FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., February 20, 2007 - The boyfriend of Anna Nicole Smith appeared in court Tuesday in his quest to "carry out what Anna Nicole wanted" on her burial, closing his eyes as her embalming was discussed.
The long-distance battles over what to do with Smith's body - and the paternity of her infant daughter - were taking place Tuesday in courtrooms in Florida and California.

Smith's estranged mother, Virgie Arthur, and boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, squared off here. Lawyers for Stern were also set to argue in Los Angeles with those for Smith's ex-companion over who is the father of her infant daughter, Dannielynn.

No immediate ruling on the burial question was expected from Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin, who had ordered Stern to appear in court Tuesday.

"We're trying to balance the rights and respect of a body that wants peace and tranquility," Seidlin said last week.

Without written proof of Smith's own wishes, Seidlin will be forced to hear testimony from those who claim to know what Smith wanted.

Stern wants Smith buried in the Bahamas in a plot that was purchased next to her son, Daniel, who died in September. Arthur wants her brought home to her native Texas.

"This is very important to me to carry out what Anna Nicole wanted," Stern said. Stern had been in seclusion until he emerged from a waterfront Bahamas mansion earlier Tuesday, but did not speak to reporters as he left for the airport for the trip to Florida.

Smith died in Florida on Feb. 8 at age 39. The cause of death is under investigation.

The mother had a perhaps unlikely ally in Larry Birkhead, Smith's ex-boyfriend, who delayed a decision on the star's burial by fighting for another DNA sample he hopes will prove he is his baby's father.

But Stern has allies of his own. A bodyguard, doctor, neighbor and friend all have submitted affidavits claiming Smith told them she wanted to be buried next to her son. And Stern has provided invoices showing the purchase of burial plots in the Bahamas.

Arthur insists, despite her estrangement, she has the right to bury her own daughter, not a man to whom Smith wasn't even married.

"Since the dawn of civilization, the next of kin has been given the rights and responsibility of their dead," says her lawyer, Stephen Tunstall.

In Los Angeles, the dispute over who is the father of 5-month-old Dannielynn was scheduled to be taken up in a closed-door hearing. Stern is named father on the girl's birth certificate but Birkhead and Frederic von Anhalt, the husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, have filed a separate paternity challenges.

Smith was the widow of Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, whom she married in 1994 when he was 89 and she was 26. She had been fighting his family over his estimated $500 million fortune since his death in 1995.

America is taking this waaayy too seriously.

I think she should be buried in the Bahamas next to her son. Although it's a little strange their deaths were so close to each other, it might be a better choice than being buried in Texas...