Florida judge is trying to keep peace in hearings over Smith

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — There were angry attacks at times, resounding laughter at others and a standing-room only audience.

And as custody of Anna Nicole Smith's body and of the former Playboy Playmate's infant daughter devolved Thursday into an all-out legal circus, Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin became the affable ringmaster.

On the second day of an often acrimonious emergency hearing over Smith's remains, Seidlin, 56, called lawyers "terrific" and "beautiful." He divulged the minutiae of his days, from his morning swim to the tuna sandwich he was having when assigned the case. He so frequently spoke off the cuff that he seemed like he was auditioning for a TV court show.

And he really seemed to enjoy it.

"It was delightful having everyone," he said at the end of the day.

Everyone probably would not agree.

Smith's longtime companion, Howard K. Stern, claims he is executor of her will and wants her buried next to her son in the Bahamas. Her estranged mother, Vergie Arthur, wants her buried in Smith's home state of Texas.

Photographer Larry Birkhead hopes DNA taken from Smith will help prove he fathered the former centerfold's 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn, who could inherit millions.

Seidlin has said the dispute could be lengthy. The hearing, which began Wednesday, took all day Thursday and was to continue Friday.

Lawyers for all three took swipes at each other's clients throughout Thursday's hearing in a room jammed with about 50 people. Reporters sat on the floor and atop a credenza, punching away at handheld computers. Courthouse staff struggled to push their way through. There were not enough chairs for all the attorneys.

Lawyers for Stern and Arthur fought Birkhead's attorneys' plea to gather additional DNA from the body of Smith, who died a week earlier, though Seidlin eventually ordered another cheek swab taken. Stern's attorneys called Arthur's move to gain her estranged daughter's remains "sick" and the mother's attorneys charged back that Smith's longtime companion had no rights whatsoever.

The attorneys, at times, buried their faces in their hands. They interrupted Seidlin repeatedly. Some even refused to shake hands.

Unfazed, Seidlin addressed the attorneys as "my good lawyer," or as "California" or "Texas" to note their state. The more tense the mood got, the more steadfastly he sought civility.

"I don't want to attack one another," he said.

It was a milder tone than Seidlin struck as he took over the case Wednesday and declared Smith's corpse would stay refrigerated in the medical examiner's office until he said otherwise.