Sideshow | Dame Helen rules at BAFTAs

Death has not dimmed Gossipdom's fascination with

Anna Nicole Smith

, nor imbued it with even the merest whisper of decorum.

The Tribune of Nassau, a Bahamian newspaper, published two front-page photos yesterday showing Anna Nicole Smith lying abed with Bahamian immigration minister Shane Gibson, who, it so happens, approved her application for permanent residency.

The pix show Smith and Gibson, both clothed, gazing into one another's eyes from a distance of a few inches. The newspaper said the photographs were shot in Smith's boudoir and that it obtained the pictures Sunday from an unidentified source.

Political opponents have claimed Gibson gave special treatment to the former Playboy Playmate of the Year, whose residency application was rubber-stamped last year.

Smith, who died Thursday in Florida, based her application on ownership of a waterfront mansion that her lawyers have said was given to her by South Carolina developer G. Ben Thompson, a former swain. Thompson says he never deeded Smith the house and wants it back.

Opposition leader Hubert Ingraham said he was looking into the matter.

Over the weekend, Smith's companion Howard K. Stern, reclaimed the mansion along with 5-month-old Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern. They had lived in the gated waterfront estate, known as "Horizons," before Smith died.

Stern's rep said some items had been stolen from the manse, including the birth certificate for the baby, whose paternity has yet to be established.

Stern has assigned himself the task of keeping Smith's mother, Vergie Arthur, away from the baby. Smith "just despised that woman," Stern told Entertainment Tonight.

"As long as I have one breath left in my body that woman will not see Dannielynn," he added.

Arthur told ABC's Good Morning America that she fears for Dannielynn's safety, pointing out that Stern had been present when Smith's 20-year-old son, Daniel Smith, died under mysterious circumstances in a Bahamas hospital room while visiting his mother days after Dannielynn was born.

Stern is listed on a birth certificate as Dannielynn's father. But two other men have challenged the claim - former lover Larry Birkhead and Prince Frederic von Anhalt, husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor. Smith's former bodyguard, Alex Denk, also has entered the paternity pageant, telling the TV show Extra that he was his employer's lover and may have fathered the child.

Meanwhile, the New York Daily News reports that Smith's death has sparked a run on DVDs of her 2002 TV reality program, The Anna Nicole Show, which soared from 27,014th place on Amazon.com's best-seller list to 15th place overnight.

- Associated Press

Camilla

, the Duchess of Cornwall and wife of England's Prince Charles, will have a hysterectomy next month, the Associated Press reports.

The duchess, 59, will be hospitalized after the couple return on Feb. 28 from a tour of the Middle East, a spokeswoman for the prince announced. Camilla will need about six weeks to recover, according to the spokeswoman. She scotched rumors that the operation was the result of cancer, but did not provide further details.

Charles and Camilla recently visited Philadelphia to mark the 150th anniversary of the Academy of Music.

- Associated Press

The Police

announced yesterday that they are going to hit the road for the first time in decades.

The trio, which led off Sunday night's Grammy Awards with a live performance of its hit "Roxanne," broke up in 1984, and members Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland have since pursued solo careers.

The Police plan to play arenas, stadiums and some festivals in a North American tour beginning May 28 in Vancouver.

Some confirmed cities on the tour include New York, Boston, Seattle, Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dallas, New Orleans, St. Louis, Toronto and Montreal.

Tickets for the North American leg will range from $50 to $225. A portion of the tour's proceeds will go to WaterAid, an antipoverty organization that seeks to provide poor people access to safe water.

- Associated Press

The organizers of Britain's Fashion Week will not ban ultra-thin runway models, but say that no size-zero women will strut down the runway in London this week.

The British Fashion Council's decision sidesteps the stricter bans that fashion show organizers in Milan and Madrid have enacted.

"I think the general consensus was that the girls on the catwalk were looking healthy," said a council rep.

The week of shows opened Sunday with the Dublin-born designer Paul Costelloe and the British designer Caroline Charles.

- Associated Press

Helen Mirren's

regal portrayal of

Queen Elizabeth II

earned the British thesp a best actress award on Sunday at the British Academy Film Awards in London.

The Queen, Mirren's starring vehicle, took best-picture honors and Forest Whitaker copped the best-actor prize for playing another kind of ruler, the late Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, in The Last King of Scotland.

Last King was named best British film and also took the prize for best adapted screenplay.

Among the actors beaten by Whitaker was Peter O'Toole, nominated for his role in Venus.

Paul Greengrass won the best director nod for his work on United 93, a docudrama based on one of the flights hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001.

The Brit awards, known familiarly as BAFTAs, are widely considered an important indicator of success in the Academy Awards, which will be presented in two weeks.

Kate Winslet, Jake Gyllenhaal and Penelope Cruz were among the stars attending Sunday's ceremony at London's elegant Royal Opera House.

– Associated Press