Anna Nicole Smith had a secret she only shared with a close friend over a decade ago: she had lupus, the deadly auto-immune disease that can cause severe pain in the joints, hair loss, high fever and the same “flu-like” symptoms she reportedly had before she died at the Hard Rock Hotel in Florida three weeks ago.
If what Frank Rodriguez, a longtime friend who appeared on Smith’s self-styled reality show, is true, it opens up a whole new explanation that could explain the tragic path to her death–a disease gone diagnosed but largely untreated because she didn’t want fans or anyone to know.
In an exclusive interview on Entertainment Tonight last night, Frank Rodriguez revealed the tragic secret Anna Nicole made him promise he would keep–that the former Playboy centerfold e suffered from the little understood autoimmune disease called lupus. He insists he was one of the few people who knew of her health battle, which he promised to keep to himself.
But now Rodriguez has gone public with Smith’s dark secret because he thinks that’s what killed her. Read the rest of this entry »
Everything was going so smoothly this morning, as I sat with the unflappable Dr. Perper in his office and learned that the body was ready to move. All the required health papers had been filled out and filed; bureaucratic wranglings with Bahamian authorites and funeral homes were done. All that was left was for the embalmers to come in for a couple of hours before liftoff to dress the former Playboy centerfold in her favorite designer white dress, do her makeup then pack her in a very expensive casket for the flight to be buried next to her beloved son, Daniel.
“She looks very beautiful,” Dr. Perper was saying, reflecting on her display several days ago at the morgue when he set up an impromptu and very rare viewing for family members: Howard K. Stern, Larry Birkhead and Mom Virgie Arthur. They all came at separate times and there were kneeling benches so anyone who wanted to could pray near the casket.
An hour after leaving his office, I called the 4th Circuit, and learned it had granted a temporary stay to Virgie Arthur. Her daughter’s body was going nowhere fast. I called Dr. P. who seemed taken aback, then recovered. “I have no personal stake,” he told me. “I’m just here to do what the court tells me.” Read the rest of this entry »
Sources tell me plans are firming up to fly Anna Nicole Smith’s embalmed body to the Bahamas on Tuesday, with a possible funeral on Friday. As ordered by Judge Larry Seidlin, who has been reviewing Virgie Arthur’s request for a stay, Dr. Joshua Perper, the Broward Medical Examiner will travel with the body, along with the guardian ad litum he appointed, Richard Milstein.
I’m predicting the judge will reject the stay, and the 4th Circuit will refuse to hear it, so the body lift to the Bahamas can proceed on schedule.
As for toxicology reports, sources tell me they will be in from 10-14 days, allowing Dr. Perper enough information to determine how the starlet-turned centerfold died on Feb. 8. Read the rest of this entry »
I was miffed by the legal pundits and armchair quarterbacks who trashed Judge Larry Seidlin as a whacko crybaby, including my friend Nancy Grace who tossed a lawbook over her shoulder to illustrate rules of evidence thrown out the window.
From where I sat, I could watch every moment of the roller coaster proceeding, the three players, Anna Nicole’s Mom, Virgie Arthur, Howard K. Stern and likely biodad Larry Birkhead, 18 lawyers and Judge Larry riding herd or trying to corral it, and I kept watching them when the pool camera was not.
This was no criminal trial fest like O.J. or Michael Jackson we are accustomed to, with strict rules and depositions taken, this was probate court where the goal is not to convict, but equity, to wind up with a fair outcome for all parties. Sure it seemed crazy, but there was a method to the madness—a mix of mediation, marshal law, group therapy and revival.
Judge Larry reminded me of the role French judges play under their Napoleonic Code–not only as judge, but prosecutor. They can cross-examine witnesses and ascertain truths, and have done so effectively in terror trials that have thwarted plots in progress. To watch unorthodox and never boring Judge Seidlin take the reins from the lawyers and cut to the chase was legal gestalt, amazing to behold, as he went digging for truth and came up with motives behind everyone’s love for the former Playboy centerfold turned America’s Celebrity Princess Diana. Read the rest of this entry »
Last night on her show, Nancy Grace asked me, “So, Art who came out the winner Wednesday in court?”
Hands down, it was Larry Birkhead, the photographer who says he loved Anna Nicole Smith, the celebrity vixen he dated for almost two years, even after she miscarried their baby, even after she broke his heart by dallying with a rich South Carolina developer, even after he watched her use drugs while pregnant with Dannielynn and could do nothing to stop her.
While he portrayed a beautiful starlet addicted to painkillers, methadone and more, he bore no malice. He wanted her to rest in peace, he testified, and has been struggling with his conflicted feelings that maybe the best place to lay her to rest would be the Bahamas, next to the son she adored. It was a stunning moment to watch the most likely biodad actually agreeing with the father Anna Nicole named on the birth certificate — Howard K. Stern. Read the rest of this entry »
Law enforcement sources tell me investigators in charge of the Anna Nicole Smith death investigation want to examine two laptops and an external hard drive taken from her home in the Bahamas in search of clues to why the 39-year old sex symbol suddenly came down with “flu-like symptoms,” then mysteriously died at the Hard Rock Casino Hotel in Hollywood, Fla. Feb. 8.
“There’s an interest in reviewing the items to see if they may assist in investigating a death that is untimely at the very least,” one law enforcement official told me. Last week, investigators recovered some of the items. “No one has used the word ‘“suspicious,’ but it’s obvious they have suspicions that are causing them to look deeper into it.”
Investigators from the Seminole Police Department overseeing the death probe flew to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina last week to collect Anna Nicole’s property from the Horry County Sheriff. How did the alleged stolen property get from the Bahamas to Myrtle Beach? They flew first class, with Anna Nicole Smith confidante Ford Shelley, who lives there and has a home in the Bahamas. Read the rest of this entry »
Here on the sunny Left Coast, in Hollywood, Florida, where Anna Nicole Smith came to play, then died mysteriously before picking up her new boat…it’s now a waiting game.
The Broward medical examiner, Dr. Joshua Perper is waiting for results of toxicology tests on his most beautiful cadaver, America’s new princess of fame, Anna Nicole, aka Vicki Lynn Marshal, who died after falling unconscious Feb. 9 at the Hardrock Hotel on the Seminole Reservation.
The next day, the pathologist did an autopsy, and predicted it would be three to five weeks before he’d have findings back. There were no obvious signs of foul play, and he’s said Howard K. Stern and her close friends were helpful in pinpointing previous conditions and other factors that lead him to more narrowly focus his examination. Read the rest of this entry »
No question, voluptuary tabloid dream girl Anna Nicole Smith was hot, hot, hot…but not hot enough to set off the Geiger counter. Geiger Counter?
That’s right, after she died, the respected Broward County Florida Medical Examiner, Dr. Joshua Perper, tested her body for radiation poisoning, not because there were any signs, but to rule it out as yet another wild theory of how the tabloid tease died, in case someone brought it up. If they did, he figured much better to shoot it down in advance.
In our exclusive interview, Dr. Perper tells me about some of the outlandish rumors he’s had to debunk in recent days, and he’s done it all in the lab…
She was murdered; she od’d; she choked on her own vomit; she spiked a fever from an infection caused by recent plastic surgery…
No, No, No…Wrong. Naaaaah. Yet all were reported on air or in print…But Dr. Perper doesn’t get riled, he doesn’t get ruffled…He just gets to work and debunks them with science, a tabloid’s worst nightmare, the facts. Read the rest of this entry »
By Art Harris (c) www.artharris.com, all rights reserved
“I could release Anna Nicole Smith’s body tomorrow,” the Broward County Medical Examiner (ME) is telling me as a cold rain hammers his office Monday in Hollywood, Florida, “if I had a court order saying who is legally entitled to her body.”
Dr. Joshua Perper says he’s extracted enough tissue, blood and bone marrow to test dozens of Cinderella Daddys for DNA matches, though only four so far are publically vying for Anna Nicole’s daughter, Dannielynn. And…the ME has taken enough samples for toxicology tests, too, so that that in several weeks, he’ll have an answer to how Anna Nicole died, if not how she lived. He doesn’t need the body any longer.
He says Howard K. Stern is the only family member to ask for the body so far, but he’s keeping Anna Nicole locked away in a refrigerated drawer “as a courtesy” to the California judge conducting a paternity hearing next week. In fact, Dr. Perper has written a letter on behalf of Stern, telling the judge there’s no scientific need to hold the body any longer, that Anna Nicole can be buried without undermining his death investigation or any future DNA tests.
He says he could release the body next week, after that hearing if he gets a local court order naming Stern as the legal next of kin. Then a funeral home would likely take over and the body would be readied for a burial. Read the rest of this entry »
The Bald Truth has learned widow Tomi Rae Brown plans to be in Aiken, S.C. and attend the hearing to remove or restrain the trustees of James Brown’s estate on Friday. “She’s told us she wants to be there and we are delighted,” says attorney Robert Rosen.
At least some of James Brown’s children, named in the will that left out Tomi Rae and James II, are expected as well. It will be the first time her former step-children have seen Tomi Rae and a little boy they once called their little brother in public since their father’s funeral and memorial service.
The last time she was in town, she found the gates to the estate she shared with the rock singer locked. Long-time Brown attorney Buddy Dallas says he did it not to specifically lock out Tomi Rae, but to protect the property from interlopers. Read the rest of this entry »
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