XPost: alt.showbiz.gossip, alt.gossip.celebrities   
   From: brandykat@kittylitternewsguy.com   
      
   Laura M  wrote in alt.gossip.celebrities:   
      
   > On Feb 20, 10:32 am, "Ryan"  wrote:   
   >> Word has it that Howard K. Stern kept Anna Nicole drugged. He was   
   >> obsessed with her and that is how he kept control of her. Her   
   antics   
   >> when drugged also made great TV and brought in big money he got   
   to   
   >> pocket a great deal of.   
   >>   
   >> Somehow, first Anna Nicole's son dies of drug overdose with   
   Howard   
   >> around and now Anna. Funny, now Howard has the baby who is due to   
   >> inherit millions from her 90-year old former husband's estate.  A   
   >> twisted plot to get at the money all along?   
   >   
   > My god, it was only a matter of time before the drugs killed her.   
   > Even if it wasn't intentional.   
   >   
   >   
      
   Any of this sound familiar?   
   ______________   
      
   Doris Duke, the tobacco heiress, was alert and lucid when she signed   
   her last will in 1993 and turned over control of a $1.2 billion   
   fortune to her butler, lawyers for the estate said in court papers.   
      
   The lawyers, who represent Miss Duke's former butler, Bernard   
   Lafferty, were responding to a report by a court-appointed   
   investigator two weeks ago that raised serious questions about Miss   
   Duke's death and her mental competence when she signed her will.   
      
   The report by the investigator, Richard H. Kuh, a former Manhattan   
   prosecutor, also criticized the way Mr. Lafferty has managed the   
   estate. It went on to suggest that the law firm that drafted the   
   final will -- Katten, Muchin, Zavis & Weitzman of Chicago -- had   
   given Mr. Lafferty, and itself, more power than in a previous will.   
      
   Lawyers for the estate fired back yesterday, submitting 30 signed   
   affidavits from doctors, friends and lawyers refuting some of Mr.   
   Kuh's findings. They said that Mr. Kuh omitted many facts about Miss   
   Duke's medical care and relied on incorrect information from doctors   
   who had reviewed Miss Duke's hospital records but had not   
   interviewed the physicians who participated in her treatment at   
   Cedar Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles.   
      
   Miss Duke's will is before Surrogate Eve Preminger in Surrogate's   
   Court in Manhattan. The estate is the largest ever to come before a   
   Manhattan surrogate and it leaves nearly $1 billion to charity.   
   Surrogate Preminger must decide first whether Mr. Lafferty is fit to   
   be an executor.   
      
   The estate's lawyers acknowledged that Miss Duke was often   
   disoriented and confused when she entered the Cedar Sinai Hospital   
   in February 1993, a few days before she hired Katten, Muchin and   
   ordered her will to be changed. But they said that her mental   
   problems were caused by a combination of sleeping pills and   
   painkillers and that her mind cleared as soon as she stopped taking   
   certain medications in combination -- Haldol, for sleeping; Reglan,   
   for nausea, and Periactin, a sedative used to stimulate appetite.   
      
   Dr. Clarke D. Espy, a neurologist who examined Miss Duke, said in an   
   affidavit that her confusion was "not only transient but   
   reversible."   
      
   "Because Miss Duke's condition did fluctuate, I do not believe that   
   anyone who was not present and personally observing her is capable   
   of rendering an informed opinion regarding her mental state at any   
   given time," Dr. Espy said.   
      
   The estate offered a long, point-by-point rebuttal of Mr. Kuh's   
   criticisms of Mr. Lafferty, including his drinking binges and   
   apparent inability to read. Though they acknowledged Mr. Lafferty's   
   drinking binges, they said that he was able to carry out his duties.   
   The lawyers also argued that while Mr. Lafferty had no formal   
   education, he knew Miss Duke's wishes.   
      
   Mr. Kuh determined that Ms. Duke died of a morphine overdose, not an   
   infection and fluid in the lungs as was listed on her death   
   certificate. He also suggested that her primary doctor, Charles   
   Kivowitz, had hastened her death with morphine.   
      
   But the estate says there was plenty of evidence that Miss Duke was   
   at death's door when Dr. Kivowitz ordered her to be given more   
   morphine in October 1993 and stopped trying to cure her infection   
   and other problems. In his deposition, Dr. Kivowitz said he was   
   following Miss Duke's own orders not to take extraordinary measures   
   to keep her alive.   
      
      
      
   --   
   The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew   
   he never would be found out. -- Thomas Babington Macaulay   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)