[Lemon:] A ruling expected to come at any moment in the Anna Nicole Smith hearing. Let's listen in to the judge now.
[Judge Larry Seidlin, Broward County Family Court:] ... as the flame is going out. I want to preserve the beauty of your daughter. I want to preserve the respect, the beauty that she she wanted, that you played with her as a child, and you knew what she wanted. She she went for her dream. And, apparently, from what I hear, she achieved it. She just, unfortunately, didn't have the strength that some of us have to fight through this, because you all feel the pressure, just from a few-day hearing. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. They try to put a negative hat on everybody here. You know, everyone, they try to put a negative hat on. The parties especially, they try to put a hat on. And I saw you all here. I don't think anyone is bad, so to speak, so bad. There's there are shades are gray. I think, if you all one day get it together, I I I mean, I, as a court, will would absolutely submit to you that you should resolve a lot of this, that you have enough brain power at each table here to have a global remedy. And I'm going to make some announcements right now. I kept your family division case to keep everything here. It it it seized the moment. But Judge Corter is a terrific judge. He has indicating he wants to retain it. There is nothing wrong with me he is holding his case. I never signed an order, because I really didn't want to step on his toes. In order for me to accept the case, the judge has to relinquish it. I never went in to ask him to relinquish it. I kept everyone here, though.
[Seidlin:] I kept everything here, because I made it easier for you all.
[Unidentified Female:] Just for the record, though...
[Seidlin:] Yes.
[Unidentified Female:] ... we need to say that, you know, Your Honor did hear evidence about the temporary emergency injunction, and vacated it as moot. They withdrew it.
[Seidlin:] Well, they withdrew that.
[Unidentified Female:] So, their pending motion is the one that is going...
[Seidlin:] Those pending motions, you're going to go in front of my good friend...
[Unidentified Female:] OK. And that was our desire, Your Honor.
[Seidlin:] You're going to go in front of my good friend, my colleague. He has been next door to me. We're on the same floor.
[Unidentified Female:] You came through. You came through. I thank you.
[Seidlin:] You sort of knew I was going to go there. But I want I didn't want you running around. I didn't want you running around the building, like a chicken without a head.
[Unidentified Female:] Thank you...
[Seidlin:] What is the sense of it? I kept everyone here. It was better. There is a method to what I was doing. So, when I enter this final proposal, which I'm really going to do in a few minutes, I'm done. I have relinquished jurisdiction. And I I'm fashioning a remedy. I'm still it's it's evolving. It's evolving. But I I I'm going to try to satisfy everybody. But I'm just telling you, momma, I feel for you. I absolutely feel for you. I feel for you. You know, I listened to you. You know, they paint these pictures, until you talk to a person. Now, I never read any of this stuff. I never saw it on TV, or anything like that. I I went there is my Dr. Perper. You know, when I called I told you I would be calling you, you didn't yes.
[Unidentified Male:] Sure, Your Honor.
[Seidlin:] When I pronounce the the final resolution in this case, I want you to understand that I have reviewed absolutely everything. I have suffered with this. I have struggled with this. I have shed tears for your your little girl and your and your grandchild. But I hope because I will tell you something. In the old days, I would be banging some heads together. I mean it. You all really should do the right thing by this Dannie Dannielynn. You should get into a jurisdiction immediately and have every you two are the primary potentials here to submit to a DNA and find out who the father is. It's enough baloney here. It's enough baloney. You know, it's if you were alone in my chambers, I will tell you oh. My blood pressure would go up, but thank God it's it's OK. But... I I you know, I I walked into this building, really, at age 26, as a kid. I was a stranger in a strange land. And I always thought I would leave at 56. You stay 30 years. And I wanted to walk out of here see? It's true. I wanted to walk out of here standing up, standing erect, not I kid around with my friends and family. I didn't want to be carried out of here, like happened to you, Texas, for a minute. No, no. I I wanted to walk out of here healthy. I wanted to walk out of here at 56 healthy. You understand? I wanted to feel good. This thing wore me out. I'm going to take a while to regenerate. And we all cried for her. You know we were in the chambers. You all heard me crying. I got to look tough, mamma. But, you know, this gets to me, too. And and and we cried for her. We had a service here. We did everything here. We had a service for her, all of us here today and all of the other days. And I run away from services. I can't stand going to a funeral. I can't stand talking about that. Even though I'm in probate, we do contested wills and trusts and guardianships. I don't get into the death part of it. I'm trying to stay alive. You know? But that's another subject. So I was supposed to leave here July '06. I don't think my wife wants me to come home. I got a little baby. This is the case this is the one I resolve. I don't have your proposed final judgment.
[Unidentified Male:] Your honor, the clerk is making
[Seidlin:] I did a lot of talking. You know, the more you talked in this business, the worse off you are, really. The less you say, the better. I mean I knew that from the beginning. But the truth be known, I wanted you all to know, you three parties, because that's the only ones I'm really interested in. I mean, I wanted always to treat the lawyers well. But I wanted you to know the way I was thinking. I even stopped at times to try and each morning I try to bring us to where we were at. I may have bored you, but I wanted to at least let you know what I was thinking. I don't know if you all will ever be in the same room again. I don't know if you ever will be. But in the old days, I wouldn't have let you go. I really I would of never let you guys all go unless I wrapped this whole thing in, unless I had wrapped at all up. But I can't. I can't wrap it up. And I'm not going to talk about this case ever again. I'm going to ask Dr. Perper to wait here. I'm going to have a final resolution. I'm trying to cut it as equitably as I can. But what worries me and I'm not letting the cat out of the bag but what worries me is the boy, Danny, already is in the grave. He's in the Bahamas. It could have been San Francisco, it could have been the Bronx. He's in the Bahamas. And I get around these places. You know, I travel. I talk to everybody. That's why I bring my in-laws with me because I know my wife will be yelling I'm not taking care of the kids. And I talk to everybody. The way I talk to you is the way I am. Do you understand? And I don't know how long it will take in the Bahamas if you were to go on that mission. Does it make sense? It's something you'll talk to your lawyers. But I was concerned about Danny. He's in the ground in the Bahamas. And Nicole wants to be in that ground. But I think what I'm going to do, and I've been thinking about it. I didn't come to any conclusions til now, til right now. But I'm trying to figure out how I can in a spiritual sense bring it all together. Now, the Supreme Court of Florida says justice is not perfect. It's what it's what is reasonable. It's what is reasonable. And when you leave a court of law, you try to get you try to get a reasonable result. It's not perfect. It's what's reasonable and equitable. And I don't know if any court will really review my decision today. I sat here. I heard absolutely everything. I request that you all stay here. And in the next 15 minutes, I'm going to be back. I'm going to pronounce the disposition of this case. And I hope when you hear it, you handle it with the respect and dignity that Anna Nicole Smith would want. I hope when you hear it, you handle it so that little Dannielynn can have this respect in the future because I think she will look at these proceedings. They will be available. I think we all handled ourselves pretty well. I think it was a lot of he saidshe said. And I think there's reasons why these things were said. All right. You want a decision. You don't want any more talk. I'm going to go back there and I'm going to review this. And we'll see you in about 15 minutes.
[F:] Court stands in recess for 15 minutes.
[Lemon:] Wow!
[Phillips:] I'm not quite sure if he's crazy or if he's brilliant. I feel like I feel like he was sitting on a couch and we're all the therapists and we're supposed to tell him what he should do next. It's like he's having a nervous breakdown!
[Lemon:] Yes, and you know what? It's amazing because we've been talking about him, obviously, a taxi driver, you know, and then all of a sudden he becomes a judge. There have been reports saying that he possibly is auditioning. These are just claims that he's auditioning for some type of judge show along the lines of "Judge Judy". But, I mean, it's great moment in television, don't you think?
[Phillips:] According to his friends he paid his dues. He was a taxi driver to pay for college and he decided he wanted to go to law school and juggled a lot of things. And he did it. His co-workers say he's always been a bit dramatic but I think this is taking it to a whole another level. He's all of the characters. I'm seeing the TV movie coming after this decision is made.
[Lemon:] I am, too. Him tearing up here today. And then also, of course, Kyra, the attorney for Larry Birkhead passing out in court today Virgie Arthur's attorney, I should say, passing out in court today because he's a diabetic. The judge here is saying, "You know what? I'm trying to satisfy everyone." And he said about the mother. He goes, "I'm listening to you, mamma." I'm sure you heard that. And he says, "You know, I suffered and I struggled with this and I also shed some tears." And then he actually teared up a little bit. But the here's the thing. He has been a great moment in television. But there's actually a serious decision that's going to happen right now at least in 15 minutes at 3:35 Eastern, he said he's going to come back in 15 minutes. And so why don't we go to someone who's standing by outside the courtroom. She has been following all of this, Kyra, is our very own Susan Candiotti. Susan, you're out there on the scene. What's going on? Tell us your perspective from there.
[Candiotti:] Well, I mean, this took all of us by surprise. Once again, this very unorthodox judge has done something surprising yet again. We were listening to testimony. It seemed to be winding down. He had just heard from the man who was the father of Danny. And then, all of a sudden, he says, "OK, enough. I'm going to announce a decision today. I know I told you all I was going to announce tomorrow, but here's a surprise. I'm going to announce it now." And we all sat up and took notice of this. You're looking at Larry Birkhead, the ex-boyfriend of Anna Nicole Smith, who claims that he is the biological father of Anna Nicole's daughter, Dannielynn. Other parties and lawyers lingering in court there, I'm sure, scratching their heads as much as we are, because the lawyers have been told that they were supposed to put in writing what their recommendations were for this judge. And he was going to consider them and come back tomorrow we've said it time and time again and announce the final ruling about who would get Anna Nicole Smith's remains. And now this! We're as flabbergasted as anyone else. But just to recap, he said that he wants a final resolution. It would seem to indicate saying that he's troubled most by the fact that her son Daniel is buried in the Bahamas and Anna Nicole Smith has told a number of people, according to testimony, that she wants to be near her son. He said he's taking great notice of that. And he teared up. He got emotional when he said justice is not perfect. And then, finally, he said this: "I'm not going to decide the paternity case." But he said, "Enough baloney here." The judge's words, "Someone has to find out who the father is after I make this judgment" Don.
[Lemon:] OK. Susan Candiotti, thank you so much for that. You brought up a very interesting point, she did, Kyra, in this. Because he said, "You know what? She her son is already in the ground in the Bahamas." So I'm wondering if he's sort of telling us where he's going to lean in this possibly. So we shall see. And probably...
[Phillips:] You never know what's going to happen with this judge. He's taking a break. He's going to come back and give us a decision. So, of course, we're waiting for that. We'll take it live as soon as it happens.
[Lemon:] We're back in a moment.