A battle of “He Said, She Said” has broken out in the media over child custody, support
Former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model and ‘80s pin-up queen Christie Brinkley has taken to the airwaves recently to demand proper restitution from her ex-husband, architect Peter Cook, whom she divorced in 2008. The crux of Brinkley’s case is that Cook has been delinquent on his child support payments ever since she hit Broadway to star in
Chicago. Additionally, Brinkley’s seeking $140,000 because she claims Cook sent her offensive e-mails and harassed her. This goes against their divorce settlement, which levies a hefty $5,000 fine for
each time one hurls “derogatory remarks” at each other. At this point, it’s amazing that the second figure’s so low considering the way each are going after one another in the press.
Cook has matched Brinkley’s flare for the air, making the rounds on morning talk shows and gossip pages in an attempt to clear his name. Beyond the money, Cook says he is most irritated by the claims that he is a bad father, and that “to be called a deadbeat dad to me is such a horrible, vengeful, spiteful thing to say…” He claims that Brinkley left the children with him when she left for her spotlight on the stage, so he asked for her to give him “reverse child support” in an attempt to balance things out.
Looking to set the record straight (at least the way she sees it), Brinkley’s team of attorneys sent out a release after Cook’s media blitz that accused the architect of launching a “smear campaign.” They also wanted to clarify that the ex-husband never paid “twice his child support” as he claims, and on top of that, he was often late with the single payments he had to make.
It will be interesting to see how the Brinkley-Cook feud playing out in the court of public opinion will affect it in actual court. These two obviously have the green light from their legal teams to go out and make their cases to the people, but when it’s time for the judge to make the final ruling, the amount of mud under each of their finely manicured fingernails may be a stat a decision can be based on.