

Anna Nicole Smith and Howard K. Stern held a “commitment ceremony” aboard a yacht attended by an officator and some of their friends. While it was initially thought to be a wedding, it turned out to just be a bizarre ceremony with no legal purpose. They issued a statement condemning the press for invading their private party with jetboats delivering champagne, but it sure comes off as hypocritical now. It turns out that they invested the money from selling Daniel’s last photographs into throwing a fake wedding so they could sell the pictures and make bank.

Getty Images, the photo agency that purchased the rights to the last heartbreaking photos of Daniel Smith with his mother and newborn little brother sister, also paid $1 million for the pictures of the bullshit wedding:

close to $1 million for photos of Smith’s “wedding” to her attorney/spokesman Howard K. Stern. Personal tragedy evidently hasn’t dulled Anna Nicole Smith’s instinct for making a quick buck. A well-placed source in the celebrity magazine market says People paid Getty Imagesto her attorney/spokesman Howard K. Stern. According to the source, Smith and Stern did not actually get married, as a report on Star magazine’s website claimed, but merely held a commitment ceremony. “They clearly staged this as a money-making thing,” adds the source. “They just decided to create another photo op.” So why did People buy in? Perhaps because it got beat on the newsstand the previous week by In Touch, which shelled out a reported $400,000 for the last photos of Smith’s son Daniel. Shower anyone?

Now that no one feels sorry for Anna at all, she’s getting sued by her baby’s daddy for paternity rights. Photographer Larry Birkhead claims that he’s the father of Anna’s baby, not her drugged lawyer, Howard K. Stern. Stern told Larry King that he’s the father, but skirted the question when asked if he would take a DNA test, and said he would have a paternity test only if “legally compelled.” Birkhead has called him on his comments, and has filed suit to have Anna and the baby tested for both drugs and paternity:

The suit is requesting a judge to order Anna Nicole return her daughter Dannie Lynn to California, submit to a paternity test and have mother and child tested for drugs. In a statement released tonight by Birkhead’s high-powered attorney Debra Opri, Birkhead is asking for legal and physical custody of the little girl, born September 7th. According to the statement, Birkhead is “a first time father and he is responding to allegations made by attorney Howard K. Stern on behalf of Anna Nicole Smith” and “believes beyond any doubt that he is the father.” Smith’s lawyer Howard K. Stern announced last week on CNN’s “Larry King Live” that he was the father of the child and that he and Anna Nicole had been in a relationship for some time.

Anna’s just about to crawl back into the career hole she emerged from when she starred in that annoying reality series and lost a ton of weight with gastric bypass. She squandered public sentiment with opportunism. If she can’t get ahold of the billions of dollars she married her ancient second husband for, at least she can take advantage of her newfound tragic fame to make a quick buck.