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When Cory Monteith died alone in a room at Vancouver's Fairmont Pacific Rim last weekend, he took up permanent residency in a sad but famous corner of popular culture: A celebrity registry of bitter suite ends. Fortunate stars that grow old naturally can look forward to meeting their maker covered by monogrammed sheets and framed by pictures of their younger-selves on nearby walls. Their families will gather to remember and mourn — perhaps later to fight over the estate. But troubled and addicted celebrities are continually found by demons as they sit alone, not sheltered inside fine homes or a...

A jury has reached a verdict in the drug trial surrounding the death of model and Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith in which two physicians and lawyer were accused of funneling powerful and dangerous medications to her. The verdict will be read at 1:30 p.m.(PST) The panel deliberated for more than two weeks in the case of Drs. Sandeep Kapoor and Khristine Eroshevich, and Smith's lawyer and boyfriend Howard Stern, who are accused of conspiring to unlawfully provide controlled substances to an addict and of obtaining the medication through fraud. They were not charged with causing Smith's death. She died...

A nanny who worked for Anna Nicole Smith in the last months of her life said Tuesday that she found bloody syringes and cotton balls, and sometimes a spoon with liquid, inside a bathroom that the celebrity model, her lawyer-boyfriend and her psychiatrist emerged from. Quethlie Alexie, who tended to Smith and her baby for more than three months in the Bahamas, testified that after Howard K. Stern and Dr. Khristine Eroshevich took her in the bathroom, Smith came out in an altered state.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with a Houston jury that said J. Howard Marshall was mentally fit and under no undue pressure when he wrote a will leaving nearly all of his $1.6 billion estate to his son E. Pierce Marshall and nothing to Smith. The decision — if it holds up — is bad news for Smith's ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead and their 3-year-old daughter Dannielynn. The child was named Smith's heir in 2008 after she died of a drug overdose at 39 at a Florida hotel. and... Birkhead and attorney Howard K. Stern were placed in...

SAN FRANCISCO – A federal appeals court says Anna Nicole Smith's estate will receive none of the more than $300 million that she claimed her late billionaire husband had promised her. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is the latest stop in the 15-year legal battle over the $1.6 billion estate that oil magnate J. Howard Marshall left after his 1995 death at age 90. Smith had married Marshall the previous year and argued that he meant to leave her more than $300 million. A Texas state court ruled against Smith and in favor of Marshall's son, who argued...

Stern and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor (above right) and Khristine Eroshevich are being charged with a total of eight felonies. According to the L.A. County D.A., the conspiracy counts allege the three defendants conspired to furnish controlled substances to Smith between July, 2004 and January 2007. Stern and Kapoor were charged with one count of unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance. Eroshevich and Stern were charged with unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance between June 2004 and January 2007. Kapoor and Eroshevich were each charged with obtaining a prescription for opiates by "fraud, deceit or misrepresentation." They were both also charged with one...

TMZ has learned Howard K. Stern is turning himself in tonight -- he's being arrested for allegedly illegally obtaining prescription drugs for Anna Nicole Smith. As we first reported, California drug officials recently raided the Los Angeles office of Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, looking for evidence against Stern. Stern has denied doing anything illegal in connection with drugs and Anna Nicole.

Sad to say that an active Freeper, Rte66, has passed away. I am her sister and have been a lurker for many years. At this point we don't know exactly what happened but it seems to be natural causes. Please keep her in your prayers. I will post her obit in coming days. If anyone needs more info they can email me here. A memorial service is pending. Thank you for being her "online family". This was her lifeline for many years. And thank you all so much for your help to her. She was much loved and she will...

Anna Nicole Smith, Seeking Justice #4

Astronomers from UCLA report that a white dwarf star known as GD 362, which is surrounded by dusty rings similar to those of Saturn, has been contaminated by a large asteroid that left more than a dozen observable chemical elements in the white dwarf's atmosphere... The UCLA astronomers think that after about a billion years orbiting the white dwarf as part of an ancient planetary system, an asteroid got close enough to the star to be torn apart by its very strong gravitational force field... The asteroid broke apart into dust particles that orbited the white dwarf and over time...

MIAMI - Larry Seidlin, the wisecracking judge who presided in the dispute over Anna Nicole Smith's remains and was lampooned for his sobbing announcement of the verdict, will resign next month, a court spokesman said Tuesday. Broward County Circuit Court Judge Larry Seidlin gestures during a hearing in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in this Feb. 14, 2007, file photo. Seidlin, the wise-cracking presider over the fight over Anna Nicole Smith's remains, whose sobbing announcement of the verdict became fodder for late-night television, will resign in July, a court spokesman confirmed Tuesday June 19, 2007. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File) The circuit judge's...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. Apr 13, 2007 (AP)— Howard K. Stern, the former attorney and companion of Anna Nicole Smith, filed a slander lawsuit Friday against an attorney for Smith's estranged mother who has suggested Stern was involved in Smith's death. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach, also accuses attorney John O'Quinn of invasion of privacy and seeks unspecified damages. A telephone message left by The Associated Press on Friday afternoon for O'Quinn was not immediately returned. O'Quinn is representing Smith's mother, Virgie Arthur, in a custody battle over Smith's baby. Smith died in February...

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) - DNA tests prove it: Larry Birkhead is the father of Anna Nicole Smith's million-dollar baby. "I told you so!" the late Playboy Playmate's former boyfriend said Tuesday upon emerging from a closed court hearing. He added: "My baby's going to be coming home pretty soon." Birkhead, a 34-year-old California photographer, then hugged his rival, Howard K. Stern, who has been caring for baby Dannielynn since Smith's sudden death in February. The hearing was a pivotal moment in the battle over who gets custody of the girl, who could inherit a fortune from the estate of Smith's...

NASSAU, Bahamas — Anna Nicole Smith's ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead is the father of her baby girl, a judge ruled on Tuesday. "I hate to be the one to tell you this but I told you so," a jubilant Birkhead said Tuesday after a closed-door hearing. "My baby's going to be coming home pretty soon. I'm the father."

Karl Rove fathered Anna Nicole Smith’s baby. In an unforgettable night fueled by alcohol, lust, a lion tamer outfit, a failed attempt to freebase "Sweettarts", an Al Franken blow-up doll and some crimes against nature with a very confused puffer fish, Karl fathered her child. I think we should all be ashamed of Mr. Rove (how much is she worth again?). Now, admittedly, there is no crime in having sex with Anna Nicole Smith. If that were illegal most of the Western Hemisphere’s male population would be perp walked into a future of Federal incarceration that includes forced labor, strained...

The two judges who oversaw the Anna Nicole Smith cases in Florida's Broward Circuit Court are swapping jobs -- at least temporarily. Chief Judge Dale Ross ordered the moves Tuesday in the wake of complaints and a newspaper editorial that Circuit Judge Lawrence Korda should be moved out of family court until his misdemeanor drug charge is resolved. Korda, who briefly oversaw the paternity dispute involving Smith's baby daughter, was cited on March 18 for possession of one marijuana cigarette weighing less than 0.1 gram. Police said they caught him smoking pot in a Hollywood, Fla., park. Circuit Judge Larry...

No evidence of illegal drugs. Nothing unusual on video. Nothing to indicate foul play. Accidental overdose with no criminal evidence present.

Behind the Anna Nicole Smith circus lies an important truth about fathers’ rights. The long line of opportunistic men who have lined up to be Smith’s baby’s dad since Smith’s death has diverted attention from the case’s key fact: photographer Larry Birkhead, Smith’s ex-boyfriend, has a legitimate claim to paternity. He has been thwarted for several months by the same legal maneuvers which are often employed to separate fathers from their children. Long before Smith died and her estate became an issue, Birkhead had filed for a DNA test to determine the paternity of Smith’s baby. In December he told...

Joining us now is Dr. Joshua Perper, Broward County medical examiner. Doctor, good evening to you. Thank you for being with us tonight. DR. JOSHUA PERPER, BROWARD COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER: You're welcome. MACCALLUM: Was your report ready to go? Were you ready to release the results? PERPER: Yes, I was. And the reason why I decided not to do so is because I was informed that there was some additional evidence, which I want to review before I have my final report. And that's the reason why my press conference is going to be delayed by a week or two.