By Art Harris, (c) www.artharris.com, all rights reserved

As we close out the year, we came across one of the 2007 turning points in the ugly Anna Nicole wars: Rita Cosby popped with a $60 million libel suit that raises serious questions about journalistic standards in the era of 24/7 cable news and the reporting of an Emmy award winner.

It happened outside a New York restaurant hosting a book party for Blonde Ambition, a so called expose that lead to Howard K. Stern’s lawsuit after Cosby detailed a purported gay tryst on tape between the Anna Nicole Smith executor and Larry Birkhead both men deny…

…A third-hand sex story Cosby concedes, under oath, that came from Virgie Arthur’s private investigators, and that she never spoke directly to the purported eye witnesses, Anna Nicole’s Haitian nannies, who deny the yarn, or eyeballed the mystery tape that has yet to turn up. Read the rest of this entry »

Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Hollywood, Florida

By Art Harris, (c), www.artharris.com, all rights reserved

When Howard K. Stern tried to subpoena all police records related to the death of Anna Nicole Smith in the files of the Seminole Tribe of Hollywood, Florida, he didn’t get very far.

On December 28, the tribe filed an emergency motion –obtained exclusively by The Bald Truth — to quash Stern’s request for records to use in his defamation case against a Texas lawyer who called him a murderer on national TV.

And his lawyer, Lin Wood, learned a quick lesson that classic civil litigation rules rarely apply on tribal lands, where the ex Playboy centerfold died of an accidental overdose at the Hardrock Hotel & Casino in Feb. 2007. Read the rest of this entry »

By Art Harris, (c) www.artharris.com, all rights reserved

No one ever accused Houston lawyer John O’Quinn of being stingy when it comes to worthy causes.

Despite some who view at least one pro-bono client less deserving than his other charitable endeavors, The Bald Truth wanted to applaud the legendary litigator for generous pockets in his $300,000 gift to a pioneerng Texas School dedicted to helping childen with autism, bipolar disorder and other hard-to-crack issues that limit their ability to learn and function in the world. Read the rest of this entry »

Don Clark, former Head of FBI, Houston, now private investigator

By Art Harris, (c) www.artharris.com, all rights reserved

What did he know and when did he know it?

That’s what former FBI-agent Don Clark-turned-Virgie Arthur PI may be asked when he faces Lin Wood, the attorney for Howard K. Stern. A deposition scheduled for Wednesday in Houston was postponed over attorney scheduling conficts and will go forward early next year, we’ve learned. When it does, he’s likely to be asked, just what was his role, if any, in Rita Cosby’s book accusing Stern and Larry Birkhead of a gay tryst on tape both deny and no one has produced?

Clark claims no part in the book, though Cosby says otherwise. Read the rest of this entry »

Britney Spears Album Cover

By Art Harris, (c) www.artharris.com, all rights reserved

While Us magazine named Britney Spears the top Hollywood meltdown of 2007, beating out, Owen Wilson’s suicide attempt and Paris Hilton’s jailhouse rock, we don’t see Anna Nicole Smith anywhere on its top 10.

Does that mean the Ultimate Meltdown, an accidental overdose leading to a Dead Celebrity doesn’t count? Would Elvis have made it? Anna Nicole Smith still ranks among the top three to five celebs hunted via the web’s hottest search engines. Read the rest of this entry »

From ETonline:

“ET has learned exclusively that ANNA NICOLE SMITH’s late son, DANIEL, was hospitalized to treat symptoms of depression and back pain just two months before he flew to the Bahamas to visit his mother and newborn sister, DANNIELYNN, according to medical records introduced at the inquest.

According to investigative journalist ART HARRIS, www.etonline.com reports Bahamian prosecutors introduced medical records showing the 20-year-old entered the intensive care unit of a California hospital in July of 2006, when he was treated for an “impaired mental status” that cited “the misuse of Valium” as a factor. Read the rest of this entry »

A Video Is Worth A Thousand Words: Characters From The Inquest

By Art Harris, © www.artharris.com, all rights reserved

While a Bahamian police forensics expert appeared more certain than any pathologist so far that methadone alone killed Anna Nicole Smith’s son, Daniel, courtroom observers told me the real shocker at Tuesday’s inquest were medical records that showed he’d been hospitalized for depression and back pain two months before visiting his mother in Nassau.

According to Daniel’s medical records obtained by Bahamian police, Smith entered the intensive care unit of a California hospital in July of 2006, when he was treated for an “impaired mental status” that cited “the misuse of valium,” a powerful tranquilizer often prescribed for anxiety, as a factor.

While Wayne Munroe, attorney for Howard K. Stern, lawyer and boyfriend of his mother, said a physician had prescribed medication for his back pain, and his depression, as well as counseling or therapy sessions, the specific pain drug was not listed in the records.

Observers told me the records were introduced when most media were apparently out of the courtroom and also missed the magistrate’s announcement he would adjourn the inquest until January 28, citing scheduling conflicts with lawyers and witnesses. Read the rest of this entry »

By Art Harris, www.artharris.com, all rights reserved

On the third day of the inquest in the Bahamas, Houston lawyer John O’Quinn Monday was busy in West Palm Beach, filing an amended motion asking a federal judge to dismiss the defamation suit Howard K. Stern filed against him for calling the Anna Nicole Smith executor a murderer on national television.

In a 17 page brief, O’Quinn argued whatever statements he made came on the heals of public discussion of the suspicious nature of two deaths, Anna’s and son, Daniel, and his status as a lawyer for Virgie Arthur, Anna’s mother, who had a bonafide interest in her dead progeny. Read the rest of this entry »

Howard K. Stern Describes Emotional Toll Inquest Taking

By Art Harris, www.artharris.com, all rights reserved

My sources inside the inquest Monday in Nassau say a pathologist who did the official autopsy on Daniel Smith confirmed findings by Dr. Cyril Wecht that the son of Anna Nicole Smith died from a lethal drug combo of methadone and two anti depressants.

Working from the same toxicology reports as Wecht, the private pathologist hired to do an independent autopsy by Daniel’s mother, Dr. Govinda Raju said the 20 year old could have died within five hours after ingesting the drugs, reports Bald Truth special correspondent Lincoln Bain who sat in on the hearing. Read the rest of this entry »

Legendary Litigator John O’Quinn With Admirers At Firm’s Annual Xmas Party Saturday

By Art Harris, www.artharris.com, all rights reserved

We were blown away Saturday night to have snagged an invite to the annual Christmas soiree thrown by legendary Texas litigator John O’Quinn, who, even by Texas standards, knows how to throw a 10-gallon party.

It took a while for our sultry correspondent to meander through the maze of black ties, cowboy boots and bejeweled designer belles–all required to flash an elite invite and procure an armband that, gasp, covered up some blinding Texas bling flashed by what writer Tom Wolfe might have dubbed mighty fine lemon tartes.

We counted maybe 1,000 of the law firm’s best friends, clients and colleagues. all co-mingling, fantasizing about sugar plum bonus checks and lining up at the giant martini bar by the giant Star of Texas ice sculpture to slake powerful thrists…Then, it was on to partaaaaaay! Read the rest of this entry »