The law states, “On the death of the mother of a child, the father, if surviving, shall, subject to the provision of this Act, be guardian of the child, either alone or jointly with any guardian appointed by the mother. “. . . . .Source: ONTD

Playboy is, of course, a monthly magazine; the April issue has already gone to press, and the May edition was scheduled to ship imminently.

For now, the only reference to her death is on the Playboy.com editor’s blog, where as of 3:56 PM (CST) a tasteful “shoulders and above” black & white shot of Smith, evocative of Marilyn Monroe, carried this message:

“The entire Playboy family is saddened to learn of Anna Nicole Smith’s untimely passing this afternoon. Anna was our 1993 Playmate of the Year, and also a wonderful ambassador to our readers. Our heartfelt condolences go out to her friends and family.”

Hef, in the meantime, also released a personal statement from the magazine’s offices in Los Angeles, describing Smith as “a dear friend who meant a great deal to the Playboy family, and to me personally.”. . . . .Source: TMZ

Just the day before Anna’s death, a judge in Los Angeles had set a deadline of February 21 for a DNA test to determine the baby’s paternity.

During a press conference Thursday afternoon, Seminole, Florida police chief CHARLIE TIGER provided additional details on Anna Nicole’s passing.

“At approximately 1:45 p.m. today, police responded to the Hard Rock Hotel in response to a person needing medical attention,” said Tiger. “She was later identified as Anna Nicole and transported to Hollywood Memorial Hospital.”

“At 2:49 this afternoon, we were advised by hospital personnel that Anna Nicole had died,” added Tiger.

Tiger also told reporters that a bodyguard was with Anna Nicole in the hotel room, and that a female private nurse, who was also in the room, was the one who called the hospital operator, “who had 911 access.”

The police chief went on to say that the cause of Anna Nicole’s death will be determined by a medical examiner and that the Seminole police are continuing its investigation.

Sources tell us that Anna Nicole checked into the Hard Rock Hotel on Monday night around 8 p.m. and had traveled to South Florida to pick up a boat she had purchased for her home in the Bahamas. She was set to check out of the hotel on Friday night.

She began suffering from flu-like symptoms shortly after check-in, but her fever had broken by Wednesday. That afternoon, she fell and hit her head in the bathroom, but she said she felt fine, ate and went back to bed.

On Thursday, she laid down to take a nap, and after she didn’t wake up a few hours later, she was checked on and was unresponsive, her eyes dilated.

At 1:38 p.m. a female private nurse, who was the only person in Anna Nicole’s room, called the front desk for help, and at 1:45 the Seminole Police Department was called. A bodyguard arrived at the room and administered CPR to Anna Nicole.

At approximately 2 p.m., Anna Nicole was taken to Memorial Hospital, and at 2:49 p.m., police were notified that Anna Nicole had died. The cause of death is yet to be determined, and an autopsy is set to be performed tomorrow to determine the cause of death.

Anna Nicole’s partner, HOWARD K. STERN, tells “The Insider” that her temperature was running high last night.

Her half-sister, DONNA HOGAN, released this statement on behalf of her family on Thursday afternoon: “We are saddened and heartbroken by my sister’s death. No matter what our differences have been over the years, Anna was still our blood and she will be missed terribly. She was a woman who was determined to get out of her small town in Texas and make a name for herself.”

“She became an international star and she was a good mother to Daniel; there is no doubt that her son loved her. They lived out of each other’s pockets while he was alive and now they can finally be together again in Heaven.”

“We feel that the death of her son left her deeply saddened, a sadness she hid from everyone. As a mother of three children, I am anguished by this tragic event and the fact that her new baby daughter Dannielynn Hope is now without a mother.”

TRIMSPA, for which Anna Nicole was a spokeperson, also released a statement: “Anna knew both the joy of giving life, and the heartache of losing a child. We pray that she is granted the peace that eluded her more recent days on earth, and that she finds comfort in the presence of her son, Daniel.”. . . . .Source: TheInsiderOnline

Sources say Smith was rushed to the hospital after being found unresponsive in her hotel room at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla., where she was staying with her companion, Howard K. Stern.

Her 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn Hope, was not with them, sources say, but is being cared for in the Bahamas by the mother of Shane Gibson, a high-ranking Bahamian official who is a close friend of Smith’s.

Before learning of Smith’s death, Rale told PEOPLE, “She hasn’t been well the past few days, she’s had cold and flu symptoms.”

According to Access Hollywood, she was rushed to Memorial Regional Hospital shortly after 2 p.m. ET on Thursday.

On Wednesday, a Los Angeles judge had ordered Smith, 39, and her 5-month-old daughter Dannielynn Hope to submit to a DNA test by Feb. 21. The test is tied to a paternity lawsuit filed by photographer Larry Birkhead, who claims he is Dannielynn’s father. Smith’s companion, Howard K. Stern, is listed as the infant’s father on her birth certificate.

Anna Nicole had been rushed to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Florida, shortly after 2 p.m. EST after collapsing at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood.

Local police were reportedly forced to shut down the streets to expedite rushing her to the hospital.

According to reports, fire crews and emergency personnel performed CPR on Smith and put a tube down her throat.

According to a witness on the scene, when rescue workers arrived, Anna Nicole was unresponsive.

Her bodyguard was also reportedly visibly shaken at the scene.

Smith had been a tabloid staple even before she became Playboy’s playmate of the year in 1993. Readers were fascinated by her bombshell good looks, her marriage to an elderly billionaire and subsequent court fight over his estate, her weight fluctuations, and last year, the sudden death of her 20-year-old son, Daniel Smith.

A former topless dancer, she made her name squeezing into Guess jeans. She resembled the late actress Marilyn Monroe, a similarity played up in her Guess magazine ads, billboards and department store displays.

In 1994, she married 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, the head of oil-based Koch Industries, which is part of a family fortune worth at least $400 million.

He died in 1995, setting off a feud with her former stepson, E. Pierce Marshall, over whether she had a right to his estate.

A federal court in California awarded Smith $474 million in a complicated legal twist that began after she declared bankruptcy. That was later overturned.

But in May, the U.S. Supreme Court revived her case, ruling that she deserved another day in court in her battle with her former stepson.

The justices said only that federal courts in California could deal with her case despite a Texas state court ruling that Marshall was the sole heir to the estate.

Then, the stepson died June 20 at age 67. But the family said the court fight would continue.

Daniel Smith died Sept. 10 in his mother’s hospital room in the Bahamas, just days after she gave birth to a daughter.

An American medical examiner hired by the family, Cyril Wecht, said he had methadone and two antidepressants in his system when he died. Low levels of the three drugs interacted to cause an accidental death, Wecht said.

Meanwhile, the paternity of her now 5-month-old daughter remained a matter of dispute.

She was born Vickie Lynn Hogan on Nov. 28, 1967, in Houston, one of six children of Donald Eugene and Virgie Hart Hogan.

She married Bill Smith in 1985, giving birth to Daniel before divorcing two years later.

Sources say Smith was rushed to the hospital after being found unresponsive in her hotel room at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla., where she was staying with her companion, Howard K. Stern.

Her 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn Hope, was not with them, sources say, but is being cared for in the Bahamas by the mother of Shane Gibson, a high-ranking Bahamian official who is a close friend of Smith’s.

Before learning of Smith’s death, Rale told PEOPLE, “She hasn’t been well the past few days, she’s had cold and flu symptoms.”

According to Access Hollywood, she was rushed to Memorial Regional Hospital shortly after 2 p.m. ET on Thursday.

On Wednesday, a Los Angeles judge had ordered Smith, 39, and her 5-month-old daughter Dannielynn Hope to submit to a DNA test by Feb. 21. The test is tied to a paternity lawsuit filed by photographer Larry Birkhead, who claims he is Dannielynn’s father. Smith’s companion, Howard K. Stern, is listed as the infant’s father on her birth certificate.

Anna Nicole had been rushed to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Florida, shortly after 2 p.m. EST after collapsing at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood.

Local police were reportedly forced to shut down the streets to expedite rushing her to the hospital.

According to reports, fire crews and emergency personnel performed CPR on Smith and put a tube down her throat.

According to a witness on the scene, when rescue workers arrived, Anna Nicole was unresponsive.

Her bodyguard was also reportedly visibly shaken at the scene.

Smith had been a tabloid staple even before she became Playboy’s playmate of the year in 1993. Readers were fascinated by her bombshell good looks, her marriage to an elderly billionaire and subsequent court fight over his estate, her weight fluctuations, and last year, the sudden death of her 20-year-old son, Daniel Smith.

A former topless dancer, she made her name squeezing into Guess jeans. She resembled the late actress Marilyn Monroe, a similarity played up in her Guess magazine ads, billboards and department store displays.

In 1994, she married 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, the head of oil-based Koch Industries, which is part of a family fortune worth at least $400 million.

He died in 1995, setting off a feud with her former stepson, E. Pierce Marshall, over whether she had a right to his estate.

A federal court in California awarded Smith $474 million in a complicated legal twist that began after she declared bankruptcy. That was later overturned.

But in May, the U.S. Supreme Court revived her case, ruling that she deserved another day in court in her battle with her former stepson.

The justices said only that federal courts in California could deal with her case despite a Texas state court ruling that Marshall was the sole heir to the estate.

Then, the stepson died June 20 at age 67. But the family said the court fight would continue.

Daniel Smith died Sept. 10 in his mother’s hospital room in the Bahamas, just days after she gave birth to a daughter.

An American medical examiner hired by the family, Cyril Wecht, said he had methadone and two antidepressants in his system when he died. Low levels of the three drugs interacted to cause an accidental death, Wecht said.

Meanwhile, the paternity of her now 5-month-old daughter remained a matter of dispute.

She was born Vickie Lynn Hogan on Nov. 28, 1967, in Houston, one of six children of Donald Eugene and Virgie Hart Hogan.

She married Bill Smith in 1985, giving birth to Daniel before divorcing two years later.