In a letter to Gov. Charlie Crist, the Broward County judge said he wants to “devote more of my daily life to my own young family and to pursue the many opportunities that have been offered to me outside the judicial system, and I have disregarded until now.”

He said the “opportunities are varied, (but) all share in common a further commitment to helping my fellow citizens through roles in the educational system, the media and nonprofit organizations.”

During the six-day probate battle over where to bury Smith, Seidlin, 53, made some wince for telling it like he saw it, with earthy quips like “this body belongs to me.” (Translation: jurisdiction.)

But the former New York cabbie won fans, too, and stirred enormous media interest after he tearily gaveled the case to a close, and ordered that Smith be buried in the Bahamas next to her son, Daniel. She died of an accidental overdose at the nearby Hardrock Hotel & Casino in nearby Hollywood, Fla.; the same cause of death cited for Daniel earlier.

So, Stern got his Father’s Day wish, to see Dannielynn…Larry did a poolside interview with Geraldo, and posed for OK magazine again.

On Tuesday, they are both off to probate court in Los Angeles, now allied in asking a probate judge to declare their roles as executor and guardian official, so they can begin working together to revitalize Anna Nicole’s estate to support her daughter.

By Art Harris, (c) The Bald Truth, all rights reserved

It will be a poignant first Father’s Day for Dannielynn, the first one with her new Dad, Larry Birkhead, who’s busy fixing up the Studio City house, new paint, new carpets, baby-proofing, to raise his little girl the way Anna would have wanted, friends tell me, …and the first time Anna Nicole hasn’t played Dad for her children on Father’s Day.

“Anna saw herself as both mother and father to Daniel,” Howard K. Stern is telling me in an emotional late night call from the Bahamas, before taking off to spend Sunday with his own father and family in California. “Everyone used to get her cards and presents and flowers. Just like we did on Mother’s Day. ”

Her favorites were lilies, Stargazers and pink roses, he’s saying. And before he flew home to also meet with probate lawyers for the June 19 hearing that’s expected to name Stern executor and Birkhead guardian of the estate, Stern made a private visit to the Bahamas cemetery to leave flowers on Anna’s grave, next to her late son, Daniel, the same flowers they used to pick out for Anna together.

“Daniel gave her a painting he’d done on the last Father’s Day they spent together,” says Stern. “He spent the day with his mother, and it was really special to her. The family was there, even Larry (Birkhead) came by.”

Nowadays, Stern usually visits Anna and Daniel alone, at odd hours, to avoid paparazzi on Horizons’ watch, so he can weep privately for the woman he loved and managed for almost 11 years, whose career he helped turn around, and the quiet, blond-haired boy he mentored who, friends tell me, looked up to Stern as a father figure.

“I loved Daniel,” he says. “We spent a lot of time together. I watched him grow up…Anyone who knows how we were knows that. It’s sickening to hear what some people who don’t know what happened are saying. But the truth will come out.”

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