Porter Wagoner was known for a string of country hits in the ’60s, perennial appearances at the Grand Ole Opry in his trademark rhinestone suits, and for launching the career of Dolly Parton.

Like many older performers, his star had faded in recent years. But his death from lung cancer Sunday, at 80, came only after a remarkable late-career revival that won him a new generation of fans.

The Missouri-born Wagoner signed with RCA Records in 1955 and joined the Opry in 1957, “the greatest place in the world to have a career in country music,” he said in 1997. His showmanship, suits and pompadoured hair made him famous.

He had his own syndicated TV show, “The Porter Wagoner Show,” for 21 years, beginning in 1960. It was one of the first syndicated shows to come out of Nashville and set a pattern for many others.

“Some shows are mechanical, but ours was not polished and slick,” he said in 1982.

Among his hits, many of which he wrote or co-wrote, were “Carroll County Accident,” “A Satisfied Mind,” “Company’s Comin’,” “Skid Row Joe,” “Misery Loves Company” and “Green Green Grass of Home.”

The songs often told stories of tragedy or despair. In “Carroll County Accident,” a married man having an affair is killed in a car crash; “Skid Row Joe” deals with a once-famous singer who’s lost everything. In 2002, he was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Howard K. Stern was just Anna Nicole Smith’s lawyer once upon a time.

The late model’s companion filed a creditor’s claim in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, requesting 6 percent of any money Smith’s estate recovers from that of her husband of 13 months, J. Howard Marshall II, whose estate was worth a reported $500 million when he died in 1995.

Stern, who was appointed executor of Smith’s will in June, cited a contingent fee (payment for services rendered) agreement on file in bankruptcy court that states he’s entitled to a portion of proceeds from the battle he helped Smith wage against Marshall’s family, which has contested Smith’s spousal inheritance since day one.

The 6 percent fee is “conditioned upon recovery in the Marshall litigation,” says state court documents obtained by celebtv.com.

When Smith died in February of an accidental drug overdose, her personal assets were totaled at about $710,000; but her daughter, 13-month-old Dannielynn Hope Marshall Birkhead, figures to inherit millions if and when the Marshall matter is ever sorted out.

Smith declared bankruptcy in 2001 and was awarded $474 million due to misconduct on the Marshalls’ part; that judgment was later reduced to $88 million and then was overturned by a California appellate court. In May 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Smith could again pursue her claim in federal court.

Stern, meanwhile, also filed court papers last week in which he requested that Dannielynn be officially established as the sole heir to Smith’s fortune, stating that although Smith’s will was drawn up in 2001—five years before she had Dannielynn—she would have wanted her second child “to share equally in the trust created for Daniel.”

As it stands, the will names Daniel Smith, who died at 20 just days after his half-sister was born, as his mother’s sole beneficiary.

Larry Birkhead was appointed guardian of his former lover’s estate and has been said to be on good terms with Stern since it was determined he was Dannielynn’s biological father.

Very good terms, according to former MSNBC anchor Rita Cosby, who has authored an Anna Nicole exposé in which she claims Stern and Birkhead were lovers and in cahoots to get control of Smith’s estate and custody of Dannielynn.

Stern has since filed a $60 million defamation suit against Cosby, and Birkhead has also threatened legal action.

Meanwhile, a hearing scheduled for last Friday regarding items seized during a raid on the homes and offices of two of Smith’s doctors has been postponed until Dec. 5.

Psychiatrists Khristine Eroshevich and Sandeep Kapoor are under investigation in connection with prescriptions found at Smith’s home in the Bahamas and in her room at the Hollywood, Florida, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, where she died on Feb. 8.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler (late of the Phil Spector murder trial) ordered Deputy District Attorney Renee Rose and Kapoor’s attorney to arrange for copies to be made of various documents, including some patient records.

Those papers, as well as three computers seized from his home and office, will be returned to the doctor after they’ve been examined, Rose said.

Deborah Kerr, who shared one of Hollywood’s most famous kisses and made her mark with such roles as the correct widow in “The King and I” and the unhappy officer’s wife in “From Here to Eternity,” has died. She was 86.

Kerr, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease, died Tuesday in Suffolk in eastern England, her agent, Anne Hutton, said Thursday.
For many she will be remembered best for her kiss with Burt Lancaster as waves crashed over them on a Hawaiian beach in the wartime drama “From Here to Eternity.”

Kerr’s roles as forceful, sometimes frustrated women pushed the limits of Hollywood’s treatment of sex on the screen during the censor-bound 1950s.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated Kerr a six times for best actress, but never gave her an Academy Award until it presented an honorary Oscar in 1994 for her distinguished career as an “artist of impeccable grace and beauty, a dedicated actress whose motion picture career has always stood for perfection, discipline and elegance.”
She had the reputation of a “no problem” actress.

“I have never had a fight with any director, good or bad,” she said toward the end of her career. “There is a way around everything if you are smart enough.”

Kerr (pronounced CARR) was the only daughter of Arthur Kerr-Trimmer, a civil engineer and architect who died when she was 14.
Born in Helensburgh, Scotland, she moved with her parents to England when she was 5, and she started to study dance in the Bristol school of her aunt, Phyllis Smale.

Kerr won a scholarship to continue studying at the Sadler’s Wells Ballet School in London. A 17 she made her stage debut as a member of the corps de ballet in “Prometheus.”

She soon switched to drama, however, and began playing small parts in repertory theater in London until it was shut down by the 1939 outbreak of World War II.

After reading children’s stories on British Broadcasting Corp. radio, she was given the part of a hatcheck girl with two lines in the film “Contraband,” but her speaking role ended on the cutting-room floor.

After more repertory acting she had another crack at films, reprising her stage role of Jenny, a Salvation Army worker, in a 1940 adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s “Major Barbara,” and receiving favorable reviews both in Britain and the United States.

She continued making films in Britain during the war, including one — “Colonel Blimp” — in which she played three different women over a span of decades.

“It is astonishing how she manages to make the three parts distinctly separate as characterizations,” said New Movies magazine at the time.

Kerr was well-reviewed as an Irish spy in “The Adventuress” and as the tragic girlfriend of a Welsh miner in “Love on the Dole.”

She was invited to Hollywood in 1946 to play in “The Hucksters” opposite Clark Gable. She went on to work with virtually all the other top American actors and with many top directors, including John Huston, Otto Preminger and Elia Kazan.

Tired of being typecast in serene, ladylike roles, she rebelled to win a release from her MGM contract and get the role of Karen Holmes in “From Here to Eternity.”

Playing the Army officer’s alcoholic, sex-starved wife in a fling with Lancaster as a sergeant opened up new possibilities for Kerr.
She played virtually every part imaginable from murderer to princess to a Roman Christian slave to a nun.

In “The King and I,” with her singing voice dubbed by Marni Nixon, she was Anna Leonowens, who takes her son to Siam so that she can teach the children of the king, played by Yul Brynner.

Her best-actress nominations were for “Edward, My Son” (1949), “From Here to Eternity” (1953), “The King and I” (1956), “Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison” (1957), “Separate Tables” (1958), and “The Sundowners” (1960).

Among her other movies is “An Affair to Remember” with Cary Grant.

Other notable roles were in “The Sundowners,” “Beloved Infidel,” “The Innocents” (an adaptation of the Henry James novella “Turn of the Screw”), “The Night of the Iguana” with Richard Burton and “The Arrangement” with Kirk Douglas.

After “The Arrangement” in 1968, she took what she called a “leave of absence” from acting, saying she felt she was “either too young or too old” for any role she was offered.

Kerr told The Associated Press that she turned down a number of scripts, either for being too explicit or because of excessive violence.

She refused to play a nude scene in “The Gypsy Moths,” released in 1968. “It was when they started that `Now everybody has got to take their clothes off,’” she said. “My argument was that it was completely gratuitous. Had it been necessary for the dramatic content, I would have done it.”

In fact she undressed for “The Arrangement,” even though the scene was later cut. “There the nude scene was necessary, husband and wife in bed together,” Kerr said. “That was real.”

She returned to the stage, acting in Edward Albee’s “Seascape” on Broadway and “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” in Los Angeles.
Her Broadway debut was in 1953, when she was acclaimed as Laura Reynolds, a teacher’s wife who treats a sensitive student compassionately in “Tea and Sympathy.”

After a full season in New York, she took it on a national tour and recreated the role in a movie in 1956.

Kerr was active until the mid-1980s, with “The Assam Garden,” “Hold the Dream” and “Reunion at Fairborough” all in 1985.

She told the AP that TV reruns of her old movies have “kept me alive” for a new generation of film fans.

In 1946 Kerr married Anthony Charles Bartley, whom she had met as a squadron leader in the Royal Air Force. They had two daughters and were divorced in 1959. A year later she married Peter Viertel, a novelist-screenwriter, with whom she lived on a large estate with two trout ponds in the Swiss Alpine resort of Klosters and in a villa in Marbella, Spain.
Kerr is survived by Viertel, two daughters and three grandchildren.

Friends and admirers of Luciano Pavarotti joined in a chorus of grief as the world paid homage to the thrilling voice and exuberant personality of the great Italian tenor who died Thursday.

Amid an outpouring of tributes, the Vienna State Opera raised a black flag in mourning and his northern Italian hometown of Modena, where he died at age 71 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, said it would name the city’s theater after its native son.

Newscasts and Web sites across the globe, from Israel to the U.S. to Europe, led with news of his death. Radio stations aired his unmistakable recordings in tribute to his memory.

“The whole world will be listening today to his voice on every radio and television station. And that will continue. And that is his legacy. He will never stop,” said conductor Zubin Mehta, who directed Pavarotti in Rome and Los Angeles for his “Three Tenors” concerts with Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras.

“I always admired the God-given glory of his voice — that unmistakable special timbre from the bottom up to the very top of the tenor range,” Domingo said in a statement from Los Angeles. “They threw away the mold when they made Luciano. He will always be remembered as a truly unique performer in the annals of classical music.”

Carreras told reporters in Karlstad, Sweden, that “there is no doubt that he has been one of the most important tenors of all times.”

“I remember that last time I was visiting him in his town in Modena, at his home, he was preparing some special bread and tomato for me together with prosciutto. He was entertaining also in the gastronomic aspect that he liked very much,” Carreras said. “We have to remember him as the great artist that he was, the man with such a wonderful charismatic personality, very good friend and a great poker player.”

Mirella Freni, an opera great and one of Pavarotti’s close childhood friends, told The Associated Press: “The world has lost a great tenor, but I’ve lost a great friend, a brother. We grew up together, studied singing and God blessed us with great careers. I’ve lost a brother.”
For fans and colleagues, the beauty of Pavarotti’s voice and his charismatic performances made him the ideal interpreter of the Italian lyric repertory, especially in the 1960s and ’70s when he first achieved stardom.

“It was incredible to stand next to it and sing along with it,” soprano Joan Sutherland said of Pavarotti’s voice at the time.
A 14-week tour of Australia with Sutherland and her husband, conductor Richard Bonynge, gave Pavarotti the recognition he needed to launch his career. He also credited Sutherland with teaching him how to breathe correctly.

“My husband … and I had great joy working with him. The quality of the sound was so different. You knew immediately it was Luciano singing,” Sutherland told BBC radio.

Soprano Renee Fleming, preparing for a performance in Matsumoto, Japan, remembered singing with Pavarotti during a telecast at Lincoln Center.
“He had the most perfect technique in the history of recorded music,” she said in an e-mail to the AP. “He also captured the hearts of the larger public in a way which rivaled only Enrico Caruso in the 20th century.”

But Pavarotti’s voice was just the beginning. He was credited with bringing opera to millions through his showmanship and his outdoor concerts.

“He brought arts performance to people who don’t go to opera house. None of the classical singers have had the ability and courage to do that,” said Hong Kong tenor Warren Mok.

The Royal Opera House in London said in a statement that Pavarotti was “one of those rare artists who affected the lives of people across the globe in all walks of life.

“Through his countless broadcasts, recordings and concerts he introduced the extraordinary power of opera to people who perhaps would never have encountered opera and classical singing, in doing so he enriched their lives.”

Larry Birkhead and Howard K. Stern both plan to sue the author of a new book that claims the two men shared a sexual encounter before Anna Nicole Smith’s death and worked together afterward to manipulate the media and maximize profits.

“Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith’s Death,” by journalist Rita Cosby, hit stores Tuesday.

Birkhead, the father of Smith’s infant daughter, said that though he has yet to see the book, he intends to sue Cosby, her sources and Grand Central Publishing.

“This is going to be one of the most expensive lawsuit settlements in book-publishing history,” Birkhead told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Stern also planned to “file and aggressively pursue a libel case” against Cosby and her publishers, his attorney, L. Lin Wood, said on Tuesday.

“The more information I have received over the last several days about Ms. Cosby’s book, the more convinced I am that she has, as a practical matter, authored a work of pure fiction,” Wood said in a statement.

Birkhead acknowledged meeting with Cosby several times after Smith’s death in February. But he flatly denied that he and Stern, Smith’s attorney and sometime boyfriend, ever shared a sexual tryst.

“It’s totally false and defamatory,” Birkhead said. “This book is fueled by Internet gossip and tabloid reports. She never once tried to contact me or Howard to see if any of these things were true.”

Cosby claimed there is a videotape of the alleged encounter and that one of Smith’s former employees had seen the Playboy Playmate watching it. But Birkhead said no tape could exist because the encounter did not occur.

Cosby quotes Birkhead on some topics in the book, she said, but not on the sexual rumors.

“We also knew what Birkhead would say because we’ve seen him inconsistent on many other things,” she told AP Tuesday, adding that the book cites numerous sources and was “carefully vetted through attorneys at our publishing house.”

“I have nothing to hide,” she said. “I make no apologies for the book, and at the end of the day, the American public will see that these two men conspired to fool us all.”

Birkhead denied the book’s claim that he and Stern made a “secret deal” about finances and the custody of Smith’s daughter, Dannielynn.
“There’s been no deal cut. There’s nobody even positioned to make deals,” Birkhead said, noting that he is still involved in a custody dispute with Smith’s mother, Virgie Arthur.
Cosby said she expected backlash from Birkhead and Stern when she started writing the book in April.

“I knew going into this that this was going to be challenged by them at every turn because they don’t want the truth to come out,” she said.

Birkhead said the sources Cosby cites “all have pending litigation against me so they all have axes to grind.”

He also accused the author of opportunistic timing: “Rita Cosby uses this week, the week that my daughter turns one and the anniversary of (Smith’s son) Daniel’s death, to try to sell a book or two.”

Cosby said Dannielynn inspired her to write the book.

“The real issue here and the reason I did this book was that little baby,” she said. “The question is: What’s ahead for her future if these two men appear to be in collusion? … I hope that my book will expose some of the inconsistencies that have been out there and maybe have these cases given a second look.”

Dannielynn turns one on Friday.

Grand Central Publishing did not return messages seeking comment.

A judge on Friday extended an order prohibiting release of a 1994 videotape documenting breast augmentation surgery for Anna Nicole Smith.

Superior Court Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff issued a preliminary injunction against Gerald Wayne Johnson, a Texas doctor who performed the surgery. The injunction prevents the sale, distribution or dissemination of the videotape.

The judge originally issued a restraining order against Johnson on Aug. 3 at the request of Smith’s former attorney and executor of her will, Howard K. Stern.

Beckloff also reissued a temporary restraining order with the same conditions against Johnson’s wife, Alana.

Smith died of an accidental drug overdose in Florida in February at 39.
Stern contended that Smith never consented to having her surgery recorded and that Johnson sent a tape of the procedure to Thomas Riccio, a Los Angeles-based memorabilia dealer.

Johnson has said he routinely records surgeries with the patient’s permission and promises to keep the video confidential “during the patient’s lifetime.”

Stern, the Johnsons and the couple’s attorney did not appear at the hearing.

Superior Court Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff granted the order Friday at the request of Smith’s former attorney and executor of her will, Howard K. Stern. The injunction prevents the sale, distribution or dissemination of the videotape.

In court documents, first obtained by CelebTV.com, Stern accused Gerald Wayne Johnson, the Texas doctor who performed the surgery, of sending a tape showing the procedure to Thomas Riccio, a Los Angeles-based memorabilia dealer. Stern claims the surgery was taped without the former model’s consent.

Smith died of an accidental drug overdose in Florida in February at the age of 39.

In a letter written June 22, Johnson said he routinely records surgeries with the patient’s permission and promises to keep the video confidential “during the patient’s lifetime.” Johnson said he gave Riccio permission to use the video after Smith died.

Stern claims Johnson’s wife and Riccio would share in any proceeds from the sale of the videotape to various media outlets.

Telephone messages left for Stern’s attorney, Vivian Thoreen, and Johnson’s attorney, Gus Pappas, were not immediately returned Tuesday.

Larry Birkhead’s former attorney filed a lawsuit against him Tuesday, claiming he didn’t pay his legal bills during a paternity dispute involving his and Anna Nicole Smith’s baby.

Debra Opri wants to force binding arbitration under the terms of a contract in which she agreed to represent Birkhead in September, according to the lawsuit filed in Superior Court.

Opri said her work on Birkhead’s behalf was “extensive, entailed hundreds of hours of work” and required her to travel to multiple states and outside the country. The lawsuit did not specify a dollar amount.

After-hours phone messages left for Opri’s attorney, David Owen, and Birkhead’s lawyer, Michael Whalen, were not immediately returned.

Birkhead sued Anna Nicole Smith in October seeking a paternity test of her daughter, Dannielynn Hope, to determine who was the baby’s father.

Howard Stern, Smith’s attorney and longtime companion, had also claimed to be the father and was listed on the baby’s birth certificate.

A Los Angeles judge ruled in Birkhead’s favor in December but the DNA testing was not performed until months later. Smith died in Florida on Feb. 8 of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.

After a highly publicized court dispute, paternity tests released last month showed Birkhead was the baby’s father.

Opri was Birkhead’s attorney during most of the dispute but later withdrew from the case without explaining why.

Lindsay Lohan vowed she would die before going to rehab.

The actress was disappointed with herself when she realized she needed to be treated for alcoholism.

She checked into Los Angeles’ Wonderland Centre on January 18 after a heavy drinking session following the Golden Globe Awards.

Lindsay told Allure magazine: “It’s so weird that I went to rehab. I always said I would die before I went to rehab.”

The 20-year-old star, who is rumored to be in a lesbian relationship with DJ Samantha Ronson, also revealed she acts as her family and friends’ protector.

She explained: “When my friends and family are around me I feel like they’re safe. When my friends have left me – I’ve just seen everything collapse. They’re not safe without me.”

Despite her stint in rehab, Lindsay says she has no plans to stop partying, insisting, “It’s my life!”

However, the “Bobby” actress admits she is concerned her fans are getting tired of her wild behavior.

She said: “Everybody’s tired of hearing things about me. I think it’s just better for me to lie low and get better.”

Two nude photographs of Kate Moss are expected to sell for $80,000 in a London auction next month.

The two prints will go under the hammer at London’s Christie’s auction house next month.

One of the photos – taken by Irving Penn in 1996 – shows Kate sitting in the nude from sideways on and is expected to fetch around $44,000.

The other picture, taken by Albert Watson, is valued at $30,000.

Also available is a famous picture taken by Corinne Day when Kate was just 16, along with an iconic image of the model dressed in pants and a pink vest surrounded by fairy lights.

The photo was taken by Corinne as part of a fashion shoot for Vogue magazine when Kate was 19, and is expected to be sold for $14,000.

There will also be a rare set of six prints, snapped by Chuck Close, of Kate without make-up, which are expected to sell for between $30,000 and $40,000. Christie’s King Street Sale of Photographs takes place on May 31.

Jo Dyer graduated from the elite Sandhurst military academy alongside William in December, in front of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II.

The army second lieutenant was killed by a roadside bomb attack west of the southern city of Basra, along with three colleagues and a local civilian interpreter.

“Prince William is deeply saddened to hear the tragic news of Jo Dyer’s death,” the 24-year-old’s Clarence House residence said.

“Jo was a close friend of his at Sandhurst and he is very much thinking of her family and friends right now and they will remain in his thoughts and prayers.”

Dyer was attached to the Second Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment to gain operational experience in Iraq.

The deaths of Dyer and Private Eleanor Dlugsoz in Thursday’s attack brought to four the number of female British personnel killed since the start of the US-led invasion in March 2003.

Overall, 140 British troops have died since hostilities began.

Lieutenant Colonel Mark Kenyon, Dyer’s commanding officer, said: “Her contribution to our operations, even within a few short weeks, was invaluable.”

Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday the deaths were “as a result of a terrorist act.”

William, second in line to the British throne, is an officer in the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household Cavalry. The second lieutenant is known as Cornet Wales in the army.

William’s brother Prince Harry, 22, is preparing to serve in southern Iraq with the Blues and Royals.

While the world waits with bated breath—not to mention big bucks riding on office pools—the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter is about to be revealed.

Though whether that revelation comes next week or—implausibly but, in this saga, not impossibly—next month is anyone’s guess. We just know for sure it’s not happening today.

A closed-door hearing in the drawn-out paternity battle between Howard K. Stern and Larry Birkhead concluded today in the Supreme Court of the Bahamas without any bombshells. Another hearing was set for next week.

But while signs indicate that the results of court-ordered DNA tests may soon be revealed, none of the principal players in drama is talking.

Primarily, because they can’t.

According to Bahamian legal code, lawyers, officials, and anyone who was lucky enough to snag a seat in one of the most closely watched courts in recent memory is prohibited from discussing any details of the case, even down to what’s on the day’s agenda.

Which is why, from here on out, it’s simply a waiting game to find out the results of the DNA swabs.

Anticipation for a major ruling was running high going into this morning’s hearing, especially after Stern on Monday dropped a last-ditch motion trying to block the baby’s results from being released.

Smith’s lawyer/companion was fined $10,000, and the hearings were scheduled to resume. With no more appeals pending, the court could render its judgment at any time and determine whether Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern will be adding Birkhead to her list of monikers.

Stern, who has been caring for the child since Smith’s Feb. 8 death, took the child in for a cheek swabbing on Mar. 21. However, when the results do come in, they will not necessarily prove that Stern is the father—they will simply prove whether or not Birkhead is.

Dannielynn’s DNA will only be tested against the photographer’s, as well as that of less likely paternal candidate Prince Frederic Von Anhalt. Stern was never ordered to give a sample because he is already listed as the father on the girl’s Bahamian birth certificate.

As for the tests themselves, they were reportedly sent out to the DNA Diagnostics Center in Fairfield, Ohio, under the auspices of one Dr. Michael Baird. He is expected to present the results in court, perhaps during next Tuesday’s session, though he has remained mum on any immediate travel plans.

At least one involved party, however, doesn’t appear too worried about the technicality of DNA results.

Last month, and virtually every month prior, Birkhead has spoken out about his certainty over his fatherhood, going so far as to announce that he is already getting a nursery ready in his Los Angeles home.

Steve Irwin’s widow Terri is still waiting for the late ”Crocodile Hunter” to come home and ”walk through the door.”

The 42-year-old widow is struggling to come to terms with the death of the Australian conservationist, who was killed last September aged just 44.

She said: “It’s extremely difficult. Part of me is still waiting for the day that he walks through the door.”

Terri also revealed she and her children, Bindi, eight, and three-year-old Bob often watch Steve’s old TV shows.

She added: “We have so much footage of Steve and we watch it so it’s like we almost get to see him every day. The kids and I have good days and bad, but you just deal with it as it comes.”

Steve was killed when his heart was pierced by a stingray barb while he was filming a documentary off the Great Barrier Reef last year.

Terri has refused to blame the sea creature for her husband’s attack, and recently urged fans of the naturalist to respect stingrays.

She said: “If Steve had come out the other side, I am sure he would have used it as an educational tool.”

“Everybody understands the rules of rays, now. I think people should love rays. They are cute little pancakes in the ocean and their only defense is that incredible barb.”

The murky circumstances surrounding Anna Nicole Smith’s death could become clearer Monday, when authorities are expected to release the results of the former pinup’s autopsy.

The anticipated disclosure of what killed Smith comes more than six weeks after she was found unresponsive at her hotel suite in Hollywood, Fla.

The autopsy results had been expected weeks ago but have been repeatedly delayed, in part because the Broward County medical examiner, Dr. Joshua Perper, said he received additional evidence from the Seminole Police Department. The department is investigating the starlet’s death because the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino where she was staying is located on tribal land.

Authorities would not disclose what the additional evidence was.

Perper’s initial autopsy report was released a day after Smith’s death, but he said an extensive battery of tests was being performed to search for all manner of causes.

Perper’s initial tests found no evidence, either in Smith’s stomach or her bloodstream, that she had taken large amounts of prescription medication. The medical examiner said prescription drugs, but no illegal drugs, were found in Smith’s hotel room. He would not identify the drugs.

The initial examination did find signs of inflammation in Smith’s heart. Perper said it was “something which looks a little bit unusual” but that it may be nothing.

Because Smith’s death was so sudden and because her 20-year-old son Daniel died under suspicious circumstances five months earlier, there has been speculation of possible criminal activity. The Seminoles will not comment on their investigation, although they initially said there was no indication Smith was the victim of a crime.

Smith arrived at the Hard Rock on Feb. 5 and planned to leave four days later aboard a new yacht her companion Howard K. Stern was arranging to buy. She was said to be suffering from a stomach flu before she was found dead Feb. 8.

Smith was a former Playboy Playmate of the Year, Guess jeans model and bride of 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II.

Stern and two other men have claimed they are the father of her baby, Dannielynn.

Woody Harrelson’s father has died in prison.

The actor’s dad, Charles Harrelson, who had been serving two life sentences in a maximum-security Colorado federal prison for the 1979 slaying of a federal judge, died last week aged 69.

A Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman, Felicia Ponce, said: “He was found unresponsive in his cell on March 15.”

Fremont County Coroner Dorothy Twellman has ruled that Charles most likely died of a heart attack in his sleep.

Woody was just seven-years-old when his father was first jailed, for killing a Texan businessman.

In 1982 – when Woody was in college – Charles was convicted of slaying a federal judge in San Antonio, Texas, in what prosecutors described as a $250,000 contract murder. He maintained his innocence and appealed in 1998, but the conviction was upheld.

A representative for Woody was not available for comment.

The father of Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter will be revealed soon.

A DNA test to determine five-month-old Dannielynn’s father was ordered by the Bahamas Supreme Court yesterday (Mar 20, 2007).

Anna Nicole’s former lover photographer Larry Birkhead, who claims he is Dannielynn’s father, was overjoyed by the ruling.

Birkhead, who pumped his fists in the air and jumped up and down as he emerged from court, said: “I feel great. It was a great day in court for me. Bahamian people, thank you so much!”

Asked if he thought he would see Dannielynn soon, he smiled and winked.

Anna Nicole’s lover and lawyer Howard K. Stern – who is listed as Dannielynn’s father on her birth certificate – was left devastated by the judge’s decision. He said: “I’m doing the best I can.”

Stern, who is currently caring for Dannielynn, was ordered not to leave the Bahamas with her before the custody ruling.

Frederic von Anhalt, the husband of legendary Hollywood beauty Zsa Zsa Gabor, also claims he could be Dannielynn’s father.

Dannielynn has been at the center of a paternity battle since her mother collapsed in a Florida hotel room and died aged just 39 last month.

She could inherit millions from the estate of Anna Nicole’s late husband, oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall.

Anna Nicole had been fighting his family for his estimated $500 million fortune since he died in 1995.

Anna Nicole Smith’s secret diaries could jeopardize her claim to her late husband’s estate.

Anna Nicole – who died last month aged just 39 – writes about a series of lovers she had before she married billionaire J. Howard Marshall in 1994.

The two explosive diaries, which are being auctioned on internet website eBay for up to $1 million each, are set to question Anna Nicole’s entitlement to her late husband’s estate.

Anna Nicole, who met the oil tycoon in a Houston strip club in 1991, was terrified about telling a lover she could be pregnant in 1992 – and considered having an abortion.

She said: “He will only support me if I have it. But if I decide to go the other way he won’t. I’ll be on my own. I think that’s tacky. I’m scared.”

One entry shows her irritation with Marshall for calling her “20 times a day” when they first started dating.

However, Anna Nicole does show a softer side to her relationship with 89-year-old Marshall in the second diary, often proclaiming her love for her husband.

She wrote: “My husband is very sick. I want every hour to comfort him.”

The diary shows her dedication to Marshall, revealing how she fed him and cared for him. She also vents her frustration at Marshall’s son for cutting off her money.

The second journal, which begins in 1994, ends on the day Marshall died in 1995.

The former model also reveals she hated sex. She said: “I hate for men to want sex all the time. I hate sex!”

The diaries – along with her book of business contacts and driving license – are being sold by a former neighbor who kept them after he saw Anna Nicole’s mother, Virgie Arthur, throwing them out.

Following Anna Nicole’s death, the dispute for the Marshall estate will be carried on in the name of her six-month-old daughter Dannielynn.

A lawyer for one of three men claiming to be the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby girl, Dannielynn, asked a judge Tuesday to order late Playboy model’s partner, Howard K. Stern, to come to California and provide a DNA sample.

Attorney Debra Opri, who represents Smith’s former boyfriend Larry Birkhead, said after a closed hearing that she wants the DNA to determine if Stern is the baby’s father. His name is on the little girl’s birth certificate.

“Put up or shut up, that’s what we’re asking for,” Opri said outside court.

Superior Court Judge Robert Schnider refused to make Stern a part of the paternity court action but said he would review the matter in two weeks after he considers the law more closely, Opri said.

Stern was living with Smith at the time of her death. He and the baby, Dannielynn, currently reside in the Bahamas.

Opri said Birkhead needs a paternity ruling from California to present in the Bahamas to strengthen his case for claiming paternity of the child.

“Without it, we have a weak argument,” she said.

Ron Rale, a lawyer who had represented Smith, argued against the DNA request, saying Stern’s name is already on the birth certificate as the father.

“Howard Stern doesn’t have to go to Larry Birkhead for anything,” Rale said.

Schnider originally asserted jurisdiction in the paternity suit in California because Smith had connections in Los Angeles and Birkhead claimed the baby was conceived in California.

Smith, 39, died of unknown causes Feb. 8 after collapsing at a Florida hotel.

A court in the Bahamas is currently dealing with custody issues involving the child. A judge has barred Stern from taking the girl out of that country until a custody ruling is made.

Birkhead attended the hearing in Los Angeles and said he was confident he would be declared the father.

“I’ve been putting a nursery together so I’m smiling. I’m in a good mood,” Birkhead said outside court.

Meeting the child in the Bahamas, where Smith was buried, “was one of the greatest things in my life,” he said. “That was my delivery room just to get to meet her.”

Frederic von Anhalt, the husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, also says he may be the father.

Smith married Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II in 1994 when he was 89 and she was 26. The reality TV star and Playboy playmate had been fighting his family over his estimated $500 million fortune since his death in 1995.

Richard Jeni, a standup comedian who played to sold-out crowds, was a regular on the “Tonight Show” and appeared in movies, died of a gunshot wound in an apparent suicide, police said Sunday.

Police found the 49-year-old comedian alive but gravely injured in a West Hollywood home when they responded to a call Saturday morning from Jeni’s girlfriend, Los Angeles Police Officer Norma Eisenman said.

Eisenman said the caller told police: “My boyfriend shot himself in the face.”

Jeni died at a nearby hospital.

Eisenman said suicide had not been officially confirmed and the investigation was continuing. An autopsy on Jeni would be done Monday, said Lt. Fred Corral from the investigation division of the coroner’s office.

Jeni regularly toured the country with a standup act and had starred in several HBO comedy specials, most recently “A Big Steaming Pile of Me” during the 2005-06 season.

Another HBO special, “Platypus Man,” won a Cable ACE award for best standup comedy special, and formed the basis for his UPN sitcom of the same name, which ran for one season.

Jeni’s movie credits included “The Mask,” in which he played Jim Carrey’s best friend, “The Aristocrats,” “National Lampoon’s Dad’s Week Off,” and “An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn.”

He had guest appearances in the TV shows “Everybody Hates Chris,” “Married: With Children,” and updated versions of the game shows “Hollywood Squares” and “Match Game.”

Frazer Smith, standup comedian who often opened for Jeni and the emcee at the Ice House, where Jeni often performed, said young comedians looked up to him.

“He was probably one of the best standup comedians in the last 50 years,” said Smith. “He had tons and tons of material. He was looked up to by all the young comedians, a total pro.”

The Brooklyn-born comic first received national attention in 1990 with the Showtime special “Richard Jeni: Boy From New York City.” Two years later, his “Crazy From the Heat” special attracted the highest ratings in Showtime’s history.

Jeni became a frequent guest on “The Tonight Show” during Johnny Carson’s reign and continued to appear after Jay Leno took over as host.

He also wrote comic material for the 2005 Academy Awards, which was hosted by his friend
Chris Rock.

Even before her death last month, Smith was a case study for students of estate law. Her lengthy, widely publicized court feud with the family of her late husband, Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, over his estate landed them in at least one widely used textbook, “Wills, Trusts and Estates.”

Now, because of a poorly drafted will and the courtroom fights over her burial and custody of her infant daughter, law professors are finding her troubles can again serve as an example to students.

Professors say that over the past month they have answered questions about court proceedings in the case or have used Smith to illustrate an issue in class. Some have even distributed and discussed copies of her will.

“The students were asking right away — ‘When are we going to talk about Anna Nicole Smith?’” said Susan French, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. She assigned Smith’s will as reading material and discussed it in class.

French and other professors said Smith’s case brings up good points for discussion and touches on issues covered by their classes.

For example, what happens if children are born after a will is written, as Smith’s infant daughter was? What happens if a beneficiary dies before the will’s creator, as Smith’s son did?

One clause, in which Smith appears to disinherit future spouses and children, is particularly intriguing for law classes. It’s something a man would write if he might have illegitimate children, professors said. Why would it be in Smith’s will? Was she an egg donor? Did she give a baby up for adoption? Or, was it just language carelessly copied from a template?

Smith’s will also illustrates one common flaw, that many wills don’t include a contingency plan, said Stephen Urice, a professor of trusts and estates at the University of Miami.

Urice’s students also read Smith’s will and discussed its flaws in class.

“It was enormously helpful,” student Lou Mandarini of the classroom critiquing of Smith’s will.

Unlike Smith’s case, fresh from the headlines, most classroom examples seem divorced from daily events, said Sean Carney, a law student at the University of California, Davis.

“Even though the cases we read about come from the real world they come bound in a big fat book,” Carney said.

Two professors who expect to confront Smith’s case again are New York University’s Robert Sitkoff and Northwestern University’s James Lindgren, editors of “Wills, Trusts and Estates,” in which Smith previously served as an example.

Sitkoff is teaching the subject at Harvard this semester, and received e-mails from students asking questions about Smith even before he brought her up in class. Lindgren was surprised when a class of international students also expressed interest.

Smith will likely remain in their book’s next edition, both said, partly because students enjoy cases with recognizable participants.

“There can be contracts cases with Elvis. It does make it easier to teach,” Lindgren said.