Anna Nicole Smith Hospitalized With Pneumonia

NASSAU, Bahamas (October 31, 2006) — Anna Nicole Smith has been hospitalized with pneumonia at the same medical center where her 20-year-old son died under mysterious circumstances in September, an attorney for the reality TV star said Tuesday.

Smith, whose son died while visiting her in the hospital three days after she gave birth to daughter Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern, was being treated at Doctors Hospital in Nassau, attorney Wayne Munroe said.

“She has a slight case of pneumonia,” Munroe told The Associated Press. “We’ve had a sudden change of weather here due to a cold snap.”

The attorney said the hospitalization was most likely just a precaution since Smith, 38, had recently given birth. “I didn’t gather it was anything serious,” he said.

Munroe said Smith, who moved to the Bahamas during her pregnancy, has filed a lawsuit as part of a dispute with a South Carolina developer over the ownership of a waterfront mansion where she has been secluded since her son’s death.

Smith’s ownership of the home, which her lawyer has said was purchased in July for $900,000, is the basis of her claim to residency in the Bahamas.

The results of official toxicology tests and a police investigation into Daniel Smith’s death have not been released.

Dannielynn, almost 2 months old, is the subject of two paternity lawsuits filed by Larry Birkhead, who claims he is the infant’s father.

Birkhead initially filed a lawsuit demanding Smith and the child come to California to establish paternity through DNA tests. A hearing is set for Nov. 8.

A second lawsuit was filed by Birkhead in the Bahamas last week alleging Smith and her current companion, Howard K. Stern, had committed fraud and conspiracy.

Meanwhile, Ron Rule, a lawyer for Smith, said allegations that Dannielynn’s hair may have been dyed to make it appear that Stern is the child’s father, were ridiculous.

Debri Opri, an attorney for Birkhead, said Monday that Birkhead had seen the infant with dark hair in leaked snippets of a TV interview of Smith, who usually sports platinum blond locks.

Stern appears to have naturally black hair. Birkhead frosts the tips of his sandy blond hair.