Anna Nicole Smith's former boyfriend Howard K Stern and two doctors charged in Los Angeles

PLAYBOY playmate Anna Nicole Smith's former boyfriend and two doctors have been charged with giving her thousands of prescription drugs in the years leading up to her overdose in 2007.

Howard K Stern and doctors Sandeep Kapoor and Khristine Eroshevich were charged today with three counts of conspiray in Los Angeles Superior Court, the Associated Press reported.

The three were also charged with obtaining fraudulent prescriptions and unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance two weeks before Smith's death.

"These individuals repeatedly and excessively furnished thousands of prescription pills to Anna Nicole Smith, often for no legitimate medical purpose," California Attorney General Edmund G Brown said.

The medical examiner's office has said Dr Eroshevich authorised all the prescription medications found in the hotel room where Smith overdosed, AP reported.

Dr Eroshevich's lawyer, Adam Braun, said his client wrote some of the prescriptions using fake names for Smith but that the intent wasn't to commit fraud.
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"It was not to deceive anyone. It was done for privacy reasons," Mr Braun said.

"She did the best she could under difficult circumstances in the best interest of the patient."

Braun said Dr Eroshevich began treating Smith following the death of the star's son in September 2006.

Smith died on February 8, 2007, in Florida from an overdose of prescription drugs. The former Playboy playmate, model and potential heir to an oil fortune was 39.

Mr Stern and Dr Kapoor were released after they each posted $US20,000 ($A30,557) bond.