Stay ordered in dispute over Smith’s body

Published 9:00 pm Monday, February 26, 2007

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – A Florida appeals court issued a stay Monday in the dispute over Anna Nicole Smith’s body, ruling that her remains cannot be moved to the Bahamas until the judges hear a challenge from the starlet’s estranged mother.

The Florida 4th District Court of Appeal agreed to hear Virgie Arthur’s request to overturn a trial judge’s decision giving control of Smith’s body to the attorney for the centerfold’s infant daughter. That attorney decided she should be buried next to her son in the Bahamas.

Arthur has been seeking to bury her daughter in her native Texas.

Mirren may be invited to tea with the queen

Helen Mirren, who won the best actress Oscar for playing Queen Elizabeth II in “The Queen,” may be invited to tea, Buckingham Palace said Monday.

The film’s director, Stephen Frears, has already suggested that he, Mirren and screenwriter Peter Morgan would visit the queen at the palace in London next month.

“It is speculation, but we are looking at a number of options,” a palace spokeswoman said Monday.

Mirren won the Oscar on Sunday night in Los Angeles for playing the monarch in “The Queen,” which retells the aftermath of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in a car crash 10 years ago.

The Oscar ceremony began at 12:30 a.m. Monday morning in England and was broadcast only on a pay-TV movie channel. But news of Mirren’s win was inescapable Monday, dominating newspaper front pages and television newscasts.

“I’m sure that the queen will be pleased,” the palace spokeswoman said.

Associated Press