NASSAU, Bahamas — An ex-boyfriend of Anna Nicole Smith returned to the Bahamas to press his claim to be the father of her baby daughter yesterday in a Nassau courtroom where the late reality TV star’s mother was also seeking guardianship of the girl.“I’m just hoping for good news,” Larry Birkhead told reporters before entering the Superior Court building for a private hearing.

The former Playboy playmate’s mother, Virgie Arthur, arrived earlier in a white limousine. She claims she could provide a more stable home for the six-month-old girl than could Smith’s companion, Howard K. Stern, who is listed as the father on her Bahamian birth certificate.

Stern, who has remained secluded with Dannielynn in the waterfront home where he lived with Smith, did not appear for the hearing. A judge has ordered him not to take the child out of the island chain until the custody dispute is resolved.

An attorney for Arthur, John O’Quinn, emerged while the hearing was under way and said the judge had ordered him and the rest of her American legal team out of the courtroom. Arthur’s Bahamian attorney remained inside.

“It’s unfair,” he told reporters. “I’ve been her lawyer from the start.”

Asked why he was told to leave, he said: “Because Howard Stern doesn’t want me in there.” He did not elaborate.