Anna Nicole's companion expected at Florida hearing

Anna Nicole Smith’s companion emerged from seclusion at a waterfront Bahamas mansion today and was expected to travel to Florida for a hearing on where the reality TV star’s remains should be buried.

Howard Stern, who was ordered to appear at the hearing in Fort Lauderdale, did not speak to reporters as he entered a car that took him to the airport.

The couple had adopted the Bahamas as their home, and Mr Stern wants Ms Smith to be buried in a Nassau plot next to the final resting place of her son Daniel, who died in September. He faces a challenge from Ms Smith’s mother, Virgie Arthur, who wants to bury the body in her native Texas.

Ms Smith died of unknown causes on February 8 in a Florida hotel room.

Yesterday, the leader of the main opposition party in the Bahamas said he did not want Smith’s body to be buried in the island chain.

“She died outside of our country and I don’t see any good reason for her to return to my country,” said Hubert Ingraham, leader of the Free National Movement.

The opposition party says the country has been embarrassed by Ms Smith’s relationship with former Immigration Minister Shane Gibson, who fast-tracked her application for permanent residency. Mr Gibson resigned on Sunday after a newspaper published photographs of him embracing Smith on a bed.

Mr Stern is listed as the father of Ms Smith’s five-month-old daughter on the Bahamian birth certificate, but two other men have filed paternity challenges.

The dispute is scheduled to be taken up in a closed-door hearing today in Los Angeles.