Almost three weeks after Anna Nicole Smith was found dead at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida, the former Playboy Playmate and TrimSpa model not only remains above ground, but the legal battle to bury her hit another road block on Tuesday in a Florida appeals court. According to E Online, Virgie Arthur, the long-estranged mother of Anna Nicole Smith, ran into another roadblock in her quest to bring her daughter's body back to Texas to be buried in the Smith family plot.

Last week, Judge Larry Seidlin ruled that Richard Milstein, the court-appointed guardian for Anna Nicole Smith's daughter Dannielynn, was to take the body of Anna Nicole back to the Bahamas and bury Smith near her son Daniel, who passed away in September. Virgie Arthur immediately filed an appeal with the Florida 4th District Court of Appeal to be heard today, which appeared that it would happen until attorneys for Milstein and Howard K. Stern filed their own appeals, delaying the process until tomorrow.

According to E Online, the first post-ruling legal battle surrounding the decomposing body of Anna Nicole Smith came when Judge Larry Seidlin refused to reconsider his decision yesterday. That same day, the 4th District Court in West Palm Beach, Florida approved the request for a stay, keeping the body of Smith in the States and above ground, until 2pm today, which was the deadline for any challenges to the appeal.

Today, Richard Milstein filed a challenge to the appeal asking the panel to uphold the ruling by Judge Larry Seidlin, so he could take the body of Anna Nicole Smith to the Bahamas. Attorneys for Howard K. Stern filed a similar appeal of their own, asking the court to prevent Virgie Arthur from getting any custody of Anna Nicole Smith.

The attorneys for Howard K. Stern - lover, attorney, and alleged father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby - wrote in their appeal, as quoted by E Online, "This case presents the tragic circumstances of Anna Nicole Smith's untimely death and the sad irony of her estranged birth mother's efforts to place her in death where she never wanted to be in life."

So, everything regarding the appeal of Virgie Arthur and the burial of Anna Nicole Smith will have to wait at least another day. The appellate panel in Florida will hear arguments tomorrow and there's no word yet on when they will actually rule, but E Online reports that Howard K. Stern has already invited guests to a funeral ceremony in Nassau in the Bahamas on Thursday. So, he's confident that the appeal by Arthur will be denied and Smith will head back to the Bahamas by Thursday.

The body of Anna Nicole Smith isn't the only legal issue surrounding the reality TV star's death, as the custody and paternity of her child and the ownership of her home are also still legally up in the air. Larry Birkhead, a photographer and former beau of Anna Nicole has long claimed paternity and filed legal claims to that end in California, Florida, and the Bahamas. In an interesting twist, Howard K. Stern, who has long protested all claims by Larry Birkhead to Dannielynn, allowed the man to spend time with the five-month-old girl over the weekend. Larry Birkhead fed, burped and was thrown up on by Dannielynn and told Access Hollywood, "She's mine. That's my baby. She looks like me -- she is mine."

TMZ dropped a bombshell in the paternity issue, reporting that Howard K. Stern is actually working out a deal with Larry Birkhead, through their attorneys, where he would drop all paternity claims to Dannielynn in exchange for some of the estate of Anna Nicole Smith. E Online notes that any such deal may not negate already pending legal issues surrounding the paternity. A sample of DNA was already taken from Anna Nicole Smith but a California Judge, Lawrence Korda, hasn't ruled on whether he will comply with an order to release the DNA because he's not sure he has the jurisdiction to do so.

Finally, the estate that Anna Nicole Smith called home with Howard K. Stern and where the attorney has been living with Dannielynn is still legally up in the air. Stern was granted a legal reprieve on Monday and won't be evicted from the home that G. Ben Thompson claims he never gave to Anna Nicole Smith and that he technically still owns. A judge ruled that Howard K. Stern can stay until a hearing that has been scheduled for mid-March.