Celebrity Mound

The pendulum of public opinion is constantly swinging when it comes to Larry Birkhead. One minute he’s a commendable single dad who sticks up for his daughter and the next, his intentions are called into question and scandal about his private life erupts.

The last couple weeks have been as volatile as any for Birkhead. He and Entertainment Tonight camera crews took an emotional trip back to the Bahamas together for the first time in nearly a year. (Bonus points went out to Birkhead for getting Dannielynn to call out for her mom on camera.)

That was followed up with a photo spread in OK! magazine, where father and daughter were pictured swimming with dolphins, clad in wetsuits emblazoned with the Atlantis Resort logo. “When it was all over, she was so exhausted that she fell asleep in my arms and I played a game of tickle nose with her. I kiss her on the nose and she just looks up at Daddy and falls asleep,” Birkhead told OK!

It sounds well and good, but when these moments exist in such a public backdrop — one Birkhead is reportedly well compensated for — it begs the question as to how long he’ll keep this gig up, and what his motivation is.

“With a nasty set of rumors and speculation facing him every day, Larry’s constantly looking for a way to prove he’s not the bad guy or the dishonest guy,” said one source close to Birkhead. “Any opportunity that comes along that allows him show publicly that he’s doing the right things for Dannielynn, he does it.”

Look for the next “opportunity” in March, when camera crews will allegedly follow Birkhead and Dannielynn into the recovery room after her upcoming eye surgery. The source added, “He talked about moving the date for the surgery up so that it would coincide with sweeps, but no such luck.”

A former companion of Anna Nicole Smith said Wednesday that her attorney-turned-boyfriend Howard K. Stern took several photographs of the collapsed body of her late 20-year-old son for profit.

G. Ben Thompson, a South Carolina developer, testified that Stern took about four pictures of Daniel Smith’s body after he died Sept. 10, 2006, while visiting his celebrity mother three days after she gave birth to her daughter in a Bahamian hospital.

Stern said the photographs “might be worth some money one day,” according to Thompson, who was embroiled in an ownership dispute with Stern over the Nassau mansion where he lived with Anna Nicole before her Feb. 8 death of a prescription drug overdose.

“I was totally shocked he was taking pictures of a dead child laying in that bed,” Thompson testified at the inquest into the death while being questioned by an attorney for Anna Nicole’s long-estranged mother, Virgie Arthur.

Stern’s attorney Shaka Serville said Thompson first made the allegations in October 2007 while appearing on a TV show hosted by Geraldo Rivera. Serville accused him of fabricating the statement about Stern as retaliation over the dispute for the $900,000 estate.

Thompson, who briefly dated Anna Nicole, says he advanced her money for the Nassau mansion but she did not honor an agreement to repay the debt. Anna Nicole, who lived there with Stern in the months before her death, claimed the house was a gift.

Serville said that Stern, who is the executor of Anna Nicole’s estate, took the photographs of the young man’s body to prove to her that Daniel was indeed dead. Witnesses have said she was highly distraught after his collapse.

The developer’s son, Gayther Thompson, also testified Wednesday. He alleged that Stern appeared to dispose of two white pills that he had found in Daniel’s clothes after his collapse in the hospital room.

An autopsy concluded that Daniel Smith died from a combination of drugs, including methadone and antidepressants. Police have said there is no evidence of homicide. So far, about 32 witnesses have testified before a Bahamian jury, which will formally determine what killed him.

Testimony in the inquest is adjourned until March 17, while court officials seek testimony from witnesses including Anna Nicole’s ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead, the father of the late Playboy Playmate’s 1-year-old daughter.

The late son of reality TV star Anna Nicole Smith was killed by a combination of methadone and the antidepressants Zoloft and Lexapro – a cocktail that would have turned lethal after about five hours – a pathologist testified Monday.

The conclusion by Dr. Govinda Raju, who performed the official autopsy on Daniel Smith, confirms the findings of a private doctor who examined the 20-year-old’s body after he died Sept. 10, 2006 in the Bahamas.

On the third day of an inquest into Smith’s death, Raju said the young man had five other drugs in his system – including two that medical personnel used in an attempt to revive him after he collapsed while visiting his celebrity mother at a Nassau hospital.

The former Playboy playmate herself collapsed and died Feb. 8 in Florida from an overdose of drugs.

A lawyer for Anna Nicole Smith’s attorney-turned-boyfriend Howard K. Stern, who was also in the hospital room the day Daniel died, said the drugs he was taking were all for either depression or back pain.

“Once you boil it all down, these were medicines treating either pain or depression,” said the attorney, Wayne Munroe.

Zoloft and Lexapro, which a U.S. doctor had prescribed, are antidepressants commonly used to treat anxiety and panic. Methadone is prescribed as a pain reliever and is also used to suppress symptoms drug users experience when going through withdrawal from heroin and other opiates.

Cyril Wecht, the doctor who performed a second autopsy at the request of Smith’s family, has said the other drugs in Daniel’s system included a third antidepressant, the sleep medication Ambien and an over-the-counter cold medicine. He said they did not play a role in his death.

Daniel Smith had bruises on his back and shoulders, but Raju said these could have been caused by medics who tried to revive him. Police have said there is no evidence of homicide.

Police believe he arrived in the Bahamas the night before his death and went directly to the hospital where his mother had given birth two days earlier. He spent the night in a room with his mother, Stern and newborn half-sister before losing consciousness.

Testimony is scheduled to resume Tuesday.

Anna Nicole Smith’s longtime companion Howard K. Stern and the bodyguard who attempted to revive the actress as she lay dying are locked in a new legal battle over alleged stolen photographs.

Stern’s attorney L. Lin Wood is advising media groups to steer clear of photos Moe ‘Big Moe’ Brighthaupt is offering round, because he claims they were obtained illegally.

The images range from sweet family shots of Anna Nicole and her baby daughter Dannielynn to disturbing images of the tragic actress/model throwing up.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Wood says, “Shortly after I was retained by Howard Stern, I received firsthand information that Moe Brighthaupt had contacted tabloids offering for sale one or more photographs of Anna Nicole Smith.

“Yesterday, photographs of Anna Nicole and (baby daughter) Dannielynn were posted on various internet websites. These photographs are the property of the estate of Anna Nicole Smith and were stolen from her camera shortly after her death.

“Big Moe denies selling the photographs but admits that he is distributing them. His misappropriation of estate property is unlawful and his stated motives for doing so are not credible.

“The estate shall pursue all available remedies against any individual or entity involved in the unauthorised distribution or publication of these, or any other, stolen photographs.”

But Brighthaupt insists Stern and Wood are in the wrong and he has never stolen anything from his former mistress.

He says, “Big Moe would never seek to profit from the disturbing photographs on various internet websites.

“Big Moe continues to mourn the death of his close friends but continues to question why (these) pictures of Anna Nicole Smith were ever taken in the first place.”

I Don’t Like You in That Way has the dreadful photos here (the first link is SFW but after the click the uncensored photos are not).

Click here to see the photos

(source)