Stern on Anna Nicole Smith drugs charges

The boyfriend of the late Anna Nicole Smith, the former Playmate and glamour model, has been charged with providing her with drugs before she died.

It is alleged that Howard K Stern, along with doctor Sandeep Kapoor, 40, and psychiatrist Khristine Eroshevich, 61, supplied Smith with the opiates and other substances before her death in February 2007, aged 39, of an overdose.

Jerry Brown, California's Attorney General, said the trio had "furnished thousands of prescription pills to Ms. Smith, including opiates, benzodiazepines, and other controlled and noncontrolled substances, often for no legitimate medical purpose".

He added: "There is ample evidence that Dr. Eroshevich and Dr. Kapoor violated their ethical obligations as physicians, while Mr. Stern funnelled highly addictive drugs to Ms. Smith," Brown said.

The doctors, he added, had falsified prescriptions for Smith and were guilty of "obtaining, delivering and administering these prescription drugs", although none of the men are accused of supplying the drugs that resulted in her death.

Kapoor prescribed methadone, lorazepam and Xanax for Smith in August 2006 when she was eight months pregnant with daughter Dannielynn, according to the charges, which could result in a prison sentence if the men are found guilty. The prescription was made out to "Michelle Smith", an alias Smith was known to use.

Stern also asked a Los Angeles pharmacy to ship methadone to the Bahamas in the name "Vicki Marshall", which was intended for Smith, the complaint further states.

Smith was found unresponsive at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood in Florida on February 8, 2007, and subsequently died of what an autopsy ruled was an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.

Although she appeared in a number of films, one with OJ Simpson, her real claim to fame was her marriage to Texan billionaire J Howard Marshall when he was 89, and she was 26. After his death she pursued what she argued was her share of her inheritance through the courts, which was contested by her late husband's son.

As reported here, her life story is set to be transformed into an opera, to be staged at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 2010. Will this grisly new development be added to the script? ·