Anna Nicole: Stern Reunites with Dannielynn, Vows to Keep Grandma Away

New developments in the sudden, tragic and mysterious death of Anna Nicole Smith:
" At an undisclosed location in the Bahamas, Dannielynn was reunited on Saturday with Howard K. Stern, Smith's lawyer and live-in beau, and the man whose name appears on the 5-month-old's birth certificate, as cameras for ET and The Insider rolled. "This is the only piece of Anna I have left," Stern told ET. "I had to get back to [her]. I know Anna loved her more than anything in the world." Stern vowed to keep the lass away from her maternal grandmother, Virgie Arthur, who on Friday bad-mouthed Smith to Good Morning America. "Anna despised that woman," said Stern. "As long as I have breath in my body, that woman will not see Dannielynn." ( New York Post)
" Joshua Perper, the chief medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Smith, says, "There were no findings that would indicate continuing drug abuse." Perper says more tests will be necessary to determine the cause of death, and that it would take three to five weeks to conclude the investigation. Law-enforcement officials, meanwhile, say that they found no illegal drugs, only prescription medicines, in Smith's hotel room, nothing unusual was observed on hotel surveillance tapes, and there was no evidence to suggest that a crime occurred. (AP)
" Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband of more than 20 years, Prince Frederick von Anhalt, 59, claims he had a decade-long affair with Smith and may be her daughter's father. Von Anhalt tells the Associated Press he will file suit if Dannielynn is turned over to Stern or Larry Birkhead.
" A Los Angeles judge has refused to order a DNA test on Smith's remains, but ordered that her body be preserved until a Feb. 20 paternity-suit hearing. ( Reuters) The DNA is needed to connect Smith with Dannielynn "so that no one can switch the babies," says Birkhead's lawyer. (MSNBC)
" Smith's illness began Wednesday, when she fell and hit her head on the tub at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino & Hotel in Hollywood, Florida (per The Insider). She was sick and feverish on Thursday when she lay down for a nap, and never woke up. After her bodyguard tried CPR, rescue workers arriving on the scene first tried to jump-start her heart with an external pacemaker, then intubated her and used an IV to administer adrenaline-type drugs, which are usually employed in drug-overdose cases. (New York Daily News)
" Sheriff's deputies were seen carrying at least eight brown paper bags, sealed with evidence tape, away from the hotel room. ( New York Post)
" At the time Smith died, her daughter, Dannielynn, was in the Bahamas (where she was born), in the care of the mother of a high-ranking official/friend of Smith's. ( Us)
" A request from the paternity-suit lawyer for Dannielynn's possible father, Larry Birkhead, to obtain a DNA sample from Smith's corpse has elicited outrage, if not confusion. "There's no question about her being the mother," says the deceased's attorney, Ron Rale. "So what's the purpose?" Birkhead's lawyer counters, "We are taking steps to protect the DNA testing of the child. The child is our No. 1 priority."
With the autopsy scheduled for Friday and results not expected for as long as several days, the cause of Smith's death is awash in speculation. While Rale deems talk of drug involvement "a bunch of nonsense," Smith's own mother fears the worst. "I think she had too many drugs, just like [Smith's late son] Danny," Virgie Arthur told Good Morning America on Friday. "I tried to warn her about drugs and the people that she hung around with. She didn't listen. By the last interview I saw of her, she was so wasted."
Hotel witnesses have also come forth to propel the sordid theory. "This was not the first time she passed out here," one Hard Rock employee tells the Daily News. "She does a lot of drugs." Adds a fellow hotel guest, "She was completely out of it."
Then there is the matter of Dannielynn, who could be in line to inherit as much as half of the $1.6 billion fortune Smith had claimed was promised to her by oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, her husband of a year. "There's going to be a lot of lawyers supping at the table before this meal is done," one attorney tells the Daily News. "The big unanswered question is, did Anna Nicole Smith have a will?" But even if Smith did appoint Stern as trustee of Dannielynn's money in a will, a lawyer tells the Post that that wouldn't stop Birkhead from securing custody, and thus have a say in the inheritance's distribution.
Within hours of Smith's passing, Birkhead filed for emergency custody of the daughter he claims is his, and there will be an emergency paternity hearing Friday in Los Angeles to address the matter. Birkhead's lawyer tells TMZ.com that her client is determined to emerge triumphant.
For other details, see our original reporting on Anna Nicole Smith's death.
Tune in to The TV Guide Channel beginning at 6 pm/ET, Friday, Feb. 9, for live coverage and updates on this developing story. Then watch a TV Guide special, Anna Nicole: An Unfinished Life , debuting Saturday, Feb. 10, at 3 pm/ET, which retraces Smith's life and career, from her emergence as a top model to her courtroom battles to her reality-TV comeback. Also examined: her tragic last months, her unresolved lawsuits and her final legacy. Encores will air throughout the weekend. Check local listings.