September 7, 2008
Christie Brinkley touts herself as supermom
Third day of her custody dispute with Peter Cook
To the world, she is the former supermodel, but in her home, Christie Brinkley testified Monday in her divorce trial, she was really the Supermom.
For Christmas, her $30 million Bridgehampton mansion was transformed into a "wonderland." She made her own birthday cakes, jumped on a snowboard with son Jack, 12, stocked her home with disaster relief kits and always penciled Jack and daughter Sailor, 10, into her calendar before modeling shoots, she said in Central Islip.
But just as Brinkley was making the case for being the better parent for her two children on her second day on the witness stand, her estranged husband's attorney dismissed her mothering skills as those of a superboss who relied on the help of a sizable staff.
"Are you trying to tell us that during this period, you were kind of a one-man band, doing everything?" asked Peter Cook's lawyer, Norman Sherseky of Manhattan.
"I would say that I put in a very busy day," Brinkley, 54, shot back, conceding that Cook doted on his kids in the marriage's early years. She told her lawyer during direct examination: "Every nanny that I have knows that it's a household where the mother is present, that they are more like a mother's helper."
So began the third day of the former supermodel's divorce trial to architect Cook, 49. In the divorce, each seeks custody rights of Jack, whom Cook adopted, and Sailor, their child together. Brinkley has a third child, Alexa Ray Joel, 22, with singer Billy Joel.
After spending two days hearing of Cook's admitted infidelity with Diana Bianchi, then 18, and his admitted use of Internet pornography, acting State Supreme Court Justice Mark D. Cohen on Friday ended the grounds phase of the trial, in which the basis for divorce is heard.
With Brinkley's testimony Monday, the custody phase began. On Tuesday, she is expected to return to the stand and continue cross-examination by Cook's attorney. In the next phase of the trial, which may begin later this week, the judge will hear arguments over assets, which include six-figure amounts of cash, three boats and East End property. The couple married in 1996.
Monday, Brinkley said the historic mansion is a "real family home," where the tennis court is converted into a skateboard park and there are art and music rooms and a children's library.
Brinkley said even Billy Joel credited her with exposing her children to music by purchasing a piano, guitars and drum kits. It was she who paid for these things, as well as the kids' private school tuition at the elite Ross School in East Hampton, she said.
Cook's lawyers are portraying Brinkley as an angry woman out for revenge, arguing that Cook regrets his errors, but remains a good father to Jack and Sailor, and deserves credit for helping Brinkley build her vast real estate wealth. Brinkley's attorneys argue she was used by Cook, and then treated cruelly and abandoned.
They also charge that Cook's $3,000-a month pornography habit endangered the children.
"Anybody who would run the risk of completely destroying this wonderful life, I mean, where is his judgment?" Brinkley said of Cook's cheating. "Sneaking out of the house when you've got two beautiful, loving children there, to go choose instead to go masturbate on the World Wide Web, just makes me worry about his judgment."
Copyright © 2008, Newsday Inc.
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