Other Woman Rears Head in Brinkley Divorce
Payback’s a bitch.
With her divorce saga set to play out in a Long Island courtroom next month, Christie Brinkley is making sure all the main characters are accounted for, including the woman who wrecked her marriage.
Diana Bianchi, who was a 19-year-old office assistant when she had a fling with the supermodel’s soon-to-be ex, architect Peter Cook, has been supboenaed to testify about the tryst.
Bianchi’s attorney, Rosemarie Arnold, told News her client is “looking forward to getting on with her life and regaining her anonymity.”
“She has no interest in becoming involved in a dispute between Christie Brinkley and Peter Cook. If she is compelled to testify however, she will do so truthfully,” the lawyer said.
Separately, Arnold added that Bianchi, now 21, chose to give up her foray into the music business but, contrary to some gossip reports, “that choice had absolutely nothing to do with” the scandal.
After the affair became public, Bianchi sued Cook based on their relationship while he was her employer, and the two reached a settlement. Terms were not disclosed.
Meanwhile, Cook attorney Norman Sheresky lashed out at Brinkley’s camp for making the pair’s dirty laundry a spectator sport.
“Since Peter admitted to an affair two years ago, dragging in Bianchi is just one more example of Ms. Brinkley’s thirst for revenge,” he said. “Peter has moved on with his life. She should do the same.”
The proceedings are due to kick off July 2.
Brinkley, 54, has been pushing to keep the case open to the media, while Cook, 49, insists that doing so could be damaging to son Jack, 12, and daughter Sailor, 9.
On Friday, New York Supreme Court Justice Mark D. Cohen overruled Cook’s petition to close the courtroom, ruling that the case could “provide a basis for societal education.”
It remains to see whether the lesson will be done with some semblance of class.
Christie Brinkley’s Divorce to Have Its Close-Up
Christie Brinkley was never one to turn down a cover story.
A New York judge ruled Friday that the former supermodel’s divorce proceedings will remain open to the media, despite her soon-to-be ex-husband’s objections that their kids could suffer from the 24/7 news cycle once the couple’s dirty laundry hits the proverbial public clothesline.
“The required high burden of compelling reasons to close the courtroom has not been met,” Supreme Court Justice Mark D. Cohen wrote in his five-page decision.
“Open courtrooms, in general and in divorce actions, may provide a basis for societal education.”
Court transcripts and most records will remain sealed, however, because this is a family court case.
“We are pleased with the judge’s decision and wish this didn’t happen. Since the case hasn’t been able to be resolved, Ms. Brinkley looks forward to her day in court,” Brinkley attorney Robert S. Cohen said after court, per Newsday.
Not that Brinkley is really looking forward to dumping her private life into a fishbowl (again), however.
“I still remain hopeful that these matters can be settled privately,” the 54-year-old cover girl said in a statement today.
Brinkley filed for divorce from her admitted philanderer of a husband, architect Peter Cook, in September 2006 after 10 years of marriage after Cook admitted to having affairs with two teenage girls, including his then-17-year-old office assistant and singer Samantha Cole, who told the New York Post she was just 18 when her dalliance with Brinkley’s hubby began.
“She’s interested in paying Peter back for the adultery,” Cook’s attorney, Norman Sheresky, said. “That’s what this is all about. I think it’s going to make her look worse.”
“I don’t know of any parent who has made an appeal to keep the court open,” he added.
The estranged duo have one daughter together, Sailor, who will be 10 next month, and Cook adopted Brinkley’s son, Jack, 13, who she had with third husband Richard Taubman.