Larry Birkhead brought his 17 month-old daughter, Dannielynn, to the grave site of her mother, the infamous departed Anna Nicole Smith, in the Bahamas yesterday for the first anniversary of her death. He just happened to dress the tot in her finest and bring along a television crew. The touching moment when Dannielynn whispered “momma” and laid a pink toy on the grave of the mother she’ll only know from videos and photos was captured for the benefit of the curious masses and will be broadcast on Entertainment Tonight.

February 5, 2008 (Los Angeles, CA)– ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT’s JANN CARL was exclusively with Larry Birkhead and daughter Dannielynn this week in Nassau, Bahamas as the 17-month-old made her first trip back to visit her mother and brother’s graves, one year after her mother’s sudden death.

In an a multi-part interview to begin airing on Wednesday, February 6th, Birkhead says the visit is difficult for him, but he arranged it for his daughter, “It’s tough. Even though she doesn’t understand, it was important for us to come. One day I can tell her that we went to visit her mom.” When they arrived at the unmarked gravesites, Dannielynn placed a pink toy turtle on Anna Nicole’s plot and whispered, “mama.”

On why the graves of Anna Nicole and Daniel are without tombstones, Birkhead says, “A rough draft came back with a sketch of a picture I didn’t care for. I could just hear her hitting me over the head saying, ‘Why did you let that picture go down!?’” Birkhead reveals that the design of the headstone will be “so grand and big. It’s going to encompass Daniel’s stone too.”
When asked how he feels about making the journey from Los Angeles to Nassau, Birkhead speaks candidly, “I don’t like the fact that they’re here, I never did. I know that Daniel didn’t want to be here and I know that his mother was only here because of what was going on between us with the paternity question. To me it feels really odd.” On if he has considered moving the graves, he says, “I’m going to leave the decision to Dannielynn when she’s older. It would probably be very hard, if not impossible to take both of them and I definitely don’t want to separate them.”

In an effort to keep Anna’s memory alive for their daughter, Birkhead tells ET, “I keep a lot of memories around. I quiz her and she knows Mama. I say, ‘Where’s Mama?’ and she’ll give Mama a kiss on the picture.”

[ET press release via Gossip Rocks]

What I want to know is – how are they going to spread this out into a multi-part interview? She’s dead, it’s hard, your daughter doesn’t understand, end of story. I mean you feel for people’s pain but what else is there to say?

Part of me doesn’t want to hate on Birkhead. The guy is a former paparazzo who really does care about his daughter and fought hard to win custody of her. He’s also obviously not adverse to using his daughter to make a buck and he’s probably running low on cash now that his deals are drying up and he has all those legal bills he’s contesting. (It seemed like he really got fleeced by that lawyer Debra Opri, and he’s probably paying someone a lot of money to fight that case. He also probably has to pay for those grand gravestones he’s ordering for Anna Nicole and Daniel.)

Birkhead has told The NY Daily News that he plans to sue over yet another book about Anna Nicole, “Anna Nicole Smith: Portrait of an Icon,” which is currently available for download for $15. The book was written by a fashion designer for Anna Nicole and his partner. The designer alleges that he met Birkhead at a camp for HIV positive youth and that he was quite open about his preference for men.

Birkhead also said that author Rita Cosby would be sued for a book about Anna Nicole that came out last year called “Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith’s Death” which claimed that Birkhead and creepy Anna hanger-on Howard K Stern were gay lovers. It was Stern who ended up suing Cosby to the tune of $60 million.

The inquest into Anna’s son Daniel’s death is underway. The coroner testified that 20 year-old Daniel’s death a year and a half ago couldn’t have been an accident, which suggests murder or suicide. He had too much methadone in his system for it to have not been intentional. Many people suspect Anna’s lawyer, Howard K Stern, had a hand in Daniel’s untimely demise. Anna’s death less than six months later was ruled an accidental overdose.

As for whether it’s news that Dannielynn went to her mom’s grave before she’s even two, I doubt it. Take some sweet pictures and do the interview at home or go to the park and play. Go to Disneyworld and get all your meals, admission and hotel stay comped while trying to score some cash for a cross-promotional deal. The kid won’t remember that either, but at least it will be fun for her.

The inquest into the death of Anna Nicole Smith’s son Daniel has resumed. Though he died sixteen months ago, the inquest has been plagued by delays. The essential point is to determine how Daniel Smith died and if anyone was responsible for his death. His autopsy blamed a fatal combination of prescription drugs. However the inquest’s purpose is to figure out if it was accidental, suicidal, or if someone killed Daniel. A lot of suspicion has fallen on creepy Howard K. Stern, Anna’s “partner” – though it seems that they were likely never romantically involved. After Anna died last spring, the inquest was put on hold again. However they’ve been working at a steady pace the last few days, and have taken testimony from several of Anna’s friends.

Several of Anna’s associates have described Daniel as a boy who was painfully shy and somewhat embarrassed by his mother.

Ford Shelley, the son-in-law of G. Ben Thompson, a former boyfriend of the reality star and the developer who owned the Nassau home Smith and Howard K. Stern resided in the months leading up to her death, told the Coroner’s Court that the 20-year-old boy was a “brilliant” child who had for years been “living in a shell” as a result of his mother’s overshadowing fame and larger-than-life public persona.

“He wanted to break free,” Shelley said. “He loved his mother but didn’t want to be known as her son.”

[From E!]

Shelly denied that Daniel could have had a drug problem, noting that he “couldn’t even hold his liquor” and was “afraid of his own shadow.” Shelly noted that after Daniel died, he saw Howard K Stern find two white pills in the pockets of a pair of Daniel’s pants – which Stern quickly flushed down the toilet. Shelly said that he knew Daniel had recently broken up with his girlfriend and had a history of serious depression, but that he did not think he was suicidal. However the director of the medical examiner’s office in Miami-Dade County (where Daniel’s toxicology tests were performed) said it was likely an “intentional ingestion” due to the sheer quantity of drugs.

While eight different drugs, a combination of antidepressants and stimulants, were found in Daniel’s body at the time of his death, “clearly the methadone was the key in understanding this death. But for the methadone, he would not have died.”

[Dr. William Lee] Hern further claimed that, while he could not know for certain whether he did so deliberately or unintentionally, the large amount of drugs taken by Daniel in such a short amount of time—a onetime dosage of four pills rather than one, possibly diluted in a drink—lent itself to “a high degree of probability” that the overdose of drugs was “an intentional ingestion.”

“Based on the amount in the stomach, it was not an attempt to get high,” he said. “It was enough to kill him, with some left over unabsorbed. If what was in his blood hadn’t killed him, the remainder would have continued its toxic effect.”

[From E!]

I never though Daniel’s death was accidental, it was just a matter of speculating whether he killed himself or Howard K Stern did it. Whenever I considered the possibility of suicide, I couldn’t help but think about the timing. When you’re 20 years old, an only child, and admittedly very close to your needy mother, it must be incredibly bizarre for her to suddenly have a brand new baby girl and be shaking up with an evil guy. I thought Daniel might have been suicidal depressed because he perhaps thought he didn’t matter to his mother as much as he used to. I would think a lot of things were changing in his life, and that’d have to be a shock to the system. It never occurred to me that he obviously had his own life and own issues, and breaking up with a girlfriend can be really hard – especially when you’re just 20 years old. It can feel like the world is ending.

The issue of the methadone still remains incredibly suspicious, considering it played a role in Anna’s death a few months later. Being a lawyer, you’d think that if Howard K Stern were involved in some way, he’d be smart enough not to use methadone twice. But he’s never struck me as a particularly intelligent fellow, at least to hear him speak in interviews. So at this point we know that Daniel Smith’s death was caused by an “intentional ingestion” of drugs. What remains to be ruled is whether foul play was involved.

Thank God Larry Birkhead is around to keep us updated on the excruciating minutiae of his life. That’s a fancy way of saying “Thank God Larry Birkhead is pimping out his daughter.” Because let’s be honest, Dannielynn is really the other thing Birkhead’s got going for him, gossip-wise. Well that and oddly over-arched eyebrows, but I’ll leave that alone for today. According to Birkhead – who just had to go on “Entertainment Tonight” to make this announcement – Dannielynn is suffering from strabismus, which is making her cross-eyed. As many as five percent of all kids have some form of strabismus, which is generally treated first with an eye patch.

Larry Birkhead, says, “She has a… turning in of one of her eyes, and it’s something that we’ve been looking out for for a while. I’ve been taking her to the doctors and… Anna had taken Dannielynn to the doctor to see about it when she was just a few months old.”

Birkhead admits his daughter was initially pleased with her new look thanks in part to her love for pirates. He explains, “I got her a little pirate doll to show her that people wear patches, and it’s OK, and daddy wears a patch if he has to to show her it’s OK. I’ve been really aggressive with the patch as much as I can be. At first she was really open to it and it didn’t really bother her. Now, she’s gotten a little smart because she can pull it off, so it’s a little bit harder for me to patch her.”

If the eye patch and medication doesn’t correct the problem, Dannielynn may face surgery. Birkhead adds, “Having lost Anna and (her son) Daniel… and my dad, (who) just came out of a simple surgery and he died, it’s just tough for me to think about surgeries.”

[From Starpulse]

Despite the jokes, I’m guessing one of the reasons Larry Birkhead is publically talking about Dannielynn’s strabismus is so people know why she’s wearing the eye patch and don’t speculate about it. According to Us Weekly, Birkhead asked several doctors if the condition could have been caused by Anna Nicole’s purported drug use while pregnant with Dannielynn. All of the doctors said no, it’s just one of those things that happens.

I was always jealous of those eye patch kids when I was little. There were always one or two in every grade, and they often had something cool on their patch like a duck or a frog. And they got a lot of attention. It was almost as good as having a cast, which I saw as the ultimate status achievement of the first grade. Larry Birkhead does seem to be exposing Dannielynn to a lot of publicity. But at least he’s being attentive. Imagine how much better Paris Hilton’s life would have been if her parents had paid attention and fixed her wonky eye from the get go? She might be rich and famous by now.

Picture note by Jaybird: Larry Birkhead and Dannielynn returning to Los Angeles after spending Christmas together with Larry’s family in his hometown of Louisville, KY on January 3rd. Splash now blurs images of children’s faces. Images thanks to Splash Photos.

Forbes has just released a list of the most powerful celebrity babies, based on media exposure of the last year. Which is a shame, as I was hoping it was based on super powers. Unfortunately, being the child of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt only gives you the beauty gene, not the ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Hollywood’s Most Influential Babies

1. Shiloh Jolie-Pitt
2. Suri Cruise
3. Zahara Jolie-Pitt
4. Sean Preston Federline
5. Pax Jolie-Pitt
6. Sam Alexis Woods
7. David Banda Ritchie
8. Dannielynn Birkhead
9(tie). Romeo Beckham
9(tie). Cruz Beckham

Forbes

While Shiloh might have topped the list for media exposure, I’m guessing that in reality Suri is more influential. She’s got the whole cult of Scientology behind her! Head of photo agency World Entertainment News Network Jill Stempel also suggests that Suri is responsible for resuscitating Tom Cruise’s career post-couch jumping, making him more human.

Of course, in twenty years I fully expect these babies to be dating each other and getting arrested in awkward circumstances. As the Hollywood Brat Pack of 2027 I’m sure they’ll all continue to command a big media presence, but I’m not sure whether any of them will be independently successful as someone more famous than their parents. Particularly if Britney drops poor little Sean Preston on his head again. Then again, some people might have suggested that Angelina Jolie wouldn’t ever be more successful than her father John Voight, and she seems to be doing okay for herself.

Since it’s been a little over a month since we gave you an update on the Anna Nicole case, I thought it was time for a rundown. The inquest into the death of her son Daniel, 20, got under way last week. It had been postponed several times due to the legal wranglings of Howard K. Stern … and a hurricane, so they’re not all his fault. It took over a year for the inquest to actually begin. So far there haven’t been any giant revelations that make a person say a-ha, but there have been a lot of interesting tidbits. For instance, before he died, Daniel seemed fine to all the hospital personnel who came across him. Though several of them did note that they found Daniel asleep with Anna Nicole in her bed, which they found unusual.

On the second day of an inquest into the Sept. 10, 2006, death of Daniel Smith, nursing assistant Francis Woodside said the young man was sleeping in the same bed as his mother, while her attorney and partner Howard K. Stern slept in the other, about 3 hours and 40 minutes before a hospital-wide alarm that he had been found unconscious.

Woodside noted nothing unusual in the room except the sleeping arrangements. “We don’t usually have that happen, patients sleeping in the bed with relatives,” she told a jury that will decide the official cause of death and whether authorities should pursue any criminal charges.

[From the Associated Press]

That’s a little weird. Not sure what to make of it. Anna always seemed to have some pretty serious boundary issues. A part of me thinks that sounds pretty unhealthy, but the other part of me thinks it’s probably not that significant – Anna Nicole certainly did weirder things.

Another matter of note were some pills that were likely accidentally dropped by Howard K Stern. Considering a lot of people think he had something to do with Daniel’s death, it might end up being relevant.

Nurse Nadine Carey testified Tuesday that she found two round tablets on the bed that hospital employees previously said was occupied by Stern. She did not say what kind of pills they were, only that they were turned over to senior nursing staff.

Police have said there is no evidence of homicide in Daniel Smith’s death and an autopsy found the likely cause was a combination of drugs, including methadone and antidepressants.

[From the Associated Press]

Logically I doubt that there will be much of a conclusion from the inquest or that anyone will ever know for sure if someone else [Howard K Stern cough cough] had something to do with Daniel’s death. Though everything in Anna Nicole Smith’s life was so dramatic and “movie of the week” –like that you can’t help but expect some dramatic conclusion involving Howard breaking down and confessing, then throwing himself into traffic or something. Not that I’m suggesting that.

Note by Celebitchy: In March there was a story in the National Enquirer that claimed that Daniel’s autopsy results were faked and the numbers were fudged to make it look like his death was the result of a drug interaction. According to the Enquirer, the level of methadone in his system was ten times the amount reported on the official toxicology report, pointing to death by murder or suicide.

Another member of Anna Nicole Smith’s crazy brigade of unchecked quasi-professionals is under investigation. This time it’s Smith’s psychiatrist, Dr. Khristine Eroshevich. This was the woman who managed to make herself so indispensable to Smith that she traveled around the world with her, never leaving her side. If this only started after Smith’s son’s death, I would think that this was possibly just the most committed psychiatrist ever. But Eroshevich has been doing this for years, leaching on to Anna and her money and keeping her doped up to her liking. After Smith’s death, 11 prescriptions were found in her room that were prescribed by Eroshevich. She can be seen in a lot of videos and photos of Anna from the last few years of her life, and you can tell she’s just another one of the users.

“California Department of Justice investigators began serving search warrants Friday in connection with the death of Anna Nicole Smith, a person close to the investigation told The Associated Press. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing, declined to elaborate. California Attorney General Jerry Brown was expected to make an announcement later Friday.

“The former Playboy Playmate died of an accidental drug overdose in February at a Florida hotel. She was 39. Several people close to the model have fallen under suspicion since her death, including her psychiatrist Dr. Khristine Eroshevich. The Medical Board of California said in April it was investigating Eroshevich, who, according to documents, authorized all 11 prescription medications found in Smith’s hotel room the day she died. Eroshevich had traveled with Smith to Florida.

“More than 600 pills, including 450 muscle relaxants, were missing from prescriptions that were no more than five weeks old, according to the documents, which were obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request.”

[From the Associated Press]

“People” has a quote from one of Eroshevich’s neighbors who noted, “There were about six cars and some men walking around with … guns.” I really like the ellipses there. Adds to the drama and uncertainty, and isn’t that important when talking about guns? A rep for the DEA said that they did participate in the raid and served Eroshevich with a search warrant, but she hasn’t been arrested (yet). Anna’s other doctor, Sandeep Kapoor, is also investigation for writing a prescription for her for methadone 13 days before she gave birth. He was extra-shady, appearing in some images with Anna at a float for a gay pride event. Talk about blurring the line between doctor and patient. On the internet, he described one of his practice’s specialties as “Entertainment Medicine.” I can only assume that somehow involves celebrities, assorted drugs, balloon animals, and funny accents.

Larry Birkhead is going to star with baby daughter Dannielynn in a reality TV show about their day to day life.

Larry Birkhead and his daughter with late Anna Nicole Smith will reportedly star in a reality show about 1-year-old Dannielynn being raised without her mother.

According to reports Birkhead was flooded with TV offers after Smith died and he gained custody of Dannielynn. “I don’t want to give away something yet. It’s basically the ‘day in the life of duties,’” Birkhead was quoted as saying.

“My daughter is my focus now. I’m being a great dad. She’s teething. She’s got about eight teeth. Everything is great with her. She comps on me every day. All she has to worry about is her Barney video,” Birkhead says.

TransWorldNews

Howard K. Stern has also been busy, serving legal papers to Rita Cosby at a Manhattan party for her book Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith’s Death. The papers are suing her for libel, mostly focused around the allegations that Larry Birkhead and Howard K. Stern were gay lovers. Rita’s evidence of this is a supposed tape of their encounter. In this video, Rita says she stands by her claims ’120%’, but quickly leaves when reporters ask her to reveal her sources. The link is NSFW as it has Anna Nicole’s ‘death photos’. Obviously someone who stands by her claims 120% doesn’t have maths as their strong suit – I wonder if she’s worked out how many copies of her book she gonna need to shift to pay $US60 million to Howard K. Stern?

Virgie Arthur has also been seen out and about – at Rita Cosby’s book launch! Who would want to see that book published about their daughter?

I’m not a big fan of Anna Nicole Smith, her mother, either of her former male companions or Rita Cosby, all of them seem mostly interested in cashing in on her notoriety. At least Larry Birkhead has an excuse – to a point – in that he is a single father raising her baby.

The pictures of Anna Nicole dead (that we know were fakes) are now being claimed as Anna Nicole having a bit of fun. Rather than her being intoxicated, Howard K. Stern told Entertainment Tonight that the pictures were just of Anna Nicole eating a fish sandwich and having fun with the camera when she got tartar sauce on her face.

You know, there are some really unflattering pictures of me out there, but none this bad. At least I’m not naked, eating KFC, and missing my mouth.

First off, we’re publishing these photos with extreme trepidation. Hence the whole warning in the title. It’s pretty hard to keep photos of dead celebrities private for long anymore. Most of them eventually get leaked through the internet. Possible morgue shots of Anna Nicole Smith were leaked in March, but it seems that we might have a photo of Anna either right before or right after she died in her hotel room. It’s hard to know who would take a photo like this – could this be from someone in Anna’s inner circle, an EMS person, or cops? There was so much going on at the time, and it’s impossible to know.

I will note that I’ve seen a lot of dead bodies before (no I’m not gross, I have a criminology degree so it happens) and if this is real, it’s one of the cleanest shots I’ve ever seen. To me it’s really hard to tell if Anna Nicole has just died or is just about to die – or if this was possibly taken hours or even days before her death, as it was well-documented that Anna had been sick for several days. Considering the lack of support behind her head, I would expect that if she were actually dead, her neck would be leaning backwards, forwards, or flopped to the side – not held up like it is. Rigor mortis wouldn’t have time to set in the (reportedly) brief time Anna was alone before the paramedics were called. Even if it had, her neck muscles would have first relaxed from that position, resulting in her head leaning in some direction.

Here are the pictures – obviously use extreme caution. Thanks to Drunken Stepfather for the images.

Update by Celebitchy: Thanks to commentors who mentioned that she really doesn’t look dead here as JayBird observes too. Lisa notes that the headboard in this picture is the same that appears in the photos where she’s in bed with the Bahamian immigration minister, so that means she was in the Bahamas when this picture was taken. Since she died in Florida, these weren’t taken around the time of her death.

And IDLYITW has the supposed background story behind the photos:

These photos were allegedly taken by Howard K. Stern with Anna Nicole’s camera in the Bahamas less than a month before Anna died. It appears as though Anna was pretty damn drugged up when they were taken. Our source informs us that in a brief moment of clarity, Anna saw these pictures on her digital camera and was terrified not only at her state of intoxication when the photos were shot, but more concerned with why someone would take pictures of her in this state. Anna allegedly relied on “Big Moe,” who was her bodyguard as well as her close friend. Anna reportedly gave these photos to Big Moe as a “gift” and intended them to chronicle her last days, as she feared her impending death upon realizing her advanced, addicted, intoxicated downward spiral.

Our source would also like people to know that he sent these photos to bloggers because he felt this was the best way to help Anna Nicole “speak from the grave” and tell her story, specifically that she was taken advantage of and exploited by those closest to her prior to her death while in an obvious incoherent and vulnerable state, and he also hopes bigger, more reputable media outlets will investigate his story. The source didn’t ask for any monetary compensation and assures us these photos belong to Big Moe, Anna’s bodyguard and close friend.

[From IDLYITW]

It’s far overdue, but the Bahamas will finally conduct their inquest into the death of Anna Nicole Smith’s son Daniel. Daniel died three days after Smith gave birth to her second child, daughter Dannielynn. The circumstances were very suspicious – no one can argue the terrible timing in giving birth to one child and losing one just a few days later in the same hospital room. It’s beyond tragic. There was a lot of suspicion floating around regarding Smith’s “boyfriend”/ “life partner” (I put them both in quotes because few people believe that he was actually either of those things to Smith) Howard K Stern. Some people just have that evil look about them, and it’s pretty clear that Stern wears that particular haircut to hide the stubs from the devil horns he had cosmetically reduced a few years ago.

“The long-awaited inquest in the Bahamas into the death of the son of former Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith will begin on October 30, and could last two months, a senior judge in the Bahamas said on Monday.

“Bahamas Chief Magistrate Roger Gomez said at least 35 witnesses were expected to give evidence, including Smith’s longtime lawyer and companion, Howard K. Stern. The inquest would be conducted by Magistrate William Campbell, he added.

“Smith’s son, Daniel, 20, died at Doctors Hospital, Nassau, on September 10 last year, just three days after his mother gave birth to a daughter, Dannielynn. A private autopsy found he had a cocktail of drugs in his bloodstream. An official inquest by Bahamian authorities has been repeatedly postponed.”

[From the Washington Post]

Smith was supposedly worried that Stern had something to do with Daniel’s death. Aren’t we all. Ex-MSNBC reporter Rita Cosby (the one with the voice that made mute buttons feel relevant again) says in her book that Smith had some serious worries about Stern. Keep in mind, though, that this is the same book the alleges Stern and baby-daddy Larry Birkhead were gay lovers.

“In her most desperate moments, Anna Nicole Smith feared that her lawyer boyfriend Howard K. Stern played a role in her only son’s death, a new book alleges. Former employees of the ex-stripper claim they heard her screaming at Stern, ‘You did this! You killed him! You caused this!’ as the couple waited for the coroner to determine how Daniel Smith died in 2006, the book says. The allegations are detailed in the tell-all Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith’s Death by former NBC journalist Rita Cosby.”

[From the Baltimore Sun]

I remember hearing that quote circulating through the media quite a while ago, and I guess it’s still popping up. People yell a lot of nonsensical, crazy things when they’re distraught. But they also can say true things that they’d otherwise keep to themselves, so it’s hard to say exactly what that was in reference to. It will be interesting to see what they finally rule in Daniel’s death, and exactly how this sort of inquest works in the Bahamas, and what – if anything – it’ll lead to.

Just when you started to hope that Larry Birkhead would quietly fade into obscurity after throwing an obscene party for Dannielynn’s first birthday comes news that he’s trying to cling to the last vestiges of fame with the double-edged sword of infamy only used by the most desperate and clueless of the lower celebrity echelon – the reality TV show:

Meet Larry, a wacky bachelor who suddenly becomes a single father to a baby worth a fortune. And like a modern day Beverly Hillbilly, Larry leaves his humble home for the bright lights of Los Angeles where all sorts of hilarity ensues.

Custody battles. Lawsuits. Gay allegations. Y’all come back now, ya hear!

Larry Birkhead is no Jed Clampett – but he is about to get his own TV show, The Enquirer has learned exclusively.

The still unnamed reality show project is under development at the E! Network. It will focus on Larry and 1-year-old baby Dannielynn’s life after Anna Nicole Smith’s death, according to a TV insider…

“Larry’s on the verge of signing with E! for a show that could be on the air by next spring,” a Hollywood source told The Enquirer.

[From National Enquirer, print edition, September 24, 2007]

And new allegations by one of Birkhead’s ex bodyguards about his money-seeking behavior make it clear that, just the deceased mother of his child, he’ll do anything and everything to make a buck and keep his picture in the glossies.

The bodyguard claims that Birkhead asked photographers from Splash news to come to Daniel’s grave with him on Daniel’s birthday, where he pretended to be upset.

Anna’s much-hated mother, Virgie Arthur, incidentally also worked with Splash to get paid for exclusive pictures while she was in the Bahamas after Anna died. She was rumored to have brought Splash photographers into the morgue with her for the pictures of dead Anna that were published in the Enquirer. Splash seemed to confirm that those pictures were real in a teaser post on their blog saying they had obtained pictures of the dead tabloid queen.

Anyway Larry wasn’t quite distraught enough for the Splash paparrazzi, who told him to do another take, then another, until the photos were just right:

Mark Speer said he was guarding Birkhead in the Bahamas when Birkhead called Splash News, a paparazzi and tabloid news agency.

Speer, 53, told us: “Larry and I went to Nassau for over a week in January of this year. One day he said he wanted to go to Daniel’s grave, ostensibly to pay tribute to him on his birthday. But it turned out he had another idea. He said, ‘We’re going to meet two guys from Splash.’

“They had arranged to wait in some bushes at the cemetery. They took pictures of Larry pretending to be sad and emotional at the grave site. Only the Splash guys weren’t quite satisfied, so they asked him to do it again, and for me to get out of the picture. We did three takes. That was the first sign to me that Larry was in it for the money.” When police were investigating Daniel’s death, Speer says, “I was in the room when he gave the police a statement.” He claims that Birkhead alleged to authorities that Smith’s attorney Howard K. Stern “was wiring money from Anna’s estate to offshore accounts and that he’d forged her signature.” Birkhead also claimed he’d “watched Howard giving [Smith] drugs,” Speer says.

[From NY Daily News]

Other allegations from the bodyguard include the already-rumored story that Larry and Howard K Stern worked out a deal in which Larry would get custody of Dannielynn while Howard would remain the executor of Anna’s potential 1/2 billion estate.

He also claims to have seen pictures of Anna in bed with her new baby in the hospital – along with her son Daniel, who was already dead at the time. The picture are supposedly in the possession of a friend of Anna’s.

Larry Birkhead is said to have received $600k from the photo rights to Dannielynn’s first birthday, and now that he’s set to get his own reality show he’s not going to go away or stop making money any time soon.

A woman known for marrying an 89 year-old guy, being a ditz and flashing her boobs dies young, and she makes a handful of other people famous. We’re the ones feeding this cycle by even paying attention to them. At least Larry is easy on the eyes and seems like a decent guy, even if he’s getting paid every which way he can. He was working as a celebrity photographer when he met Anna, he knows how to work the tabloids.

Larry is shown at the Bourne Ultimatum LA Premiere on 7/27/07 thanks to PRPhotos. His eyes are beautiful, and if he’s wearing colored contact lenses they’re not that noticeable.