Howard K. Stern pleads not guilty in Anna Nicole Smith drug case

From the AP:

Anna Nicole Smith's former boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, and two doctors pleaded not guilty in L.A. to charges they conspired to provide prescription drugs to the former model before her overdose death two years ago, the AP reports.

Stern and Drs. Khristine Eroshevich and Sandeep Kapoor appeared Wednesday before Superior Court Commissioner Kristi Lousteau. The defendants said "yes" when she asked if they were pleading not guilty. They are accused of using fake names to prescribe tons drugs -- including methadone, clonazepam and chloral hydrate -- to a known addict.

The commissioner granted a motion requiring each defendant to provide a handwriting sample. She scheduled a June 8 court date to determine when a preliminary hearing will begin. That's right, a date to discuss a date, for a woman who died in 2007. Ain't the justice system grand?

[Photo: Getty Images]

Anna Nicole Smith gets opera treatment

To anyone who thinks it's America who is bringing down the global culture, consider: The Royal Opera House in London is planning an opera based on the life of Anna Nicole Smith. Get into your fallout shelters ... now.

"It is not going to be tawdry, it is going to be witty, clever, thoughtful and sad," director of opera Elaine Padmore told the U.K.'s Guardian. "It will tell the story of her life, the people who influenced her, her progress," Padmore said. "Clearly the story is about a woman who met an ancient gentleman in a wheelchair, but it's not going to be a straight narrative; choices have been made about significant moments, selecting which incidents in her life are to be built up."

Among the highlights they can choose from are Vickie Lynn Hogan having a son with a coworker at a fried chicken joint in her native Texas, getting a boob job and becoming a pole dancer and model, getting famous in a skin mag and then marrying 89-year-old J. Howard Marshall when she was 26. And we haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet, let alone ODing at 39.

"It is not just a documentary about her, but a parable about celebrity and what it does to people. It can be moving, it can be funny and it tells universal truths about human frailty," Padmore added. "It is a very sad story -- a larger-than-life American story, as was Puccini's Girl of the Golden West. It will be a slice of our times -- of America in the pre-Obama days."

It remains to be seen if we're ready to deal with that past just yet, and especially in this form. It brings a whole new meaning to "when the fat lady sings."

[Photo: AP]

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Larry Birkhead buys Dannielynn mama's undies

Add this to the laundry list of emotional scars Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern Birkhead will no doubt reveal to a therapist one day: Over the weekend, daddy Larry Birkhead bought the 1-year-old some of mom Anna Nicole Smith’s undies from an old Playboy shoot, saying he hopes they’ll help her understand her mother’s life story. “It’s not something I can show today, but something down the road,” Birkhead told E! Online. “It’s not going to be in any bedtime stories anytime soon.” Birkhead purchased a pink bustier for $1,800 and a white negligee for $1,000 at a celebrity auction on Saturday night.

Photo: Associated Press, 2004

Drug overdose killed Anna Nicole Smith's son

A year and a half after the fact, a jury in the Bahamas has ruled Monday that Daniel Smith, the 20-year-old son of Anna Nicole Smith, died from an accidental drug overdose, the AP reports.

The seven-member jury recommended no criminal charges against anyone for anything after saying the cause was "nondependent use of drugs," meaning he wasn't addicted and didn't know the drugs in his body would kill him. He died on Sept. 10, 2006, after coming to the Bahamas to meet his new baby sister, who was subsequently named Dannielynn Hope after him. Poor mama died early in 2007 from the very same thing.

But that doesn't mean Anna's mom Virgie Arthur isn't going to still try and cash in. She still thinks (like most of us) that her daughter's boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, was somehow responsible.

"We don't think it makes any sense," Arthur's attorney Neil McCabe said. "The boy was not a drug user, the judge said so. Why would he all of a sudden take a massive dose of methadone?"

Maybe he realized what a mess his family was and needed relief. What, too soon?

[Photo: Getty Images]

Did E! steal 'Pop Fiction' from Anna Nicole?

If you watched any of E!’s new Ashton Kutcher-produced Pop Fiction this weekend (which was pretty dull), you should probably thank Anna Nicole Smith. TMZ says the show sounds just like a treatment she pitched more than three years ago for a show called Celebrities Strike Back.

In 2004 Smith and Howard K. Stern met with E! programming executives Jeff Shore and Jay James to try to sell the idea. “...What happens if Anna Nicole Smith and other celebrities turn the tables and capitalize off of the overzealous media?” the pitch reads. “What if the next big supposed scandal is not a scandal at all? What if everything is staged, but the media (and the public) don’t know it? ... Anna Nicole and other celebrity guests take aim at the media and push all the limits.” Does that sound at all familiar?

Stern has already threatened a lawsuit, TMZ says, especially since he’s claiming he met with E! about the project just two months ago, with Larry Birkhead slated to pull the first prank. But E! nixed the whole idea for some reason. Maybe they were too busy calling Ashton.

Trailer trash: Willa Ford is ... 'ANNA NICOLE'

Some people might say Willa Ford's acting is horrible in what will be a horrible movie, but really, have you ever watched any news footage of Anna Nicole Smith? If this is any indication, Ford deserves an Oscar for her Phillip Seymour Hoffman-esque channelling of the Playmate.

Dannielynn's rich, Pearlman's a snitch, Bai Ling's a ...

• An L.A. judge on Tuesday named 18-month-old Dannielynn Hope the sole heir of Anna Nicole Smith’s estate, setting up a trust with Larry Birkhead and Howard K. Stern in charge, the AP reports. That’s like putting two mako sharks in charge of a school of tuna.

• Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync mastermind Lou Pearlman has agreed to plead guilty in a Thursday hearing to laundering money and making false statements during a bankruptcy proceeding as part of a deal to help investigators in other cases, the AP says. He’ll still be forming his own boy band in prison, though.

• Bai Ling has been charged with petty theft for allegedly taking a pack of batteries and two Star magazines from an LAX shop, avoiding a more serious misdemeanor, Reuters reports. She mistakenly thought she was famous enough to make it into Star (and yes, she’s obviously famous enough for The Juice*).

Bits and pieces not worth a whole item

• A court in Nassau, Bahamas, has finally selected a jury to hear an inquest to determine the cause of death for Anna Nicole Smith’s son, Daniel, the AP reports (it won't start until Nov. 19 because of Tropical Storm Noel). They also hope to determine that yes, the young man is still dead and hasn’t come back as a zombie.

• Coolio will be back on the airwaves next year in his new reality show, Coolio & the Gang, which will follow the rapper as he raises six teens by himself, Reuters says. We’d come up with a punchline, but we’ll simply report it’s slated to air on Oxygen.

• No charges will be filed in the fight between Kid Rock and Tommy Lee at the MTV Video Music Awards, the AP says. Attorneys involved in the case had decided that just being Kid Rock and Tommy Lee was punishment enough.

• Nicole Richie is hopping mad at the New York Post’s Cindy Adams, who reported Richie was spotted smoking a couple times in the Big Apple. The problem? Richie tells TMZ she hasn’t been in NYC for three months.

• Pierce Brosnan is being investigated for allegedly fighting with a photographer last week, wire services say. He must have taken exception to being called the “old” James Bond.

Anna Nicole tape worse than we thought

There's just too much filth going on with Anna Nicole Smith and Howard K. Stern. Remember that tape of Anna Nicole apparently high as a kite and painted like a clown? You haven't seen the half of it. No, really. We don't even want to write about this, so let Geraldo spell it out. The worst? The 9-year-old pleading with Stern to put down the camera and help her out.

Dannielynn owes $200k?!?

If you think the concept of a lawyer demanding $200,000 worth of legal fees from a 1-year-old baby sounds like the setup to a terrible joke, you obviously haven't been following the Anna Nicole Smith saga. E! Online reports Richard Milstein, who served as guardian ad litem for Dannielynn Hope Marshall Birkhead for about three weeks early this year, has filed papers in Broward County to reclaim $198,493.98 in legal fees. "That's $900 an hour," Howard K. Stern's outraged attorney, Krista Barth, told the Palm Beach 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." Barth said the bill would drain Dannielynn's trust fund. A hearing on the issue is set for Nov. 8.

(Photo: Associated Press, via Entertainment Tonight)