Entertainment

(CBS News) Lawyers in a Florida hearing regarding the custody of Anna Nicole Smith's body grilled her companion, her mother, and an ex-boyfriend Wednesday to determine if they received financial remuneration from any news organization.

The line of questioning sought to establish whether either Howard K. Stern, Virgie Arthur, or Larry Birkhead were motivated by money.

"Is it the heart that's chasing this or is it that money's chasing it? Or is it a combination of both?" said Judge Larry Seidlin.

Birkhead, who said he began an intimate relationship with Smith in July 2004, claimed that Smith spent two weeks in an in-patient detox program in April 2006, while she was pregnant with Dannielyn. Birkhead is demanding a DNA test to prove he is the baby's father.

He described Stern as Smith's friend, lawyer, gofer, and "multi-tasker," but claimed that the relationship between the two was never intimate.

While Smith was in the hospital, Birkhead said he and Stern slept in her hospital room.

"She was taking medications before and during pregnancy. I was concerned about that, because we already had one miscarriage and every time she put something in her mouth it would affect her and the child," said Birkhead. "So we had a couple clashes in the hospital room. Because she and Mr. Stern brought in a duffel bag with drugs."

Birkhead, a freelance photographer, said he did not receive money for interviews that he has done dince Daniel's death, but that he received royalties for any photos of Smith that were used during those interviews.

The judge asked Birkhead where he thought Smith should be buried.

"I'm a California resident, and if and when I get the daughter that I believe is mine, she would have to travel to the Bahamas (to visit the grave)," said Birkhead. "I don't want to separate the mother from (her son). But I don't want them in the Bahamas, so I'm having trouble with that."

Earlier in the afternoon, Stern testified that his only remuneration came from "Entertainment Tonight," which paid for a chartered plane from Florida to the Bahamas after Smith's death. He said that he was interviewed by the show while on the plane, but pointed out that he and Smith had been on the show many times in the past.

He also said that he had discussed with ET that if there was a televised funeral for Smith, he would want all revenue to go to a trust for Smith's 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn, executed by an impartial third party.

Since leaving his law practice in 2002, Stern said he's been mostly supported by Smith, who paid for his apartment in Los Angeles as well as the majority of his expenses. He did say that he received a small amount of money for his appearance on Smith's reality show.

He said that he was on a retainer as a lawyer in Smith's claim to get a share of her former husband J. Howard Marshall's estate. He said that he would get 6 percent of $100 million if he wins the case.

Stern said that his parents wired him a "significant" amount of money recently to help cover his legal costs.

A lawyer for Arthur also grilled Stern about Smith's drug use. Stern said that she did take prescription medicines, including methadone, but that he had tried to discourage her drug use.

"I talked to her about it and she did cut down a lot on medication that she took. Can anybody stop someone else entirely?" said Stern. "Anna, when she made her decisions was pretty clear on her decisions. It's not like Anna was medicated all the time. She formed an intent and made the intent clear and made it clear to many people."

Earlier in the day, Stern's lawyer asked Arthur if she sold a video of Daniel memorial in the Bahamas for $12,500. Arthur said she didn't receive any money from any "news place."

She said the only person who had profited from her daughter was Stern.

But after lunch, under cross-examination, Arthur said that she was accompanied to the Bahamas on Jan. 22 by David Lee whom she called "a friend of the family." She said that Lee, a journalist for Splash News, provided plane fare for the trip.

Lee, a Florida resident, accompanied Arthur on Wednesday during a morbid field trip of sorts to the Broward Medical Examiner's Office for an impromptu viewing of Smith's body. Birkhead and Stern also attended the viewing.

Arthur was questioned if she had tipped off Splash News about the trip to the morgue, which she denied.

WFOR-TV in Fort Lauderdale captured video of Birkhead, Stern and Arthur, all arriving separately between 1:45 p.m. and 1:50 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.

On Tuesday, Broward Medical Examiner Dr. Joshua Perper warned Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin that Smith's body is quickly decomposing, even though it's been embalmed. He said a public viewing might not be possible if it doesn't happen soon.

It's believed the arrival of Birkhead, Stern and Arthur at the Medical Examiner's office was for a small private viewing, before the body decomposes any further.

Earlier in the day, Arthur said that after her grandson's death, she predicted her daughter would die. Now she says she fears for the well being of her granddaughter, Dannielynn.

"I'm afraid for her life as well. Please help us," she said, wiping away tears.

She said she wanted to bring her daughter's body and grandson's body to Texas. She said the Bahamas was "not his home, it's not Vicki's home," Arthur said.

Arthur explained that she hadn't seen her daughter since 1995 or 1996 because, "she was surrounded by people … she was on drugs."

Seidlin started proceedings Wednesday with a discussion with Arthur about her former job as a deputy in a Texas sheriff's department.

Stern and Smith's estranged mother are in a Florida court arguing what to do with her remains, while another hearing in California deals with questions about the paternity of the former centerfold's infant daughter.

During a Tuesday hearing on what to do with her remains, Perper said via telephone that embalmers who embalmed Smith's body last weekend advised that any viewing should be done this week.

"A delay in the next week might create a problem and the face of the deceased might show color changes," Perper said.

Stern was on the witness stand when Perper's call interrupted the hearing. Stern looked upset, lowering his head on his clasped hands as Perper's voice was heard in the court over a speaker phone.

Under direct testimony Tuesday afternoon, Stern said he and Smith chose a commitment ceremony over a legal wedding because he was concerned about what people would think.

"Anna wanted our marriage to be a legal marriage," Stern said. "I was concerned that people would think that I was making a run for her money."

After the mysterious death of Smith's 20-year-old son, Daniel, Stern said he was also concerned that if he married Smith, people would think they did it so they wouldn't have to testify against one another in court.

"Upon the advice of counsel, we didn't want to give any perception of wrongdoing," said Stern. "A coroner early on said the death was under suspicious circumstances, but later retracted that."

Stern said he later found out that his lawyer gave him the wrong advice, because under Bahamian law a husband and wife would still have to testify because Daniel's death happened before their marriage.

Stern's attorney also played raw footage of an interview with Stern and Smith from "Entertainment Tonight." In the October interview, Smith said she was upset that her mother publicly accused her and Stern of killing Daniel.

"First of all, she's not my mother, she's my birth mother," Smith said. "Second of all, she doesn't know me and she doesn't know my son. She hasn't seen my son since probably he was 5 years old."

Smith also said that she would never allow her mother near Dannielynn. "I would never speak to her again, ever," she said. "She won't touch my child."

According to Stern, she was adamant about burying her son in the Bahamas, where he died just days after Smith's daughter was born there in September.

"Anna and Daniel were inseparable. Daniel was without question the most important person in Anna's life," Stern told Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin.

At Daniel's funeral, "she said 'if Daniel has to be buried, I want to be buried with him,'" Stern said.

Stern said that her son's death in September forever changed Smith. "From the day Daniel died, in a lot of ways, Anna was never the same … she initially would not accept that Daniel was gone," he said.

Without written proof of Smith's own wishes, Seidlin is forced to hear testimony from those who claim to know what Smith wanted.

Stern said that Smith had always talked about dying young and that, before her son's death in September, she had wanted to be buried near Marilyn Monroe.

"She was pretty much my whole world," Stern said of the model, with whom he said he had a working and intimate relationship. "She was my best friend, my love, the mother of my daughter … my world."

Stern said he and Smith began an intimate relationship in 2000 but that it was not exclusive.

Arthur wants Smith brought home to her native Texas, insisting that despite their estrangement, she has the right to bury her own daughter, not a man to whom Smith wasn't even married.

In Los Angeles, Stern's lawyers also were arguing the paternity issue Tuesday with attorneys for Birkhead, who says he fathered the girl. That hearing was closed to the public.

Frederic von Anhalt, the husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, has filed a separate paternity challenge to Stern's claim.

Since Smith's death Feb. 8 in Florida, the baby has been living with Stern in the Bahamas. The cause of Smith's death is under investigation. She was 39.

(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)