Birkhead is Anna Nicole Smith’s baby daddy

NASSAU, Bahamas — DNA tests prove it: Larry Birkhead is the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s million-dollar baby.

“I told you so!” the late Playboy Playmate’s former boyfriend said Tuesday upon emerging from a closed court hearing. He added: “My baby’s going to be coming home pretty soon.”

Birkhead, a 34-year-old California photographer, then hugged his rival, Howard K. Stern, who has been caring for baby Dannielynn since Smith’s sudden death in February.

The hearing was a pivotal moment in the battle over who gets custody of the girl, who could inherit a fortune from the estate of Smith’s late husband, J. Howard Marshall II. Although Birkhead is the father, Stern’s name is on the birth certificate. Another custody hearing was scheduled for Friday.

Stern, who was Smith’s lawyer and later became her companion, said he wouldn’t fight for custody, but a lawyer for Smith’s mother, Virgie Arthur, indicated she might. The judge scheduled another hearing for Friday in the pink colonial courthouse to discuss who will raise the girl, who could inherit hundreds of millions of dollars.

Stern said he loved the baby despite the DNA results and would support Birkhead.

“I’m obviously very disappointed, but my feelings for Dannielynn have not changed,” he said, adding of Birkhead: “I’m going to do whatever I can to make sure he gets sole custody.”

Birkhead had been fighting for custody of Dannielynn even before Smith’s death.

“Nothing’s been determined except parentage and I’m the father,” Birkhead said. “It’s been a long road and I’m just happy to have this behind me.”

A crowd of about 250 people, many of them tourists, cheered from behind police barricades when Birkhead, clutching a piece of paper, announced the DNA test results. The court’s DNA expert, Dr. Michael Baird, confirmed it.

“Essentially, he’s the biological father,” Baird said.

This tropical capital has been transfixed by the Anna Nicole saga since she moved here last year. Smith gave birth to Dannielynn in September, only to see her 20-year-old son Daniel die days later at her bedside from a lethal combination of drugs. Smith died in February at age 39 in Florida.

Many in the crowd took pictures of the impromptu news conference with cameras and cell phones. One man in the crowd wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the handwritten message: “I’m the baby’s daddy.”

Arthur, who had been estranged from Smith for years, said she wanted to be present in her granddaughter’s life, but seemed appeased by the DNA results.

“I’m happy that Dannielynn will know who her real father is,” she said.

The baby, whose full name is Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern, could inherit millions from Marshall’s estate. Smith, a former model, had been fighting the Texas oil tycoon’s family over his estimated $500 million fortune since his death in 1995.

Nina Gordon…still Rockin’

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THE GREAT WHITE NORTH

From guidelines for recent immigrants to Canada,

published in January by the municipality of

Herouxville, Quebec, a town of 1,300.

We Wish, above all, to inform our new arrivals

that the way of life they abandoned in leaving

their country of origin cannot be reproduced

here and that it is necessary for them to find a

way to adapt to their new social identity.

We consider to be outside the norm all actions

or gestures that are contrary to this pronouncement,

such as the practice of stoning women to

death in public places, burning them alive, burning

them with acid, circumcising them, etc.

In all of our schools, the national history of

Quebec is assigned. Biology, too.

You will see men and women skiing on the

same mountain and at the same time. Men and

women on the same hockey team and playing at

the same time on the same ice. Men and women

cross-country skiing at the same time.

In our families, if the children eat beef, they will

not seek to know the provenance of the beef, or

who killed it, or where, or in what manner, or on

what day. In our families, that which is ingested

by the mouth is meant exclusively to nourish the

body. The soul nourishes itself by other means.

‘Brainman No Die’…now available

I Know It!

Get your copy HERE

Do coffee and cigarettes protect against Parkinson’s?

People with Parkinson’s disease are less likely to be smokers and coffee drinkers than their healthy siblings, according to a study of family members. The finding adds to a growing body of evidence that some substance in tobacco might protect the brain against this devastating neurological disorder and sheds new light on coffee’s effects on the disease.

Researchers say the study provides new evidence that the causes of Parkinson’s vary. They also stress that the negative health effects of smoking far outweigh any protective effect the substance might have against this neurodegenerative disease.

Parkinson’s disease, which generally strikes people over the age of 50, leads to a loss of coordination, dementia and may result in early death.

For decades, scientists have found evidence suggesting that smokers are less likely to develop this illness than non-smokers. But experts believe that genes can influence one’s risk of developing Parkinson’s, and the vast majority of these studies involved participants who were unrelated and therefore genetically dissimilar.

To control for this genetic variability, William Scott of the University of Miami in Florida, US, and his colleagues studied the smoking and coffee-drinking habits of Parkinson’s patients and their family members.

Close relatives

They recruited 356 Parkinson’s patients and 317 of their close relatives, such as siblings. All of the relatives had passed the age at which their family member with Parkinson’s had first shown signs of the disease.

The team found that the Parkinson’s patients were about 40% less likely to have ever smoked than their healthy relatives, and 50% less likely to be long-term smokers, with roughly 10% smoking for more than 30 years, compared with 15% of their healthy counterparts.

Of the healthy relatives, about 40% consumed an average of three or more cups of coffee a day over their lifetime. By contrast, those with Parkinson’s were about 40% less likely to report drinking this much coffee.

Exactly why smoking and consuming coffee had an inverse association with Parkinson’s disease remains largely unclear.

Dopamine link

One possible mechanism involves a signalling chemical in the brain called dopamine. The death of dopamine-producing cells in the brain appears to drive the progression of Parkinson’s disease, and both smoking and drinking coffee can raise levels of the chemical.

Scientists have also found some evidence that a substance in tobacco smoke may boost dopamine levels by blocking the production of toxins that poison dopamine-producing cells (see Why the wicked weed wards off Parkinson’s).

But Scott cautions that the relationship between Parkinson’s and smoking may not be a simple one of cause and effect. The biology of certain people’s brains who develop Parkinson’s disease may simply make them less likely to become addicted to cigarettes, he says.

Smoking risks

Scott says the new research lends support to the idea that there are multiple ways that Parkinson’s can strike.

A variety of different genetic mutations are associated with Parkinson’s, and only some of them may have any kind of smoking link. For example, a Parkinson’s-related gene mutation called NOS2A does not appear linked to the habit – patients with the mutation were just as likely as their close relatives to report regularly smoking and drinking coffee.

Scott emphasises that the results of his study should not give anyone an excuse to start smoking. He says that the well-established risks of smoking – such as developing lung cancer or having a heart attack – “absolutely” outweigh any potential protection it might offer against Parkinson’s.

“And relative to lung disease and heart disease, Parkinson’s disease is far less common,” he adds.

Anheuser-Busch Pushing Alcohol-Heavy Spykes "Liquid Lunchables"

Just as high school prom season is about to kick off, a new drink made by Anheuser-Busch has just been introduced and has created a lot of “buzz”. These “nail polish-size bottles of malt liquor, called Spykes”, come in a variety of flavors such as mango and chocolate flavors and “infused” with energy drink supplements such as “caffeine, herbs ginseng and gurana.” The bottles are sold for only 75 cents to 1 dollar and come in 2-ounce bottles. The problem with these drinks is that they appeal to underage high school teens because of their price, their contents (flavored malt laced with energy drink supplements), and since it comes in a “cute nail polish size bottle- so it can be easily slopped into the tiniest clutch purse or tuxedo pocket.”

Holy torts! Law student in erotic vid

A Brooklyn law student who shed her briefs for a Playboy TV series may have to kiss off her career after the sexy video made its way into e-mail in-boxes all over the city.

Adriana Dominguez – a third-year student at Brooklyn Law School – happily strips naked, gets spanked and holds gavels up to her bare breasts in the provocative clip.

“I wanted to do something a little crazy before I graduate and do become a lawyer … do something kind of out of character,” Dominguez said with a grin as she posed for photographer Andrew Einhorn inside his friend’s DUMBO apartment.

“Lawyers can be boring,” the 24-year-old later added.

But no one will ever call Dominguez buttoned-up.

The brainy blond with Ivy League credentials was looking for a lark last July when she answered a Craigslist ad for women to appear in the Playboy TV series “Naked Happy Girls.”

The episode, called “Rock Star and the Lawyer,” aired in January – and was barely noticed.

But in the past three weeks, a 45-second clip spread on the Internet among students and some faculty at almost every New York law school.

“I did not expect it to become so widespread,” Dominguez told the Daily News in an e-mail yesterday. “I do not know how it was leaked.”

The University of Pennsylvania graduate appeared embarrassed and anxious when The News spotted her coming out of a meeting with a top dean.

“We don’t want this to ruin the career of a young lawyer,” said law school spokeswoman Linda Harvey.

When she made the erotic video, Dominguez, a California native, seemed unfazed by the idea that it could wreck her future.

“I’m not that shy, so it wouldn’t bother me if, say, the opposing counsel has seen these pictures of me. I wouldn’t care,” she told Einhorn after he asked her if she had any concerns.

“When we shot, she knew what might happen down the road if these pictures might get shown to people in her field,” Einhorn told The News.

“But she had this self-confidence to not let that bother her. I don’t think that she felt that this would be negative in any way to her career,” he said.

The sexy stunt could have dire consequences for the would-be lawyer.

If she applies for the New York State Bar this year, Dominguez could face tough questions from the Committee on Character and Fitness, which examines the personal character of future lawyers.

“It may have an effect. It’s a possibility in the worst-case scenario that the person does not get admitted,” a committee representative said.

And potential employers are sure to discover Dominguez’s striptease with a quick Internet search.

Except for her naughty past, Dominguez has plenty to recommend her: she had a fall internship with the domestic violence unit of the Brooklyn district attorney’s office and served as treasurer of her law school’s Legal Association of Activist Women.

Her fellow students at Brooklyn Law, who have dubbed Dominguez “Porn Star,” said she should have been smart enough to know better.

“It’s a striptease. A bit trashy,” said one young woman on campus. “I look at her differently. She’s definitely smart. It was just a bad decision.”

See the video HERE

German job fair

Terrible working conditions, low wages, a whole generation of interns: Stop it! Jobsintown.de, one of the biggest German job exchanges, shows you the way to a better job.

Mystery cat takes regular bus to the shops

Bus drivers have nicknamed a white cat Macavity after it has started using the No 331 several mornings a week.

The feline, which has a purple collar, gets onto the busy Walsall to Wolverhampton bus at the same stop most mornings – he then jumps off at the next stop 400m down the road, near a fish and chip shop.

The cat was nicknamed Macavity after the mystery cat in T.S Elliot’s poem. He gets on the bus in front of a row of 1950s semi-detached houses and jumps off at a row of shops down the road which include a fish and chip shop.

Driver Bill Khunkhun, 49, who first saw the cat jumping from the bus in January, said: “It is really odd, the first time I saw the cat jumping off the bus with a group of passengers. I hadn’t seen it get on which was a bit confusing.

“The next day I pulled up on Churchill Road to let a couple of passengers on. As soon as I opened the doors the cat ran towards the bus, jumped on and ran under one of the seats, I don’t think any of the passengers noticed.

“Because I had seen it jump off the day before I carried on driving and sure enough when I stopped just down the road he jumped off – I don’t know why he would catch the bus but he seems to like it. I told some of the other drivers on this route and they have seen him too.”

Since January, when the cat first caught the bus he has done it two or three times a week and always gets on and off at the same stops.

Passenger, Paul Brennan, 19, who catches the 331 to work, said: “I first noticed the cat a few weeks ago. At first I thought it had been accompanied by its owner but after the first stop it became quite clear he was on his own.

“He sat at the front of the bus, waited patiently for the next stop and then got off. It was was quite strange at first but now it just seems normal. I suppose he is the perfect passenger really – he sits quietly, minds his own business and then gets off.”

‘Mafioso’ – 1962

See the trailer HERE