Can you believe it?

Key players in the Anna Nicole saga have finally -- FINALLY -- decided it's best to STFU.

Smith's ex in 'happy mood' after hearing

By JESSICA ROBERTSON, Associated Press
Writer
Sat Mar 17, 12:16 AM ET
A former boyfriend of
Anna Nicole Smith who claims to be the father of her daughter expressed optimism
following a court hearing Friday. But both he and the late model's mother, who
is also seeking custody of the girl, refused to discuss the case.
Larry
Birkhead, a California-based photographer seeking custody of Smith's baby girl,
Dannielynn, said he was "in a happy mood" after the hearing but others were not
as pleased with developments inside the courtroom.
"There were different
moods for different people. I'm in a happy mood but I can't speak for anyone
else," Birkhead said.
Virgie Arthur, mother of the 39-year-old reality TV
star and former Playboy Playmate, and her attorneys left the Superior Court
building without speaking. She wants to take the girl from Smith's live-in
companion, Howard K. Stern, arguing she could provide a more stable
home.
Stern, who is listed as Dannielynn's father on the Bahamian birth
certificate, did not attend the hearing.
The court clerk's office closed near
the hearing's end and nobody was available to answer questions about the
proceedings in the three-way custody dispute.
The fight for custody of the
infant, who could potentially inherit millions of dollars from her late mother's
estate, began after Smith, 39, died of unknown causes Feb. 8 in
Florida.
Meanwhile, a hearing on an ownership dispute concerning the house
where Smith lived in the Bahamas was adjourned until April, according to an
attorney for South Carolina developer G. Ben Thompson.
Thompson, who briefly
dated Smith, says he advanced her money for the $900,000 house but she did not
honor an agreement to repay the debt. Smith, who lived there with Stern in the
months before her death, claimed the house was a gift.
Stern, has remained at
the gated house known as "Horizons" with Smith's daughter.

It embarrasses me to confess my fascination with the Anna Nicole saga. Like most "celebrities," her 15 minutes of fame were up years ago. But, hey, it's better than reading about Mangelina Whorlie and her kid collection, Paris Hilton's sex tapes, anything Jessica Simpson (WTH was Nick Lachey thinking? I gave John Mayer more credit than this, too), and minute-by-minute reports on Britney's baldness and rehab. (Leave the girl alone already!)

I think Howard loved Anna, and part of that love was enabling her. It's not pleasant, but he's not the first enabler in the name of love. Heck, my own grandmother did it. This purely Southern Baptist liquor-and-drugs-are-the-root-of-all-evil lady would mortgage her house to get her drunken and drug-addled son out of the slammer. Discussions about him were the only times I ever heard my grandparents argue. (Grandpa felt, rightly so, that he should be left to cool his heels for a while. Grandma didn't want Her Baby amongst the "hardened criminals." Grandpa always gave in.)

I'm rooting for Howard Marshall to be little Dannielynn's dad. But I'm almost positive it's Larry Birkhead. Anyone have photos of him prior to his rhinoplasty? He looks a bit like my Pekingese now.

And Virgie -- go home! Anna didn't like you, and neither do I.