NASSAU, Bahamas, April 27 (UPI) -- An effort to block Larry Birkhead's leaving the Bahamas with his and the late Anna Nicole Smith's daughter was denied Friday by a panel of judges. In denying the appeal by Smith's mother, Virgie Arthur, one judge called her filing "weak" and ordered her to pay $3,000 in attorney's fees, Access Hollywood reported. The judge also told Arthur's attorney to "descend from theory to reality.

" Arthur's attorney tried to argue that Birkhead and the child wouldn't return to the Bahamas for a June 8 custody hearing. Paternity tests revealed that Birkhead was the father of 7-month-old Dannielynn. Earlier this week, the court said Birkhead and the child could go to the United States but that they were to return to the Bahamas for the June hearing.

Howard K. Stern, Smith's companion who was listed as the father on the child's birth certificate, said he would support Birkhead in any potential custody matter. Smith died of an accidental drug overdose Feb.

8. NEW YORK, April 27 (UPI) -- Supermodel Tyra Banks settled her outstanding tab at a New York restaurant, saying the non-payment was a misunderstanding between her and another guest. Banks said on ABC's "The View" that she and music producer Russell Simmons went back and forth about picking up the check after eating at the Brooklyn Diner during the weekend, People magazine said Thursday.

Both offered to pay the $120 tab but neither did, she said. A newspaper article "saying I'm cheap and I didn't pay the bill," prompted Banks to make good, she said on the talk show. "She was really apologetic and also she was really embarrassed," said Alexis Reyes, who runs the eatery.

"She was great. She was very much a lady." And, he said, "she left a wonderful tip.

" NEW DEHLI, India, April 27 (UPI) -- U.S. actor Richard Gere, trying to blunt criticism over his public kiss with Indian star Shilpa Shetty in New Delhi, said he didn't mean to offend Indian mores.

During an AIDS awareness campaign for truck drivers earlier this month, Gere hugged Shetty on-stage, bent her over and kissed her several times on the cheek. Gere said later the kissing was a re-enactment of a scene from his movie, "Shall We Dance," and was celebrating people who supported his Heroes Project to fight HIV/AIDS, United News of India reported Friday. Expressing concern that the matter caused problems for Shetty and her family, Gere said, "(The incident) has been presented as a disregard for Indian customs.

I would like to take this opportunity to publicly apologize to Shilpa Shetty and her family for the trouble this has caused her." Gere's comments Thursday come a day after a court in Jaipur issued arrest warrants against him in response to a petition charging the two stars of behaving obscenely in public, UNI said. Legal experts have criticized the court's actions, saying it ran counter to judicial norms.

WASHINGTON, April 27 (UPI) -- U.S. actress and adoption advocate Angelina Jolie used the formal launch of Global Action for Children to talk of the plight of orphans in developing countries.

"I am here to simply ask you to think about orphaned children not as a burden but as a great opportunity," Jolie, an adoptive parent, said during a news conference Thursday. "They have had to work very, very hard to survive, but when they are given a chance, they grow strong, stronger than most." Organized in 2003, GAC aims to increase U.

S. funding for orphans in developing countries by $2.5 billion annually, People magazine said.

One of the organization's key proponents is former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie. While in Washington, Jolie and GAC Executive Director Jennifer Delaney met with U.S.

State Department leaders, including Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Dina Powell and Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes. "We talked about how there is such a growing need to help children around the world," Delaney told People. "We talked a great deal about universal education and orphans and vulnerable children, so I do think there's some receptiveness there to this issue.