A day after Anna Nicole Smith's death, her autopsy will be conducted, as will an emergency hearing to decide whether a court-ordered DNA sample can be taken from her body to help determine the biological father of her daughter, Dannielynn.

The attorney for photographer Larry Birkhead, who claims he is Dannielynn's father, requested the closed-door hearing, which is expected to start around 9 a.m. before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Schnider, the county's presiding family court judge.

Birkhead's attorney, Debra Opri, said her DNA experts insist that, to get a good sample, they have to obtain some of Smiths's DNA within 48 hours of her death. She emphasized that Birkhead did not ask for the hearing and is devastated, having lost "the love of his life and the mother of his child."


Birkhead, 34, has long contested the claim that 5-month-old Dannielynn was fathered by Smith's companion, attorney Howard K. Stern, 38.

It is unclear how a DNA sample would be taken from the infant, who, according to Opri, is currently under the care of the mother of the Bahamas' Immigration Minister, Shane Gibson.

Meanwhile, Edwina Johnson, chief investigator for the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office in Florida, where Smith died, said her cause of death was under investigation and an autopsy would be done today.

Meanwhile, a rep for the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino said Stern was not at the hotel when Smith was found unresponsive Thursday night, but was at the hospital where she was taken.

"I don't know where he is," said spokesman Gary Bitner.

According to another spokeswoman for the hotel, five people were with Smith at the hotel, where she checked in Monday night after arriving from the Bahamas. Smith had been due to arrive Saturday night for a pre-Super Bowl celebrity poker tournament. Instead, she arrived Monday, feeling sick, with a nurse, a bodyguard, Stern and two other unidentified people.

According to a Bitner, Smith was in town to buy a boat.

Bitner said Smith had stayed at Hollywood, Fla., a casino resort at least three previous times: to film a TrimSpa commercial, celebrate a birthday and attend a boxing match with her friend, boxing promoter Don King.




Anna Nicole: Narcotics Found in Hotel Room


Suspicion that drugs killed Anna Nicole Smith was heightened today as investigators found illegal narcotics as well as prescription medications in Anna Nicole Smith's room at the Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, Fla., according to reports this morning.

WCBS-TV in New York reports that drugs were found in Smith's hotel room, and a toxicology report that would determine whether those drugs caused her death has not yet been released. An autopsy is scheduled for this morning.


Did Anna Nicole Choke on Her Own Vomit?

According to another report this morning, when an "employee" of Anna Nicole Smith found her in her hotel room, she appeared to have choked on her own vomit. The "credible source" cited by Access Hollywood says that when the employee encountered Smith in her room, she pulled back a sheet and discovered that the model-actress had choked. The same source, says Access, claims that Smith took a "children's sedative" and that she "kept passing out" before her death.


Smith's Final Moments Sell for $500,000

The footage of Anna Nicole Smith's last moments sold for more than $500,000, just hours after Smith's death in Hollywood, Fla., according to Splash News & Picture Agency, as reported by FOX News. The two-minute video, according to sources, shows paramedics working on the unresponsive actress, and her body being wheeled out on a gurney. The paramedics, according to a producer who viewed it, appear to pull the gurney back out of the ambulance to administer CPR again. But, adds the producer, the body is not readily identifiable as Anna Nicole Smith.