Barker: Words of praise for O’Donnell not an endorsement

Los Angeles – It may have sounded like an endorsement, but Bob Barker’s recent remarks about Rosie O’Donnell weren’t meant that way.

“The Price Is Right” host, who retired this month after 35 years with the show, told reporters last week at the Daytime Emmy Awards that he had “no doubt” that O’Donnell would make a fine host for the CBS game show.

But Barker told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he never meant to endorse any potential host and has no role in choosing his replacement.

“I have not been asked for my opinion, nor have I expressed one,” Barker said. “I think there are several candidates who could do the show, and Rosie is certainly one of them.”

CBS and FremantleMedia North America, which produces “The Price Is Right,” have yet to announce Barker’s successor. Among those reportedly in the running, besides O’Donnell, are Todd Newton of the E! network, Mark Steines of “Entertainment Tonight,” George Hamilton and John O’Hurley.

CBS and FremantleMedia had no comment Wednesday. “The Price Is Right” is on hiatus until the new season starts in the fall.

Birkhead: Dannielynn has long legs, ‘chubby’ toes like her mom

New York – When Larry Birkhead looks at his 9-month-old daughter, Dannielynn, he sees her mother, Anna Nicole Smith.

“She has long legs and chubby little toes exactly like Anna’s; it’s like a mirror image,” Birkhead tells OK! magazine in its latest issue. “It’s really incredible. And I think her lips are her mom’s lips; especially when she pouts. … She also gets what she wants exactly like her mom always did as soon as she’d pout.”

Smith died in Florida in February. She was 39. The former Playboy Playmate gave birth to Dannielynn in September, a few days before the death of her son, Daniel, 20, in the Bahamas.

Howard K. Stern, her attorney and companion, initially claimed to be Dannielynn’s father, but Smith’s ex-boyfriend Birkhead eventually showed he was the father.

The baby could inherit millions from the estate of Smith’s late husband, Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II.

Birkhead plans to raise Dannielynn in Los Angeles, where he complains about the attention from the paparazzi.

“I was a photographer and I understand they need a picture, but when they’re running you off the road and you’re in the car with your daughter and they’re putting lenses up to the car so that it’s like lightning in the car, it gets to be too much,” he tells the magazine.

Vatican reverses annulment of Kennedy II’s first marriage

Boston – The Vatican reversed the annulment of former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II’s first marriage, a union that had lasted 12 years and produced two sons.

Sheila Rauch on Wednesday confirmed a report on Time magazine’s Web site that her appeal of the annulment to Rome has succeeded.

“I’m very grateful that the marriage was validated,” she told The Associated Press.

Rauch had sharply criticized the Catholic church for annulling her marriage, alleging in a 1997 book that the Kennedy family’s influence in the church had made it possible.

Rauch and Kennedy, the eldest son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, were granted a civil divorce in 1991.

She said she found out about the annulment only after Kennedy married his former congressional aide, Beth Kelly, in a civil ceremony two years later.

“The (original) annulment decision totally overlooked the fact that I felt that we had a very strong marriage in the beginning, we had two wonderful children, and it lasted,” Rauch said Wednesday. “I was certainly happy in the beginning. … things unraveled, but that doesn’t mean you didn’t have a marriage.”

Rauch said she was told of the Vatican’s decision to reverse the annulment by officials from the Boston Archdiocese in May, although the decision was actually reached in 2005.

Terry Donilon, a spokesman for the Boston Archdiocese, declined comment. “Such matters are appropriately private and confidential,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Kennedy had no immediate comment.