Today, ET spoke to Howard K. Stern and Larry Birkhead as they shared their continued grief for Anna Nicole Smith on what would have been her 40th birthday.

Stern, whose own birthday is tomorrow, told ET, “My only wish is that Anna is celebrating her 40th birthday with Daniel and Howard (Marshall) in heaven and that they are able to experience the beautiful development of Dannielynn from above. Then I know that she would truly be at peace. She was more extraordinary than words can describe. I will never stop loving her.”

Birkhead reveals that he plans to commemorate Anna’s birthday with Dannielynn, “We will have a private family celebration to remember Anna. Time still hasn’t healed the wound of her untimely passing, as she truly was one of a kind. We miss her dearly.”

ET

Pop singer and one-time ‘Dancing With the Stars’ competitor Willa Ford will play Anna Nicole Smith in an independent movie.

Shooting of the movie is due to begin next week, the Daily Variety reported.

Ford, 26, is best known for her hit single ‘I Wanna Be Bad,’ from her 2001 album.

Like Smith, she also was a Playboy model.

Despite reports that Anna Nicole Smith’s babydaddy would be revealed at 10:00 AM EDT, TMZ has learned that the hearing to determine custody of Dannielynn will start in the Bahamas at 2:30 PM EDT — so keep your pants on.  We’re told that all the usual parties — Larry Birkhead, Howard K. Stern, and Virgie Arthur — will be present. You can expect Virgie to declare her intent to seek custody of the baby, even if Birkhead is the biological father.
 

CAUSE OF DEATH OFFICIALLY RELEASED! 

A drug overdose killed former reality TV star and Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith, Seminole Police Chief Charlie Tiger said Monday.

Tiger said there was no evidence of foul play and the overdose was accidental.

The medical examiner’s office had said on March 7 that the cause of Smith’s death had been determined, but it would not be announced for one to two weeks to give police time to finish the investigation.

Broward County Medical Examiner Joshua Perper wanted to make sure none of the investigators’ findings change any of his own findings, his office said then.

Tiger said Monday the case was now closed.

Smith, 39, was pronounced dead February 8 after being found unconscious in her hotel room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino near Hollywood, Florida.

A preliminary autopsy in February indicated that Smith did not appear to be a victim of foul play.

Smith was buried March 2 in the Bahamas after a court battle over who would have custody of her body and where she would be buried. She was buried next to her son, Daniel, 20, who died in September of what one pathologist said was a lethal combination of methadone and antidepressants.

SOURCE

UPDATE…More from TMZ:

After performing an autopsy, it became clear, Anna Nicole Smith died of an accidental overdose of medication.

Dr. Joshua Perper, the Medical Examiner for Broward County, just announced the 39-year-old former Playboy playmate was taking a number of drugs, including methadone, anti-anxiety drugs and others.

Anna Nicole Smith injected a drug into her left buttock days before her death. Dr. Joshua Perper announced when Anna Nicole flew to Miami before she died, she was complaining of pain in her left cheek.

She developed chills as she went to the Hard Rock and developed a fever of 105 degrees. She refused to go to the hospital.

Dr. Perper says Anna’s temperature went down after the first tough night at the Hard Rock, but she exhibited vomiting and as the week wore on her condition deteriorated. On the last day of her life, Thursday, February 8, Dr. Perper says Howard K. Stern woke up at 10 AM and found Anna awake. Stern helped her to the bathroom and then she went back to bed and went to sleep.

Dr. Perper says Stern left the room and didn’t return until after 911 was called.

Dr. Perper says when his team went back and examined Anna Nicole, he found multiple injections in the left buttock and it appeared a needle perforated something under the skin that caused an infection. The needle perforated an abscess and caused the infection that led to a high fever. Anna did not take methadone the day she died, but there was evidence she had taken it several days earlier.

Dr. Perper concluded was combined drug intoxication, including anxiety and depression medication, valium, ativan and antihistamine. She also had cloralhydrate, which was the major component in her death. None of the drugs in Anna’s system were enough to kill her by themselves. It was a lethal combo.

The infected abcess in her buttock contributed.

Dr. Perper says the death was accidental. It was not a suicide.

While the cause of death was believed to have been linked on Friday, the “official” cause of death will be released today.

On Monday, a Florida medical examiner is set to reveal exactly what killed Anna Nicole Smith.

The former Playboy Playmate died on Feb. 8 in Hollywood, Fla. According to the Associated Press, additional evidence from the Seminole Police Department, which is investigating Smith’s death, delayed the autopsy’s release.

Broward County medical examiner Dr. Joshua Perper had declined to make the autopsy results public until he reviewed the evidence.

The day after Smith’s death, police said they had found no evidence that a crime had been committed, and Perper said he’d found no serious injuries in his initial examination.

Perper said at a Feb. 9 press conference that Smith’s death could have been due “solely to natural causes … some medical and chemicals … or a combination of natural causes and medication.”

The much-anticipated disclosure of exactly how the 39-year-old Smith died comes more than three weeks after she was finally buried in the Bahamas.

Meanwhile, an inquest into the death of her son, Daniel, in September at age 20 is due to begin today in the Bahamas.

**UPDATE: (3/23) CAUSE OF DEATH REVEALED!! BREAKING NEWS!! GO HERE FOR THAT STORY!**

Dr. Joshua Perper has just announced he will hold a news conference on Monday at 10:30 AM to reveal what killed Anna Nicole Smith.

TMZ has just spoken with Gary Bitner, the spokesperson for the Seminole Police Department. Bitner said the findings at Monday’s news conference “are going to be a significant announcement.”

Bitner also told TMZ that the Seminole Police, the State Attorney and the Medical Examiner have been closely working together, and “it continues to be a non-criminal, unexplained death investigation.”

Bitner added Perper’s findings “are going to provide some resolution” in the death of Anna Nicole.

So what do we think it is?  How do you think she died?

Howard K. Stern has just loaded baby Dannielynn into a car in the Bahamas and both are on their way to get a DNA test.

Yesterday, a judge in Nassau ordered that Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter would be forced to undergo a paternity test to identify who the father is.

According to MSNBC, the results could take up to four days to process.

Source