Embalmers Finish Work On Anna Nicole Smith's Body; Burial Decision Looms

DANIA BEACH, Fla. (AP) _ The body of starlet Anna Nicole Smith was embalmed Saturday, under a court order issued a day earlier. <br/><br/>Two embalmers finished the job around noon, according to Joshua

Saturday, February 17th 2007, 2:27 pm

By: News On 6

DANIA BEACH, Fla. (AP) _ The body of starlet Anna Nicole Smith was embalmed Saturday, under a court order issued a day earlier.

Two embalmers finished the job around noon, according to Joshua Perper, the Broward County medical examiner. They promised not to discuss, write about, photograph or draw the body.

``They did an excellent job, and the body will be ready for viewing with no problem,'' Perper said. ``In other words, she's basically looking like she looked in life or very, very close to that.''

Attorneys for photographer Larry Birkhead, who claims he's the father of Smith's baby girl, fought to delay the embalming until an additional DNA sample was taken from her body Thursday. The body remains at the medical examiner's facility, awaiting developments in a Fort Lauderdale courthouse, where Smith's estranged mother Virgie Arthur and her companion Howard K. Stern, resume their battle Tuesday over where the Playboy model should be buried.

Arthur wants Smith brought to her home state of Texas; Stern wants to put her in a plot in the Bahamas next to her son.