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EXCLUSIVE: EXCLUSIVE: Debra Opri to Larry Birkhead: "You Can't Handle the Truth!"
Wednesday September 26, 2007

Larry Birkhead and Debra Opri
Larry Birkhead attends the The 59th Primetime EMMY Awards TV Guide After Party at Les Deux on September 16, 2007 in Los Angeles; Debra Opri leaves the Santa Maria Court House following a hearing in Jackson's child molestation case July 9, 2004 in Santa Maria, California.
Alexandra Wyman/WireImage.com; Carlo Allegri/Getty Images

Larry Birkhead's former lawyer Debra Opri isn't letting her defamation lawsuit against her ex-client speak for itself.

After learning that Birkhead went on Fox News Channel's On the Record with Greta Van Susteren Tuesday night claiming that Opri's suit was filed for publicity, Opri exclusively told Usmagazine.com: "Mr. Birkhead wouldn’t know the truth if it was staring at him with a camera and microphone. Keep ranting, Larry. You can't handle the truth!"

Birkhead told Van Susteren Tuesday that he will "show proof" that Opri is the one who has inflicted damage -- on his reputation. "Debra Opri better be ready for some fireworks because I'm gonna bring out all these people that will show exactly what she has done to me," Birkhead said. "I will spend every single cent that I have fighting this lady so that this doesn’t happen to other people."

Opri, who had represented the former lover of Anna Nicole Smith and biological father of their child, Dannielynn, until they parted ways last March, filed a defamation lawsuit against Birkhead Monday in an L.A. court.

“After I chose to terminate our legal relationship, Larry Birkhead began a malicious and relentless media campaign to discredit me and to destroy my reputation,” Opri said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. (Birkhead insists he terminated Opri.)

Birkhead, 34, the father of Smith’s daughter, Dannielynn, has been locked in a legal battle with Opri over $620,000 in legal fees she says he owes her. Their feud heated up recently after journalist Rita Cosby, in her book Blonde Ambition, quoted sources saying Opri had been concerned that Birkhead didn’t even know how to child-proof his home prior to winning custody of his daughter.

Responding to the allegations last month, Birkhead told Us: “Every source that says something negative about me in that book is either in a fight with me or going to court with me.”

Opri tells Us she has full confidence that she will prevail in her lawsuit, adding, "I would never have filed a defamation action unless I was clearly confident about what I have. I welcome my day in court with Mr. Birkhead."

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