Anna Nicole Smith’s Ex Sues Again

By: Shannon Gossage

Birkhead filed a paternity suit in a Los Angeles courthouse on October 2. The papers reportedly state that Smith and Howard K. Stern "conspired to misrepresent Stern as the father of Smith’s six-week old daughter, Dannielynn Hope, and committed libel and slander by denying Birkhead is the father." The suit is seeking the Bahamas’ registrar general change the baby’s last name on all legal documents to Birkhead from Stern.

Birkhead is in the process of getting a court to order Smith to return to California with the baby for a DNA test to determine paternity. Birkhead’s lawyer Debra Opri, said earlier this month, "This is an urgent issue that needs to be resolved and we are seeking the court’s order to have her return to this jurisdiction for testing." At a press conference on Thursday Birkhead said, "I just want to say that I am the father of Dannielynn and I think this is a crime, what these people are doing to me, and I expect to be reunited with my daughter with the help of my attorney."

Stern appeared on Larry King Live on September 26 and announced he was the baby’s father. He claimed to have loved Smith "for quite some time" and said "based on the timing of it, there shouldn’t be a doubt" that he fathered the child. Three days after his television appearance, Stern and Smith held a commitment ceremony. There are conflicting reports about whether or not it is a legal marriage. It just seems as if Smith and Stern are going to an awful lot of trouble to keep the baby’s paternity protected…who knows…maybe Stern really is the father…stranger things have happened…