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No Place Like Home for Dannielynn and Dad

Tue., May. 1, 2007 2:05 PM PDT by Natalie Finn

Larry Birkhead finally has his daughter right where he wants her.

After securing a temporary passport for seven-month-old Dannielynn in the Bahamas Monday, the doting dad brought his progeny back to the United States aboard a chartered plane Tuesday.

An Access Hollywood camera crew joined the father-daughter duo for the flight, ensuring that no tender moment went undocumented. (The NBC-owned show reportedly paid $1 million for the honor.)

The plane touched down in Fort Lauderdale briefly before continuing on to Birkhead's hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.

"It just feels good to be home," Birkhead told the gathered reporters and photographers upon disembarking from the plane.

Birkhead, 34, covered the baby with his jacket as they moved through the private terminal at the Louisville airport to an awaiting SUV crammed with baby gear brought from the Bahamas.

Birkhead also reported that Dannielynn "did great" on the flight and that he planned on introducing her to his family and friends, "relax and horse around."

That last comment can be taken literally.

Birkhead confirmed he has RSVP'd to the Barnstable Brown gala on Friday in advance of Saturday's Kentucky Derby.

Coming full circle, the exclusive, all-star party was the site of Birkhead's first encounter with Anna Nicole Smith back in 2004. (He was working the party as a freelance photographer, Smith was working the to-do as an invited guest.)

Birkhead also told reporters Tuesday that he wasn't sure if he would stay in Louisville or return to Los Angeles, where he has a townhouse with a recently refurbished nursery.

To expedite the passport process and get Dannielynn out of the Bahamas at last, Birkhead obtained a revised birth certificate for her last Friday—one listing him, rather than Howard K. Stern, as the father and changing the child's last name to Birkhead.

Birkhead snapped his daughter's passport pic himself, per MSNBC, calling it the most expensive picture he ever took, in light of the lengthy legal battle he was forced to wage just to be declared her biological daddy.

Dannielynn's arrival on U.S. soil marks the end of a pretty twisted era, one that, despite all the turmoil, she won't even remember.

Anna Nicole Smith's second child was born in the Bahamas on Sept. 7, and Stern had been caring for her there since her mom's sudden death from an accidental prescription-drug overdose on Feb. 8.

Last month, a DNA test determined that Birkhead was the baby's father and Stern vowed not to stand in their way, saying he planned to remain in the Bahamas, where Smith and her 20-year-old son Daniel are buried. Daniel, the only child from her first marriage to Billy Wayne Smith, died three days after Dannielynn's birth.

Despite a last-ditch attempt from Smith's estranged mother, Virgie Arthur, to keep the father-daughter duo in the Bahamas until further custody matters were hammered out, a three-judge panel gave Birkhead the go-ahead to leave on Friday. A final custody hearing is scheduled for June 8.

In the meantime, Birkhead will be busy adjusting to being with child.

"It's a lot of heartache," he told Entertainment Tonight regarding the ordeal that has led up to this moment. "It's a struggle to get to where you can actually have those moments to celebrate...I think everyone thinks because they see me waving birth certificates or jumping up out of court, it's all fun, but it's not."

"I'm just getting ready to be a dad," he said. "Officially, on my own soil."