Barry King/Getty ImagesToday's star attraction in the Anna Nicole Smith drug-plying case/circus: none other than her baby daddy Larry Birkhead.
Unlike the graphic testimony given earlier this week, Birkhead kept the revelations to a minimum, dropping the nonbombshell that Smith popped narcotics like candy when the two lived together from 2004 to 2006. He said she would ingest medications like methadone, Klonopin, Topamax and Xanax on a daily basis, and continued to take methadone, Valium and other substances when she was pregnant with their daughter, Dannielynn.
Birkhead, who has been raising Dannielynn, also revealed that Smith suffered seizures and never left home without a duffel of drugs, many prescribed to her by one of the defendants, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor.
On the stand, Birkhead emotionally recounted the first time he saw Smith have a seizure, hours before her "Do you like my new body?" appearance at the 2004 American Music Awards.
Birkhead said Smith began shaking around 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. while they were asleep in bed. He didn't know what to do and tried to put a cold, wet washcloth on her forehead and even dangle her feet in a bathtub before she came to several minutes later. He said that he confronted her soon after because he was concerned that her pill consumption had caused the episode.
But Smith denied it.
"She said she wasn't a drug addict," Birkhead said. "She said [the seizures were] what the Klonopin and Topomax were for."
He also testified that he and Smith sidekick Howard K. Stern tried to stop her from attending the AMAs, but she insisted on going, eschewing food that day in favor of energy drinks and doses of Klonopin, Topamax and TrimSpa.
Birkhead was reluctant to agree with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry, however, when the jurist suggested that Smith was "loaded on something" that night.
"She obviously wasn't herself," Birkhead said, but partly attributed the odd appearance to "what happened to her the night before," along with nerves and techncial difficulties with the Teleprompter.
He broached the subject of Smith's drug intake with Kapoor once, Birkhead said, but was told it was "under control."
Kapoor, fellow physician Dr. Khristine Eroshevich and Stern are facing nearly two dozen felony counts related to Smith's drug intake. All three have pleaded not guilty.
Both Smith and Stern got angry with him once when he hid a bottle of methadone, Birkhead testified. Stern called often during the two years he dated Smith, he said, to remind her to take her pills.
"I remember him saying, 'Have you taken your medication?' Birkhead recounted. "He would ask me, 'Can you find out if she's taken her medication?' "
In April 2006, Birkhead said, Smith called him from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in L.A.
"She told me that she was in pain and that she was coming there for the pain," he said. "But later she said she was there to detox from the medication." She had brought a bottle of methadone with her and would have Stern hand it over to her when the IV drip she was getting "wasn't enough," Birkhead added.
The once-litigious baby daddy described his current relationship with Stern as "professional."
Meanwhile, prosecutors tried to pull out what they claim is a smoking gun:
They have petitioned the judge to allow them to show in court a video capture of Kapoor kissing Smith at a nightclub and talking about her prescriptions.
A ruling on that matter could come later today. If the request is granted, such footage suggesting she and Kapoor had an inappropriate sexual liaison could do significant damage to the defense, as it could lend strong credence to the view that Kapoor (who says he is an out homosexual) abused his position and helped fuel Smith's addiction.
Yesterday government lawyers insinuated that Smith also had a lesbian fling with Eroshevich, but the judge nixed that line of questioning.
(Originally published Oct. 16, 2009, at 12:10 p.m. PT)
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