Virgie Arthur Testifies in Florida, 2007, Talks to FOX’s Greta Van Sustern

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

Within six short days of Daniel Smith’s death, Virgie Arthur hit television shows to accuse her long-estranged daughter, Anna Nicole Smith, of negligence, or murder in connection with the apparent accidental overdose of her own son, and warned her to be careful about companion Howard K. Stern, fingering him as a possible killer, too, out to make a buck.

Now shocking e mails from Arthur’s own photo agent, David Leigh of Splash News, obtained exclusively by The Bald Truth, reveal a grieving grandmother hustling her own media deals. In hawking exclusive rights to cover her own memorial service for Daniel in Texas, to TV shows and magazines like In Touch weekly, the e mails suggest a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

“If you do want to have exclusive coverage inside the church, we’re going to need a firm commitment pretty soon,” David Leigh writes Entertainment Tonight in an e mail dated Sept. 29, 2006. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

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 »

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

In this video flashback–we’re serving up the first in a series of memory jogs to offer inquest-watchers clues to the characters in the sad and twisted tragedy of Hollywood dreams, sex, drugs, greed and lies.

Check out the “good friend” who said Anna asked him to grab all her private items from her home should anything happen to her, then answer our poll questions:

Do you buy it? Did Anna consider FS a friend when she died? Should investigators trust him? Do YOU believe him? Do you think Ford and father in law, G. Ben Thompson, will actually show up for the inquest they have been so vocal about?

Oh, and please help us understand another Ford conundrum video at the end of our piece–in one interview, he says he’s well aware of Anna’s drugs and how to administer them, including methadone, and later, with my old friend, Geraldo Rivera, appears totally dumbfounded about her medicine chest. Read the rest of this entry »

Geraldo Exclusive: Ex-Bahamas Cop Says Don Clark Was Rita’s Source, ex-GMan Denies It!

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

In a worldwide web exclusive, The Bald Truth has learned the only sources author Rita Cosby used to report the alleged Stern-Birkhead “Gay Sex Tape” tryst in her book, Blonde Ambition, besides Jackie Hatten, were none other than two private eyes working for Virgie Arthur and her attorney John O’Quinn.

In Cosby’s videotaped deposition given in connection with a $60 million libel suit filed against her by Howard K. Stern—and obtained exclusively by The Bald Truth—the ex-MSNBCer says her sources were ex-FbI agent turned PI Don Clark, and a mystery sidekick, Wilma Vicedomine, a 40 year old Houston divorcee who claims she worked “pro bono.”

“And is it your testimony today that the investigator who provided you with that (gay sex tryst allegation about my client) found at page 204, was in truth and in fact Don Clark. Am I right?,” Stern attorney Lin Wood asked, according to the Nov. 15 deposition (next page), scoring in a verbal duel with the verbal TV talk queen. Read the rest of this entry »

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

The Bald Truth has learned Howard K. Stern’s pitbull lawyer is scheduled to take Rita Cosby’s deposition Thursday in New York City. AND, Lin Wood confirms, it will all be caught on court-approved videotape.

If anyone wonders why Wood got the green light from a federal judge to put the ex-MSNBCer under oath so quickly after filing a $60 million libel suit against her, all you have to do is read transcripts from the Oct. 18 hearing on Nannygate, obtained exclusively by The Bald Truth, and you will understand the concerns of U.S. District Judge D. J. Chin. Read the rest of this entry »

Larry King Live Airs Nanny Denial Cited in Judge’s Ruling

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

In a world wide web exclusive, The Bald Truth has learned a New York federal judge Tuesday granted Howard K. Stern’s request for expedited discovery in his $60 million libel suit against author Rita Cosby, who wrote he engaged in a gay tryst on tape with Larry Birklhead.

In his motion, obtained first (and posted below) by artharris.com and reported exclusively by ETonline, U.S. District Judge D. J. Chin writes that he ruled for Anna Nicole Smith’s executor after reviewing “substantial” and “troubling” evidence showing Cosby apparently tried to “improperly influence witnesses,” when she flew to the Bahamas and offered to pay two former Anna Nicole Smith nannies she’d never interviewed for the book to back gay sex charges in her bestseller, Blonde Ambition.

In the book, Cosby writes the nannies saw the late Playboy centerfold watching Stern and Larry Birkhead cavorting on a gay sex tape. Both have denied they are gay and ever had sex. No tape has yet to surface.

“Because Stern has presented substantial—indeed , troubling—evidence that Cosby has sought to improperly influence witnesses, the application is granted,” writes Judge Chin, siding with arguments made by Stern’s pitbull attorney, Lin Wood, and perhaps signaling legal hurdles ahead in his courtroom for Cosby and her publisher, Hachette. Read the rest of this entry »

courtesy, Debraopri.com

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

We are totally bummed!

After months of page one billing on her website, The Bald Truth has learned that attorney Debra Opri has removed her hot link to our growing news site, www.artharris.com. We were crushed, until we learned the rest of the story.

Why we wondered, was she sending her fans and visitors to check us out, to read her own original petition and supporting motions we’d broken that backed Opri’s since rejected plea for binding arbitration over a $620,000 legal fee that made Larry Birkhead ballistic. What we felt newsworthy were an attorney’s exhibits that appeared to trash a former client. We considered it a window onto a case that has been as much smear as strategy, and now understand why hauling her own Larry trash was apparently too hot for her own online ‘hood to handle. Read the rest of this entry »

Courtesy of Entertainment Tonight

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

Flanked by her defamation lawyer and her chief private investigator, Virgie Arthur told reporters Tuesday she’d flown into the Bahamas for the coroner’s inquest into the death of her grandson, in the hope it would jumpstart the “process of justice”

While Anna Nicole Smith’s estranged mother has been unrelenting in trying to tar executor Howard K. Stern with suspicion, even suing him for defaming her, magistrate William Campbell made it clear to the seven member fact-finding jury police had no evidence the death of Daniel Smith, 20, was a homicide, according to those who attended the first day of the coroner’s inquest.

If they had, my guest correspondents report, the judge said there would have been suspects arrested, and no need for an inquest. Read the rest of this entry »

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

In another world wide web exclusive, The Bald Truth has obtained the first round of fiery motions in the $60 million libel suit suit Howard K. Stern filed against author Rita Cosby and her publisher over salacious gay sex charges in her book about Anna Nicole Smith, “Blonde Ambition.”

Stern has accused Cosby of trying to “influence the testimony of two witnesses in this case,” nannies who worked for the late Playboy centerfold, and cites his fears other witnesses may be tampered with unless depositions are taken fast. But the author’s lawyer dismisses the need for speedy discovery.

It’s all in motions filed last week in New York’s U.S. District Court (hot links on next page) and obtained exclusively by The Bald Truth.

In her opposition, respected attorney Elizabeth McNamara argues Stern “fails to articulate good cause for this court to deviate from” standard rules of discovery, thus no need for speed.

But Stern’s aggressive lawyer, Lin Wood, in a motion filed Friday, insists audiotapes made of Cosby discussing payments to the nannies offer “good cause for … limited expedited discovery” of her “attempts to interfere with potential witnesses” in the libel case. Read the rest of this entry »