Larry Birkhead isn’t just moving, as we reported last week; on Friday it was also mentioned that he’s also getting his own reality show on E! Honestly given Larry’s history with Anna Nicole and her show, plus his M-list celebrity status, it makes a lot of sense. He’s constantly inviting tabloids into his life, so why not have a bunch of video cameras hanging around every day?

Birkhead will be showing off his parenting skills in a new reality show, to air on E! in 2009. He says Tori Spelling (who starred in the Oxygen reality series Inn Love with husband Dean McDermott) convinced him to do the show, telling him: “Dean and I will support you. Why not? Your life is out there anyway,” he explains.

Birkhead figures it was only a matter of time before he ended up on TV. “My life in the last couple of years has been a reality show,” Birkhead tells ET. “There’s been so many things out there that are not true, and there are so many things that I’ve taken a lot of beatings for and I haven’t set the record straight; nobody knows the true reality of how I live and what I go through,” he adds.

The series will follow the single dad as he runs a business of Smith’s, home-schools his 18-year-old nephew Justin (who lives with Birkhead following his father’s death) and raises Dannielynn. “I’m changing diapers one minute, going to a basketball court the next, going to a concert – here, there, you know, stores – so it’s tough,” Birkhead says.

But Dannielynn is unaware of any hardship. “The thing I’m most proud of is she doesn’t know what’s going on; she’s just happy and worries about her toys and we just have the best time. The time is really about bouncing back and being happy and taking advantage of all the things we have, and not forgetting what we don’t have – but also just going forward,” he adds.

[From Us Weekly]

It must be weird being Birkhead’s nephew. You’re living with this photographer and Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter in Anna’s house surrounded by cameras and 30 foot high birthday cake-shaped hot air balloons. I don’t imagine the cake balloon is there every day, but just knowing it might make an appearance in your life has got to be disturbing.

Sadly I’d probably be willing to give this show a viewing or two. Larry keeps talking about eventually moving somewhere quiet to raise Dannielynn, but it just doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen. Clearly he’s enamored with his own fame. All you can do is just hope he’s got a lot of help and support and will try to keep things in perspective for Dannielynn.

Here’s Larry at the special screening of SAW V in Los Angeles and at Coco DeVille later that night on October 21st. Images thanks to Fame.

Larry Birkhead continues to pimp out Anna Nicole Smith’s memory, as well as their daughter. He’s let magazines into every minor and major event in Dannielynn’s life since he got custody of her. Somehow I don’t think his intent is totally evil, just misguided at best. This time Larry’s invited Life & Style to watch him pack up Anna Nicole’s old home, which he is finally selling. Larry claims he wants a quieter life, but something tells me that would actually panic him. He also says he needs a house and a neighborhood that is more child-friendly.

After being granted custody of his little girl, Larry Birkhead brought Dannielynn, 2, to Anna Nicole Smith’s home in LA’s Coldwater Canyon, where the two have been living ever since. But in an effort to raise her in a more stable environment, Larry has decided to move out and find a new home. While going through the bittersweet process of packing up Anna’s belongings and readying Dannielynn for yet another big move, Larry, 35, spoke exclusively to Life & Style about the painful memories of the past — and why he’s eager to make a fresh start for the future.

L&S: After Anna’s death, what made you decide to bring Dannielynn to Anna’s home
Larry: There were just tons and tons of memories. Anna’s reality show was taped here, and it’s the place she called home. After she passed, I just couldn’t bear to part with it.

L&S: So why are you selling it now?
Larry: You know, I always said I’d never sell, but the longer we’ve been here, the more I’ve realized it’s not built for children. We live over a canyon, and while the view’s great, there’s no backyard. I’ve bought Dannielynn every toy under the sun, but they can’t replace a yard. She doesn’t have a place to have her friends over to play.

L&S: You’ve kept an entire closet of Anna’s clothing, accessories and jewelry. Is that another way of preserving her memory for Dannielynn?
Larry: Yes. Every piece in there has a story. Someday, I hope to show them all to Dannielynn and tell her what event her mom wore them to and what they meant to her — from the casual T-shirts to the fancy dresses. I want her to understand how beautiful and glamorous her mom was.

[From Life & Style]

Larry also says that he and Anna wore matching crosses around their necks, and she was wearing one of them when she died, which he was wearing during the interview and says he never removes. He plans on giving the matching one to Dannielynn when she’s older.

I think it’ll be a good idea for Larry and Dannielynn to move a bit further away from L.A. and give her a shot at being a regular kid. But he needs to stop selling her story right away. She’s going to grow up with so many people scrutinizing her to see if she’s at all like her mother. Combining that with Anna Nicole’s legacy and the way that she died, the kid is naturally going to have some issues to deal with. Larry would serve her best by not spoiling her (remember the first birthday party?), and giving her some space from L.A. to grow into a normal kid.

Here’s Larry Birkhead and Dannielynn departing from Los Angeles International Airport on July 23. Images thanks to Bauer-Griffin.

It seemed little Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern/Birkhead had just been born when her mother, Anna Nicole Smith, died in her hotel room in Florida under bizarre circumstances.  The drama that ensued was every gossip monger’s dream: questionable post mortem photos, certifiable mother, disputed paternity, crazy fake-prince public statements.  You couldn’t have made that $%*@ up!

But looking at the face gracing the cover of this week’s Us Weekly, it all seems like a really bad, really old TV movie.  Dannielynn, who recently had surgery to correct strabismus (a condition where one eye tends to move inward), turned 2 years old on September 7 and is just as much a cover girl as her mother was!  While it’s obvious who her father is, there is just no disputing Dannielynn is her mama’s mini-me.

“On Dannielynn’s second birthday, Larry Birkhead opens up in the latest issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now, about raising Anna Nicole Smith’s little girl and shares with Us his own family album of their time together.

“When I take pictures of her she likes looking at them just like her mom did,” Birkhead tells Us.

“Some days I think she looks just like her,” he says of the tot, who who turned 2 on Sept. 7.”

[From US]

Dannielynn is gorgeous and if these pictures are any indication, she could easily follow in her mother’s modeling footsteps.  We just all have to send up a prayer that that’s as far down that path as she’ll go. 

Like him or not Larry Birkhead seems to be doing a pretty damn good job of raising Dannielynn.  She’s always smiling and looks like she loves being with her dad.  You also have to give credit where credit is due to Birkhead.  While he’s received some money in exchange for doing press with Dannielynn, he’s also moved back to Kentucky to be near his family and ensure that his daughter has a normal life. I would say the last person in this world who actually loved Vicki Lynn Hogan for Vicki Lynn Hogan is making sure her daughter knows it, too.

Anna Nicole Smith didn’t have a huge career. Her most obvious career move was marrying a rich geriatric, but she was a Playboy Playmate of the Year and modeled for Guess. Larry Birkhead wants his young daughter with Anna Nicole to have memories of her mother, so he bought her some lingerie that was worn by the blond in a Playboy magazine pictorial.

Baby daddy Larry Birkhead is looking forward to showing 1-year-old Dannielynn the lingerie he purchased at a celebrity auction on Saturday night, a pink bustier (bought for $1,800) and white negligee (bought for $1,000) once worn by the late model for a Playboy photo shoot.

Smith’s onetime boyfriend said he wants to make sure the young heiress has something to remember her mom by. He hopes the sexy undergarments will help Dannielynn understand her mother’s life story—one day.

“You know, it’s not something I can show today, but something down the road,” he said. “It’s not going to be in any bedtime stories anytime soon.”

E! Online

I know a lot of people think this is in questionable taste, but I’d rather that Larry Birkhead had it stored somewhere for his daughter to have, rather than it going on display somewhere.

Larry says that he won’t be showing his daughter the lingerie anytime soon. I wonder if he will eventually show Danielynn the picture of Anna Nicole wearing it. I guess one day he’ll have to explain it, but does anyone ever want to see a picture of their late mother in a raunchy Playboy pictorial?

Maybe Larry could ask Pamela Anderson how she explains her nude modeling past to her young sons. Wow, who ever would have thought you could go to Pamela Anderson for advice?

Larry Birkhead and daughter Dannielynn are shown at the opening of The Simpsons ride at Universal Studios Hollywood on 5/17/08, thanks to WENN.

Larry Birkhead has confirmed to his best buddies at Entertainment Tonight that his daughter with Anna Nicole Smith, Dannielyn, has undergone surgery to correct an eye condition known as strabismus. The toddler is resting comfortably after the procedure, and I’m sure we will hear a blow-by-blow account of her recovery very soon.

Larry Birkhead says his 17-month-old daughter Dannielynn has undergone eye surgery.

“Dannielynn is home from surgery and resting comfortably,” Birkhead tells Entertainment Tonight.

Birkhead had previously told Usmagazine.com that he was considering surgery for his daughter, who suffers from strabismus, or the turning in of one of her eyes. The condition is common in about 5 percent of children and cannot be outgrown.

Birkhead and Dannielynn recently returned from the Bahamas, where they paid their respects to Dannielynn’s mother, Anna Nicole Smith, who died a year this month.

[From Us Weekly]

I’m glad that Dannielynn got her eye corrected– the condition was noticeable from the time she was very small and seemed to be getting worse. However, I really hope we don’t hear coverage of her surgery and recovery every night for the next week on ET Insider. I would not be surprised if pimp-daddy Birkhead actually has video of the surgery that he’s holding out for highest bidder. That guy makes me ill.

On a personal note, my younger sister had strabismus as a child, too. Like Dannielyn, she had the surgery, followed by months of physical therapy. Today, she wears glasses, but her eye is not turned.

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.

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.

In the drama that is still the Anna Nicole Smith saga, one can’t really be surprised by anything anymore. Howard K Stern has sex with ocean mammals? Fine. Virgie Arthur is actually a pair of conjoined twins with only one visible head? Totally cool. Dannielynn’s already getting $200,000 legal bills? Well of course. The wee one’s trust fund is being charged that preposterous amount by her guardian ad litem Richard Milstein. Milstein worked for Dannielynn for about 2 – 3 weeks (depending on who you ask). He represented her interests in the Florida court after Anna Nicole Smith died, and eventually won custody of Anna Nicole’s body, since Dannielynn was ruled to be the closest relative. But since she was a baby, that meant her guardian ad litem got to choose where Smith was buried. He seemed to do a good job, and chose to have Smith buried next to her also recently deceased son Daniel in the Bahamas.

Case closed, right? Well not so much, because it seems that Milstein wants to be compensated about $200,000 for his work. He says it took not just him but five members of his office to do all the work required in the case, and that they had to devote themselves entirely to it, including travel to and from the Bahamas. That’s basically billing $900 an hour for legal work she never was able to request. Unless sucking on a binky is some type of indication one way or the other, and I just don’t know it.

“‘It’s outrageous,’ said Larry Birkhead’s attorney Nancy Hass, who along with a lawyer for Howard K. Stern has filed a complaint in Broward County objecting to the request. ‘I’m a guardian ad litem, too, and I always reduce my fees when I deal with children,’ Hass told the Palm Beach Post Monday. ‘A lot of work produced [by Milstein] was unnecessary.’ Milstein, who won custody of Smith’s body and adhered to the late model’s unwritten wish to be buried in the Bahamas next to her son Daniel, maintains that his request is more than fair.

“‘This representation required the guardian ad litem to devote significantly all of his professional and personal time and attention to the interests of Dannielynn for a period in excess of two weeks,’ he states in his petition. ‘The three weeks of work entailed the work of five people, not just myself, in order to handle the multiple details involved in handling the trial and funeral arrangements,’ Milstein wrote in an email to the Post. Echoed Robert Zinn, president of Milstein’s firm, Akerman Senterfitt: ‘We believe there is no basis whatsoever for the objections to our invoices, given the complexity of the issues, the large number of interested parties and the extremely short time.’

“‘That’s $900 an hour,’ [Krista] Barth [Hass and Stern's attorney] told the Post. ‘People believe the baby is rich. Couldn’t be further from the truth. Mr. Milstein even charged for another lawyer at his firm to go to Anna’s funeral.’ Although Dannielynn stands to inherit up to $500 million if the decade-long battle between Smith’s estate and that estate of her late husband, billionaire tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, is decided in Smith’s favor, the reality-TV star was worth only about $710,000 when she died.”

[From E! News]

When Barth and Hass responded to Milstein’s bill in an official complaint, they also suggested that Virgie Arthur should be responsible for part of Milstein’s bill, since she’s the one who initiated the legal proceedings over custody of Smith’s body. Her lawyer, Stephen Tunstall, said that was ridiculous, but he agreed that Milstein’s bill was excessive. I would love it if Arthur had to pay some of that bill. Any decent mother knows her daughter should be buried next to her grandson. Why would a good mother try to prevent that? Because the crazy lady wants money and attention. I think it’d be a little bit of justice if Arthur had to fork over the cash, instead of Dannielynn.