The Lawyer Also Plays Her Lover

"Tomorrow I'm doing the 'Dr. Phil' show and the 'Tyra Banks Show,' " says a fellow named Bobby Trendy, who was Smith's interior decorator and says he knows the real story, and adds that he was the star of Smith's reality show, that Stern was "just jealous" and that "he wanted to be me."

In this case, there are no straight lines. Everything is crooked.

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Stern, 38, was raised in Sherman Oaks, Calif., the youngest of three. He passed the bar in 1994 and started his career pursuing a mix of entertainment, corporate and personal injury law, according to his sister, Bonnie Stern. Several lawyers who've worked with him describe him as sharp and painstakingly methodical. Former law partner Dave Shebby says Stern led a "frugal" lifestyle, driving a 20-year-old Jaguar. In the '90s, Stern befriended an up-and-coming rock band called the Young Dubliners, and, according to their lead singer, offered to negotiate their record deals for free.

"One of the most generous and amazing guys I ever knew," Keith Roberts says. "He refused to be paid in any way."

Publicist Michael Levine, who recently started representing Bonnie Stern, says by coincidence he worked in the same building as Stern when the young lawyer was just starting out. He says Stern used to visit his office, bringing candy bars for the young women who worked there.

Stern and Smith met in 1996, according to his testimony in a Florida courtroom last month over where to bury Smith, who died Feb. 8 at age 39.

She was a former stripper, a former waitress for Jim's Krispy Fried Chicken, and more recently, a Guess model and Playboy Playmate. She needed help with the fight for the estate of oil baron J. Howard Marshall II, whom she married when she was 26 and he was 89. Marshall died 14 months into their marriage. The legal battle for his many millions is still unresolved.

Stern took on Smith's estate case on a contingency basis (becoming one of many lawyers working on her behalf), and he eventually became her personal counsel, as well. Bonnie Stern says her brother helped negotiate the deal for Smith's reality show, which ran from 2002 to 2004 and showcased a slurring Smith whose ample assets were frequently emerging from her taut clothes. Stern follows her around, appearing willing to do anything to stay in her orbit.

By 2000, Stern testified, he and Smith had become secret lovers. By 2002, she had become his only client. He said he never charged her for working as her personal lawyer. But, he said, Smith paid the $950 in rent on his Santa Monica apartment, paid for everything they did together and sometimes gave him cash. Shebby says he and Stern had to end their brief partnership because Stern wasn't bringing in any income.

Bonnie Stern says her brother brought Smith to holidays such as Thanksgiving and Passover at their parents' house. Did that first visit, on Thanksgiving of 1998, create a culture clash?

Oh no, Bonnie says. Smith was dressed formally and seemed "pretty shy." Later, they took pictures.