Security tight for Anna Nicole Smith funeral, cosmeticians try to restore her beauty
By Jeffrey Jolson
Anna Nicole to finally R.I.P.
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 3/1/07 — Anna Nicole Smith’s body will be transported to the Bahamas under heavy security today as final determinations are made as to whether embalmers can restore enough of her celebrated beauty for an open-casket funeral in the Bahamas Friday morning.
Tents are being erected for the memorial, a burial gown has been created by one of her favorite designers, guest lists are being wrangled over, pink flowers ordered and every limo on the island rented, yet there is still some concern over what shape Anna Nicole will be in for her final party.
Dr. Joshua Perper, the Broward County medical examiner, said that embalmers would have to take another look at the body, but that he hopes it is “in such condition that a second viewing will be possible,” referring to a private viewing during the recent hearings. He said his office had avoided opening the morgue door where she was stored to “let as little oxygen as possible in.”
Yet there is some doubt cosmeticians will be able to do her justice to Smith, who died three weeks ago on Feb. 8 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Florida. “Cosmeticians can do wonderful things with putty, coloring and makeup, but it may be so artificial as to be grotesque” said Dr. Cyril Wecht on Court TV, noting only her face would have to be reconstructed.
In the wake of a Florida appeal court ruling that Smith’s verbal wishes to be buried next to her son in the Bahamas outweighed her mother’s claims to her body, the 39-year-old ex-Playmate will finally be laid to rest next to 20-year-old Daniel Smith at Lakeview Memorial in Nassau at 10:30 a.m. EST.
Smith friend Patrik Simpson told AP he believed the casket would “most likely” be closed.
“Under any other circumstances, there just would not be an open casket,’ he said. During the weeks of court hearing surrounding rights to her body and baby Dannielynn, Dr. Perper warned repeatedly that her body was “decomposing more quickly than anticipated.”
“Extra security is going to stay in place until the body is shipped,” said Dr. Perper, “The body is going to be prepared by embalmers who are going to apply cosmetics, dress the body in nice clothing and place it in a casket. I will travel with the body and there will be police protection during travel.”
It’s not that various parties are worried about someone stealing the body, though anything is possible in this bizarre case. It’s also about stealing a photo, as was done by Elvis Presley’s cousin at his memorial that was sold the National Enquirer – in fact made the National Enquirer what it was to become.
The funeral home in Nassau that handled Daniel will likely do the same for Smith and security there is also expected to be tight as that is a likely place for a photo that observers note would “be all over the internet and all over the world in minutes.”
About 300 guests will gather at the Nassau memorial service, where the church will be decorated with her favorite pink flowers, Simpson said. “It will be a very beautiful, Anna Nicole send-off. Of course it will be over the top because it’s Anna Nicole.”
Simpson said each “faction” — companion Howard K. Stern, mother Virgie Arthur and ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead — had to submit a guest list in advance and each would be limited to 100 people at the church service. That will be whittled down to about 10 people each for the burial, or so Simpson claimed.
A more likely scenario is a media circus, friends and acquaintances coming out of the woodwork, plus crowds of locals and tourists lining the funeral route and looking on from whatever holes there are in security. A large green tent blocked photographers from recording Daniel’s service. Yet the intensity of interest far outstrips that instance and a squadron of media choppers will vie for airspace to whatever degree Bahamas law allows.
“It will be something very beautiful, very private, very over the top and very pink,” he said. Simpson’s partner, Pol Atteu, has designed more than a dozen gowns for Smith, including the one in which she was to be buried in a “very elegant” casket.
Simpson, a 38-year-old model talent scout who was friends with Smith for the past five years, said he and his partner plan to place photos of themselves with their 15-year-old daughter, who sang at Daniel’s funeral, inside her casket, and other close friends also will likely add photos.
It is unclear whether Simpson’s plans to place mementos in the casket will be affected once the warring parties get involved in earnest later in the day. Also having sway over funeral arrangements is the guardian of Dannielynn, Richard Milstein, who was granted the body in the well-publicized Florida hearings.
There was testimony in court that $1 million was offered by a TV show for exclusive video rights to the funeral. That amount would likely be higher for an open-casket funeral, though there is no word who, if anyone, would have clear rights to negotiate the deal or how it would be split.
Bahamian courts have scheduled hearings in the custody and property disputes for mid-March. Birkhead is seeking legal paternity and custody of the child. His attorney, Debra Opri, alleged outside a courthouse Monday that there is “fraud” in the birth certificate, but she didn’t elaborate. Arthur also seeks custody. The next hearing is scheduled for March 16.
The judge hearing the case regarding the mansion where Stern and Dannielynn are staying will allow them to remain in the house pending a March 14 hearing with J. Ben Thompson, the South Carolina developer who says he still owns the home. He says Smith never paid him for the house, although she claimed it was a gift.