Consider this an early Christmas gift for Larry Birkhead:

A Los Angeles judge has ordered a paternity test to determine the father of Anna Nicole Smith's 3-month-old daughter Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern, People magazine has learned.

The ruling, which was revealed on Thursday, came in a lawsuit filed by Birkhead, who claims that he â€" and not Smith's fiancé Howard K. Stern â€" is the father of the infant.

"If I was on anybody's Christmas list, they can scratch me off because this is the best Christmas present I could have ever received," Birkhead told People. "I'm one step closer to beginning a relationship with my daughter."

Anna Nicole Smith, meanwhile, had been residing with Stern in the Bahamas, where she gave birth to Dannielynn on September 7. She was just ordered to return to the States, however. A nation cowered at the news.

Right now, however, the whereabouts of Smith and Stern are unclear. What is clear, though? How downright scary Anna and Janice Dickinson are.