Christie Brinkley Divorce Trial
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) - July 4, 2008 "It's a freak show," celebrity divorce lawyer Raoul Felder
said Friday of the latest chapter in divorce - New York-style -
under the media's microscope.
The collapse of the 10-year union of the former Sports
Illustrated swimsuit model and architect Peter Cook is being
recounted in slow motion in a Central Islip courtroom on Long
Island, not far from the Hamptons home where the couple had lived
together.
The first day of a trial settling several million dollars in
assets and custody of their children, ages 10 and 13, featured the
49-year-old Cook tearfully recounting a pornography obsession and
his affair with an 18-year-old mistress. The mistress also
testified.
A day later, Brinkley took the witness stand to recall being
told of the affair by the teenager's stepfather just after she had
delivered a high school commencement speech in Southampton in June
2006.
"That husband of yours won't knock it off. He's having an
affair with my teenage daughter," she recalled being told by the
man, a Southampton Village police officer.
Brinkley, 54, said she looked at Cook, shaking his head even
though he had not yet heard the allegation, and thought: "My God,
it's true. He did do that."
Newsday called it "Beauty & the Beast." The Daily News dubbed
it "Lady And The Louse." In the New York Post, it was "XXX
files."
For the public, it's familiar territory, the latest in a series
of breakups exposing the dark side of the not-always glamorous life
of the rich and famous.
In the late '90s, observers for several years witnessed the
petty squabbles between Democratic fundraiser and Revlon Inc.
Chairman Ron Perelman and Patricia Duff as they split after only 20
months of marriage.
The couple, with five failed marriages between them, still
clawed one another so much over such things as whether their
daughter could receive riding lessons or attend summer camp that a
judge complained they were "too focused on attacking, torturing
and slandering each other."
The public also had a front-row seat to the marital breakups of
Donald Trump, first from Ivana in 1988 and then again nearly a
decade later after a 3 1/2-year marriage to actress Marla Maples, -
who, the New York Post said, had bragged to a friend that the
Donald was "the best sex I ever had." Maples later called the
report "an absolute, total lie."
Singer Liza Minnelli and David Gest saw their 2002 marriage
explode into the headlines in 2003 with Gest claiming Judy
Garland's daughter had beaten him during alcoholic rages, damaging
his nerves, while she struck back by saying he stole at least $2
million from her.
Filmmaker Woody Allen created drama off screen in 1992 with the
revelation that he had fallen in love with Soon-Yi Farrow Previn,
an adopted daughter of his longtime love Mia Farrow. Allen and
Farrow had never wed.
"Regarding my love for Soon-Yi - it's real and happily all
true," Allen gushed at the time through a spokesman.
The ultimate public announcement of a breakup in a city bulging
with journalists came when then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced at
a televised news conference that he was filing for divorce - before
telling his wife at the time, Donna Hanover. He was already dating
his next wife, Judith Nathan.
At the time, Giuliani was represented by Felder. The lawyer said
Friday those with wealth and fame sometimes make it hard for
attorneys to minimize publicity, especially in a city where the
gossip pages are often looked at first.
Felder said the divorce of Brinkley and Cook carries two
lessons: "Don't marry a celebrity and listen to your lawyer."
He called the divorce trial "a case about nothing" because
relatively few assets are at stake, considering the size of
Brinkley's fortune, and the sexual exploits being revealed were
unlikely to affect the outcome.
"The thing started as a tragedy and turned into a farce," he
said. "Why would anybody want this public when they have
children?"
He added: "They don't seem to realize that the only audience
that counts is the guy in the black robe."
Even before Brinkley vs. Cook winds down, it finds itself
shrinking on tabloid front pages, pushed out by reports of the
newest happily ever-after celebrity marriages sliding down the
chute.
This time, baseball star Alex Rodriguez and Madonna get starring
roles, with reports that a relationship between them has spoiled
their marriages, though Rodriguez has stayed mum and Madonna's
publicist has denied a romance. Stay tuned.