Attorneys reply in Smith appeal case
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., Feb. 27 (UPI) -- The guardian for Anna Nicole Smith's baby filed papers with a Florida appeal court asking it to uphold a ruling giving him Smith's body on her child's behalf.
Richard Milstein asked the court to uphold a lower court ruling that gave him custody of the body as the court-appointed guardian to 5-month-old Dannielynn, TMZ.com said.
Attorneys for Howard K. Stern also filed with the Florida's Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach, Fla., answering the appeal filed by Smith's estranged mother, Virgie Arthur, to block burial in the Bahamas.
Broward County Judge Larry Seidlin ruled Thursday that that custody of Anna's remains should go to the child for burial. Her guardian decided that Smith would be buried in the Bahamas next to her son, Daniel, who died in September.
Arthur asked Seidlin to set aside his ruling; he refused and she appealed. Arthur said she wants custody of the body to bury it in Smith's home state of Texas.
Stern, Arthur and Larry Birkhead, one of Smith's former lovers, also are involved in a custody hearing in the Bahamas.
Friend: 'Idol' friend not racy pics' model
POINT PLEASANT, N.J., Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Salacious photos posted on the Web purporting to be "American Idol" contestant Antonella Barba of New Jersey, aren't really her, a friend said.
Amanda Coluccio told People magazine she checked out the pictures posted on various Web sites and they "are not Antonella. It's not the same nose, it's not the same face."
Coluccio, who said she speaks to Barba daily by phone, said some photos -- which show Barba in various stages of undress but not completely nude -- were indeed her and were meant for her boyfriend. She said Barba, 20, a Point Pleasant, N.J., native, said she believed the photos were stolen from her computer at Catholic University and distributed online.
Other, more sexually explicit photos, however, are someone else.
"The really bad ones aren't her. I've studied them. ... She's never had (acrylic nail) tips in her life," Coluccio told the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger. She's the least slutty person I know."
A representative from Fox network, which airs "Idol," nor show producers said they would comment on contestants still in the race. If one were to be dismissed from the show, then a statement could be released
Britney's first ex speaks of drug use
MALIBU, Calif., Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Pop singer Britney Spears, now in a California rehabilitation center, abused drugs and nearly overdosed three years ago, her first husband said in an interview.
Jason Alexander, who was married to Spears for 55 hours, said he is bringing up her past because he doesn't want to see Spears dead.
"It freaked me out when I saw she had shaved off her hair; that was clearly a cry for help," Alexander, 25, said in an interview with the Sunday Mirror of London and reprinted in the New York Daily News. "She needs help."
Spears is at Promises, a Malibu, Calif., drug and alcohol rehabilitation center.
Alexander said in the interview he had trouble keeping up with her drug use.
One time Spears nearly overdosed fatally on pure ecstasy as they partied in Las Vegas, Alexander said in the Sunday Mirror interview. She fell unconscious to the floor and he put her in the shower to revive her, he said.
"She wasn't moving," Alexander told the Daily Mirror. "I remember looking down at her all crumpled in the tub with the water coming down. She looked so white and lifeless. I thought she was dead."
DNA to be taken from James Brown's body
AIKEN, S.C., Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Attorneys in South Carolina agreed to take a DNA sample from the late singer James Brown to preserve for a possible paternity challenge.
The sampling should be collected and Brown buried within about 10 days at an undisclosed location, said Charleston, S.C. attorney Robert Rosen, who represents Tomi Rae Hynie who said Brown married her and fathered her child.
"This is just to preserve the sample," Rosen told the Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier. "The court hasn't ruled as to whether anybody is entitled to do a DNA test."
Brown's representatives sought the DNA sample, Rosen said, which will be taken by an expert from the Medical University of South Carolina.
The representatives challenged the paternity of Hynie's 5-year-old son, James J. Brown II. Rosen said the singer's name is on the child's birth certificate and that he acknowledged the boy as his son in his autobiography.
"They have not asked for a paternity test but I'm assuming they will," Rosen told the Post and Courier. "We don't think a test is necessary."
Brown died Christmas Day at age 73. His will does not mention Hynie or her son.
