Home About Lawyer for Smith’s Baby Wants Payment
October 24th, 2007
MIAMI (AP) — The attorney who represented Anna Nicole Smith’s infant daughter in the rancorous dispute over the starlet’s body is seeking nearly $200,000 for his work.
Richard Milstein served as the court-appointed guardian ad litem for Dannielynn Hope Marshall Birkhead. He has filed paperwork in state court in Broward County seeking $198,493.98 from a trust set up in Dannielynn’s name.
Attorneys for the girl’s father, Larry Birkhead, and Smith’s longtime companion, Howard K. Stern, say Milstein’s bill would exhaust nearly the entirety of an estimated $200,000 remaining in the trust, though the girl could eventually inherit millions more.
Besides acting as Dannielynn’s representative in a Fort Lauderdale court, Milstein also helped coordinate funeral arrangements for Smith.
“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,” Milstein argued in his petition.
He did not return a phone call Monday seeking additional comment.
The matter is scheduled for a hearing Nov. 8, but attorneys for Birkhead, Stern and Smith’s mother have already opposed.
“It is unconscionable for a trust established for a baby to be billed at a large firm hourly rate,” wrote attorneys for Birkhead and Stern. They also said the Playboy model’s mother, Virgie Arthur, should pay at least part of the bill, which the mother’s attorney called ridiculous.
Lawyer Stephen Tunstall did find common ground with Birkhead and Stern in his objection to Milstein’s accounting. He said the guardian ad litem “went wild” in generating a bill.
Smith, who died Feb. 8 in a Hollywood hotel, was the widow of Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II. She had been fighting Marshall’s family for years over his estimated $500 million fortune, which could eventually go to Dannielynn.
http://davidnoonemore.wordpress.com/2007/10/24/lawyer-for-smiths-baby-wants-payment/
EmailPrintPreview: No two ‘dead’ shows are alike
Thursday, October 25, 2007
By Rosa Colucci, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Q: What do Yvonne De Carlo, Anna Nicole Smith, Don Ho, Beverly Sills, Luciano Pavarotti, Ingmar Bergman, Merv Griffin, Leona Helmsley, Jane Wyman, Marcel Marceau, Teresa Brewer and Joey Bishop have in common?
A: They’re all celebrities who died this year and may be coming back to life on Saturday night at the Rex Theatre.
For 15 years, local performers have been staging a one-night-only tongue-in-cheek musical extravaganza called “Night of the Singing Dead.”
The show is the accidental brainchild of Carl Grefenstette, owner of Pittsburgh Guitars. “Our band, The Flashcats, played constantly, and one year we decided to do a Halloween-themed show with dead musicians making an appearance. It was a big hit and just grew from there.”
Night of the Singing Dead #15 and ‘A-Scary-can Idol’
Where: Rex Theatre, South Side.
When: 8 p.m. (7 p.m. doors open) Saturday.
Tickets: $13 at door, 412-381-9200 or check the Web site.
Local celebs trying to win the “judges approval” this year include Steve Hansen and Larry Richert from KDKA, Monte and Zeke, Carol Lee Espy, Rob Rogers, Maggie Stewart, Ron “Moondog” Esser, Susie Barber and Rick Applegate.
Grefenstette has the enviable job of producing the show and deciding in what order the acts will perform. “I love that we have the ability to use really cheesy props. Last year, Shelly Winters died. We had her character singing ‘The Morning After’ hanging upside-down from a sinking ship.”
Other memorable performances from last year included a “Hee-Haw” segment that closed the show and featured three country greats that passed to the other side last year — Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash and Tammy Wynette.
Besides the props, the band is also stellar. Joining Grefenstette on drums are Scott Johnson on bass; Al Stidle and Rich Dugan on guitars, and Bill Ferchak on keyboard. Betsy Gerson and Amy Ferchak round out the band with their background vocals.
Grefenstette said that years of doing the show has had an effect on his voice-mail. “As soon as a colorful celebrity dies, everyone calls to tell me.”
One of the things that has changed over the years is that in the beginning they impersonated only dead rock stars. Now, colorful well-known celebrities (Anna Nicole Smith, Tammy Faye Messner) who have passed are also included in the lineup.
Something does always stay the same, though. “It’s always a blast, people are dying to get in the show ... you can quote me on that.”
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07298/828154-42.stm