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Larry Birkhead arrives in US with multi-million dollar baby
Last updated at 10:07am on 02.05.07Anna Nicole Smith's ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead touched down in America from the Bahamas with their baby daughter Dannielynn.
The photographer said he is looking forward to introducing the child to his family.
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Birkhead kept baby Dannielynn covered with a blanket
Larry Birkhead greets waiting photographer and reporters
After stepping off a private chartered jet in Kentucky, Birkhead told reporters: "It just feels good to be home."
Birkhead said he plans to show off 7-month-old Dannielynn to his family in Louisville and "relax and horse around."
He said his plans include attending the Barnstable Brown party on Friday, a celebrity-packed gala on the eve of the Kentucky Derby.
The event is where he and Smith first met when he was working as a freelance photographer.
He noted the baby had an easy flight, saying: "She did great."
The plane stopped briefly in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, before heading on to Louisville, according to the Web site of the syndicated entertainment-news program Access Hollywood that had a television crew aboard.
At a private terminal at the Louisville airport, people could be seen moving a variety of baby gear off the plane and into the back of an sport utility vehicle.
Larry Birkhead with his daughter Dannielynn
An infant car seat, facing away from reporters, was taken off the plane and put in the back seat of the SUV.
A few minutes later Birkhead got into the vehicle and it drove off.
Birkhead, a 34-year-old photographer based in Los Angeles, was authorized by a judge last week to take the girl out of the Bahamas.
The ruling followed legal battles by Birkhead to prove his paternity claim and gain custody following the former Playboy playmate's death in February from an accidental drug overdose.
A new Bahamian birth certificate listing Birkhead as the father was issued in line with a court order last week, removing the name of Smith's last companion, Howard K. Stern.
Stern had been caring for the girl in the oceanfront home in the Bahamas he shared with Smith.
A publicist for "Access Hollywood," which has promoted its planned coverage of a family reunion in Kentucky, said the program did not compensate Birkhead for its exclusive access.
She said the program's parent company, NBC Universal, does have a deal with him but she could not describe the terms.
Baby Dannielynn's late mother Anna Nicole Smith
"We are excited to finally bring everybody back from the Bahamas, including Larry and Dannielynn, for a happy homecoming," said the publicist, Jennifer Minezaki.
Birkhead for months feuded with Stern and the late reality TV star's mother, Virgie Arthur.
Although Stern came to support Birkhead after DNA tests proved his rival to be the father, Arthur has kept up her bid for custody while seeking a visitation agreement.
An appeals court rejected a last-ditch effort by Arthur to block Birkhead from leaving with the girl.
The grandmother argued he might not return as directed for a June 8 hearing in their custody dispute - an accusation Birkhead denied.
It was the first trip out of the Bahamas for Dannielynn Hope Marshall Birkhead, who was born in September only three days before Smith's adult son Daniel died at her hospital bedside from a lethal combination of drugs.
Smith, 39, collapsed and died in February from an accidental drug overdose.
She was buried beside her son at a Nassau cemetery.
Legal wrangling continues over the estate of Smith's late husband, Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, who died in 1995.
It remains unclear how much, if any, of Marshall's multi-million-dollar fortune Dannielynn might inherit and whether her guardian would have access to the money.
