Friday, 9 February 2007

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Anna Nicole's baby: Where's Dannielynn?

The 5-month-old girl is in the Bahamas, but questions remain about what's next

Five-month-old Dannielynn Hope was not with her mother, Anna Nicole Smith, when Smith died Thursday in Florida. Sources say she is in the Bahamas, where she was born, in the care of the mother of Shane Gibson, a high-ranking Bahamian official and close friend of Smith's.

The baby's Bahamian birth certificate lists Smith's longtime lawyer and confidant, Howard K. Stern, as the father. But, as was the case with her mother, controversy has been a constant in young Dannielynn's life.

Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern was born on Sept. 7, just three days before Smith's 20-year-old son, Daniel, died of an apparent drug overdose in Smith's room at Doctors Hospital in Nassau, on the island of New Providence.

Three weeks later, Stern, who was there when Dannielynn was born and when Daniel died, went on Larry King Live to say he was the baby's "proud father." Stern told King, "Based on the timing of it, there shouldn't be a doubt (about paternity)." He also said that the baby was Smith's "ray of hope" after the tragedy. Dannielynn, he said, is "the one thing that is really keeping her going. And through it all, even with all the pain, she has been a great mom, a very attentive mom."

But Smith's ex-boyfriend, Los Angeles-based photographer Larry Birkhead, claimed that Dannielynn is his daughter. He filed a lawsuit accusing Smith of providing fraudulent information when she applied for her daughter's birth certificate. "I am the father of Dannielynn and I think this is ... a crime," Birkhead said. "I expect to be reunited with my daughter."

Just a day before Smith died, a Los Angeles judge ordered Smith and Danielynn to submit to a paternity test. An emergency hearing regarding the paternity issue is scheduled for Friday, PEOPLE reports.