Los Angeles - After more than three months of highly public accusations, denials and finger-pointing, it's all going to boil down to a swab of DNA.

Anna Nicole Smith, leaves the US Supreme Court, on Feb. 28, 2006, in Washington. Anna Nicole Smith was ordered to bring her infant daughter to California for paternity tests sought by a former boyfriend who claims he is the father of the child, the man's publicist said in a statement. [AP]

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Schnider ruled Thursday that Anna Nicole Smith must submit three-month-old daughter Dannielynn Hope for a paternity test.

"Christmas has come early, and I thank God that I will soon have the opportunity to prove that I am the father of Dannielynn and eventually hold her in my arms," Larry Birkhead said in a statement issued by his attorney's publicist.

The former paparazzo filed suit against Smith Oct. 2, shortly after her longtime lawyer, Howard K. Stern, announced via Larry King Live that he was Dannielynn's dad, saying he and the TrimSpa pusher were very much in love. Soon after, Stern was recorded as the father on the girl's Bahamian birth certificate.

"Today is a good day for Larry Birkhead and father's rights everywhere," Birkhead's attorney, Debra Opri, said. "I want to thank everyone for their support and to ask Anna Nicole Smith to do the right thing."

No details were immediately available on Schnider's reasoning or when Smith must comply with the court order.

The judge ruled last month that the L.A. court had jurisdiction to issue a ruling in the case, even though Smith claimed to be a resident of the Bahamas at the time, because she had recently worked, lived and had a sexual relationship in California.

The 38-year-old ex-Playmate and Stern returned to the US, minus Dannielynn, last week. Smith appeared in San Francisco's Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday for a mediation hearing regarding her on-hold inheritance from her late husband, oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II.

Not missing an opportunity to catch the couple Stateside, Birkhead had Stern served with papers outside the Bay Area courthouse, accusing the attorney of giving perjured statements in connection with Birkhead's paternity suit.

It's not known whether Smith and Stern have since returned to the Bahamas.