Bahamas sets inquest for Anna Nicole Smith's son

NASSAU? - The Bahamas on Tuesday set March 27 as the date for the long-awaited inquest into the sudden death of Daniel Smith, the 20-year-old son of former Playboy Playmate and oil heiress Anna Nicole Smith.

The announcement of an inquest date by Chief Magistrate Roger Gomez followed criticism of the legal authorities in the wealthy island chain for delaying an inquiry into Smith's death at Doctors Hospital, Nassau, on September 10 last year.

Daniel Smith died at his mother's hospital bedside three days after she gave birth to daughter Dannie Lynn Hope, whose paternity is now the subject of litigation.

An ex-boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, sued Anna Nicole Smith, saying he was the father of the baby, and a court ordered that the paternity test be done by January 23. Smith's lawyer boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, has said he is the father.

A U.S. pathologist hired by Smith, Dr. Cyril Wecht, conducted an initial review of Smith's death and found that he had a cocktail of drugs -- including methadone -- in his body which would have damaged his lungs and "compromised" his heart.

Bahamas coroner Linda Virgill was removed from her post after initially declaring the death "suspicious" and then announcing an inquest date in October.

But the inquest by the Bahamian authorities was postponed amid complaints by local residents that they had been waiting for months for inquiries into the deaths of relatives and that the U.S. starlet was being granted preferential treatment.

Last May, she won a U.S. Supreme Court decision giving her another chance to collect millions of dollars from the estate of oil tycoon J. Marshall Howard, to whom she was married for 14 months.

Smith starred in a short-lived cable television reality series, "The Anna Nicole Show," from 2002 to 2004, and has appeared in a few movies.