[Fox News]- Now, it’s Larry’s turn.
After enduring months of watching Howard K. Stern sell the rights to his story, Anna Nicole Smith’s story and “licensing footage” to Paramount TV for millions of dollars, Larry Birkhead is ready to reap the rewards of paternity.
Sources tell me that Larry cut a high six-figure deal with NBC for the exclusive access to his success story. The deal, they say, was cut by his former attorney, Debra Opri, back around the time of Smith’s funeral.
“It’s in the high six figures,” says my source. “It’s enough to cover the money Debra Opri says he owes her, with plenty left over.”
Opri is suing Birkhead for $620,000 in legal fees. The case is now in arbitration.
I’m told the deal was actually cut through NBC’s Bravo channel for documentaries about Birkhead.
The way it’s been explained is this: Everything Birkhead does for “Access” will be repurposed for Bravo. And it was “Access Hollywood” executive producer Rob Silverstein who delivered Birkhead to NBC’s “Today” show for an exclusive interview with Meredith Vieira. That appearance was also covered by the Bravo deal.
When I found him yesterday on the “Access” soundstage, Silverstein would only say, “I’ve never seen a story where so many hands are out.”
He pointed to Virgie Arthur, Smith’s mother, as another example of someone who wanted money for interviews (she got it, for a while, from ABC).
Of course, Birkhead’s fee is nothing compared to the money sources say Stern has made off the death of Anna Nicole Smith. That figure, my sources report, is now as high as $4 million. This column reported that Stern and Smith had made a deal with Paramount TV back before her baby was born. Then, when the baby arrived and Smith’s son died, “Entertainment Tonight” and “The Insider” began their long exclusive arrangement with Stern.
Sources also insist that Paramount Television paid for Smith’s lavish Bahamas funeral. “They put $300,000 into Dannielynn’s account,” an insider insists. “That’s how they bought their access.”
But now that Stern is old news, and no longer of interest, “ET” and “The Insider” are out of the picture. Since the DNA test results revealed that Birkhead is the father, the Paramount shows no longer have access to the story. “The Insider” has become “The Outsider.” On the last couple of shows, their reporter “on the ground” in the Bahamas has been relegated to using public information to look exclusive.
Birkhead will need all the money he can lay his hands on once he takes custody of baby Dannielynn. Although he’s billed as a photographer, it’s unclear what kind of career the 34-year-old really had in that arena other than taking pictures of Smith. A few years ago he called himself a celebrity journalist, and wound up in a lawsuit with USA Today over a story about Sharon Stone.
And here — to parody “ET” — is some breaking news you can only find in the FOX 411: Birkhead is said to be in the middle of negotiations for a million-dollar photo shoot of himself and the baby with a celebrity weekly. The suspects: Us Weekly, Star, OK!, Hello!, Life & Style, In Touch Weekly. Why not? He’s going to be buying a lot of diapers soon.
Birkhead did have another career in mind before he met Smith. According to public records, he got a Kentucky real-estate license in 1993. But the license, according to the same records, expired on March 31, 2007.
If Birkhead moves back to Kentucky, he would probably be the best known real-estate agent in the state, which is a good thing, since he wouldn’t be able to touch most of baby Dannielynn’s inherited multi-million-dollar estate.
