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.

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.

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.