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In an astonishing turn of events that should upend everything you thought about you knew about celebrities' lawyers and the ease with which they can find a way to stomach their clients' reprehensible behavior once the check clears, one of Anna Nicole Smith's many attorneys has quit: Not fake-husband-lawyer Howard K. Stern, and not lawyer-lawyer Ron Rale, but a third counsel named Michael Scott, who, besides sharing a name with a character in a popular TV sitcom, now can also lay claim to another unique biographical footnote: "Told drug-addled, crackpot celebrity client to 'take a long walk off a short catamaran.'"

Michael Scott said he was unsettled by Smith's decision to exchange vows with her boyfriend even before she made funeral arrangements for Daniel Smith, her 20-year-old son who died Sept. 10. [...]

"A disagreement on a commercial transaction made it difficult for us to remain as counsel," Scott told The Associated Press over the phone. [...]

"It was not really an amicable parting," said Scott, reached on his cellphone in Florida.

Scott cited disagreements with Smith's boyfriend and longtime attorney Howard K. Stern, who says he is the father of Anna Nicole's newborn daughter.

There were "strong differences of opinion between myself and Howard over strategies," said Scott, who declined to elaborate, citing attorney-client privilege.

With Scott's departure comes a sizable chip in the once-impenetrable Fortress of Lawyers the chemically deadened diet-pill spokeswoman has erected around her. Still, with many more still on the payroll, expect no end to the steady stream of brokered photo-ops, including her latest offering: 16 full-color images of Scott telling off his half-conscious client before storming out of her hotel room and slamming the door behind him, a world exclusive which could easily sell millions of magazines under a headline reading, "ANNA NICOLE LAWYER TRAGEDY: HIS LAST RETAINED HOURS."