonight had the only video cameras inside. Though Milstein had been visibly cold to Howard K. Stern during the Florida trial, by the funeral they seemed like old chums. During the service, Richard Milstein sat next to Mark Steines, co-anchor of Entertainment Tonight.

  Mount Horeb Baptist Churc
h,

  March 2, 2007, Nassau, Bahamas

  Virgie Arthur had invited me to be her guest at the funeral, and I didn't realize until I got there that I was the only on-air member of the press allowed inside, besides the crew of Entertainment Tonight. But when I arrived at the bottom of the church steps, I soon discovered my name was not on "the list." Though my producer's name, unrecognizable to Howard K. Stern, had been successfully included, my name was mysteriously missing.

  Ford Shelley and his family were also supposed to go to the funeral, but were told by Howard the night before that he changed his mind. Howard said the church was full, which was far from the truth. After the secret meeting in Howard's hotel room in Florida, Howard was arguing again with Ben Thompson and Ford Shelley over who owned the house, which Howard wanted to now desperately keep, even if it was only to save face with the public. Howard had in fact told Ford that he had contacts with certain Bahamian officials and Ford might be arrested if he dared step into the Bahamas. Ford was worried his family would be in danger if he came to the island, and didn't push it, therefore missing his chance to bid his final farewell to a dear friend.