Celebrity Mound

Billy Joel stood by his ex, Christie Brinkley, as she battled fourth husband Peter Cook in divorce court. What makes Billy’s allegiance remarkable is that, according to a former nanny, Christie put Billy through a similar hell.

Cook and Brinkley have officially reached a settlement, but he’s continued to charge that she’s trying to turn their children – their daughter, Sailor, and Brinkley’s son with Rick Taubman, Jack – against him.

That’s why Cook is cheered by the delivery of some fresh dirt on Christie, courtesy of Alzirene Vianna, who looked after Billy and Christie’s daughter, Alexa Ray, from June 1993 to December 1994.

In 1995, when Billy and Christie were still dealing with matrimonial issues, Vianna gave Billy’s lawyers an affidavit, which we’ve obtained.

Vianna alleges in the never-aired 40-page statement that:

“Christie never encouraged Alexa to call Billy” and told Vianna to eavesdrop on phone conversations Alexa had with Billy. When Vianna took Alexa for a visit with Billy, Christie told Vianna to let her know if Billy was drinking again. “I want you to spy for me,” Vianna quotes Christie as saying.

After Christie had left Billy for handsome Colorado businessman Taubman, she was packing her bags for Telluride when Alexa, then age 8, started “acting up.” “Christie told her in a very harsh tone that if she wanted to come with her to Colorado … she would have to stop behaving like this, because she didn’t want Alexa to ruin her relationship with Ricky.”

It wasn’t long before Christie and Rick were getting into arguments: “Ricky would … kick furniture and slam doors.” Once, while staying at a hotel in California, Rick wouldn’t let Christie into their room. “Christie started pounding on the door and kicking it … Rick later told Christie: ‘No wonder Billy left you; who can live with you?’”

Once, while Rick was getting into a car outside their house, “Christie opened a window, threw something and said, ‘[Bleep] you, you ass-!’”

People began to talk about “Christie’s addiction to prescription drugs.” Said Vianna: “I remember going to the pharmacy every day in East Hampton to get several prescriptions filled for [Christie].”

Christie wouldn’t grant Alexa’s wish for Billy to come to school events. Alexa sobbed when she said goodbye to Billy after a visit and “seemed to withdraw.”

Gary Smith, a spokesman for Cook, says Vianna’s tales of “parental alienation and interference … unfortunately continue to this date and come as no surprise to Mr. Cook.”

Claire Mercuri, who represents Billy and Alexa, says, “These accusations are false and unfounded.”

Brinkley’s lawyer, Loren Plotkin, calls Vianna a “disgruntled employee,” adding: “Christie Brinkley denies these baseless, false and malicious allegations. … One must question the motive of the individual who dredged up this document as nothing more than a shameful, transparent and ultimately fruitless attempt to hurt Christie and her family.”

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Supermodel Christie Brinkley and her estranged ex-hubby Peter Cook finally reached a new truce Thursday in the on-going battle over their divorce settlement.

The feuding couple ended a morning of confusion and recriminations by signing an agreement on custody and visitation for their kids, Jack, 14, and Sailor, 11.

“The psychiatrist diagnosed him as an extreme narcissist and that’s all I want to say,” Brinkley said as she left the courthouse in Riverhead, L.I., in a blue trench coat, black Ray-Ban sunglasses and heels.

Cook, who left shortly afterward in a blue suit and striped tie, had some choice words for the mother of his kids.

“I’ll accept narcissist over parental interference,” he shot back.

“So if I’m going to be one or the other, I’ll take being a narcissist over being a parent who interferes with the other parent’s time.”

The latest court battle stemmed from a school trip Jack was scheduled to take to Egypt in November.

Cook claims Brinkley failed to supply their son’s passport in time and the vacation had to be cancelled.

Brinkley’s legal team claim an assistant dropped off the document at Cook’s home as the model was comforting a friend whose mother had died.

The passport was never found, and Jack had a new one issued, Brinkley’s side said.

Cook served Brinkley with papers accusing her of being in contempt of court for “custodial interference” in December.

He wanted a judge to appoint a parenting coordinator, demand Brinkley enroll in anger management classes and cover his legal expenses.

Brinkley filed a counter-claim claiming her former husband had also violated their divorce settlement by appearing on TV shows with Geraldo Rivera and Barbara Walters.

Lawyers for the two sides finally came to an out-of-court agreement at about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. Cook and Brinkley signed the paperwork.

One of Brinkley’s lawyers, Peter Coronia, then issued a statement claiming she was “vindicated.” Cook’s side objected and he threatened to renege on the agreement.

The judge called both sides back into court, where the pact was delivered and agreed upon, again.

“He got language that tightened up the delivery of the passport issue so that Christie Brinkley probably can’t find a way to deprive Peter of the passport next time around,” said Cook’s lawyer, James Winkler.

“[It was a] PR stunt,” he said about the day’s events.

“She’s more worried about her career than she is the truth.”

Brinkley’s side disagreed:

“[Peter Cook's] interest is nothing more than an attempt to get into the media and do everything in his power to damage Ms. Brinkley’s reputation, because his was so badly damaged during their divorce trial,” Brinkleylawyers Joe Quatela said.
“He settled and withdrew his claims, because they were completely frivolous.”

Brinkley and Cook continue to split the childrens’ vacation time.

She retains sole custody and full control of the passports, with Peter seeing them every Wednesday and every other weekend.

Cook dropped his demand the supermodel take anger management classes.

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RUMORS of an explicit home video showing Christie Brinkley’s slimy hubby Peter Cook having sex with his curvy teen office worker Diana Bianchi have made the rounds for months, and now Page Six can reveal the truth – it does exist.

Yesterday, we were shown a series of stills from a video depicting Cook and Bianchi, both nude, having sexual intercourse on a brown love seat. They also show Bianchi performing a sizzling striptease down to a pair of black, G-string panties and then to her birthday suit as Cook holds his crotch.

Another shows Cook resting his head on Bianchi’s buttocks. It appears the tape was made at Cook’s Southampton architectural office without Bianchi’s knowledge. But other stills that are apparently not from the video show Bianchi willingly posing topless.

In July, Brinkley settled her nasty divorce with the philandering Cook – who detonated their 10-year marriage with his affair with then-18-year-old Bianchi – for just $2.1 million of her $60 million fortune. She also won full custody of their kids. Cook, who confessed to a $3,000-a-month online porn habit, doled out $300,000 to Bianchi in a legal settlement that kept her mum and prevented a likely sex-harassment lawsuit.

One theory why Cook settled for so little is that Brinkley found the pictures on his computer and used them as leverage. Brinkley’s lawyer Robert Cohen said: “Nothing about Peter Cook’s behavior shocks us. We don’t know anything about this tape. We never saw it and we never heard about it. Christie’s concern is for the sake of her children and she hopes this video is kept private.”

Bianchi’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, said she may sue Cook over the video. “We are now going to review, and begin weighing our legal options, for Diana,” he told The Post’s Dan Mangan. Cook declined to comment, but a source close to him said: “He has no knowledge that any such material exists, but it is well known that Cook and Bianchi had a consensual affair, so anything is possible.”

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Christie Brinkley has fired back after ex-husband Peter Cook appeared on “20/20″ with Barbara Walters that aired on Friday, allegedly breaking the terms of their divorce.

“Christie Brinkley initially sought to settle this matter privately,” Robert Stephan Cohen, Christie’s attorney, told Access Hollywood in a statement. “The state of NY is an open court system. It was Mr. Cook who sought to lock the courtroom to the media. Judge Cohen applied the law and Peter’s request to bar the media was denied. This was not Ms. Brinkley’s doing, it was the law.”

Mr. Cook has chosen to breach the confidentiality agreement in the divorce settlement, a provision agreed upon in court to protect the children and allow them to put this ordeal behind them,” the statement continued.

On Wednesday, Christie filed for a restraining order after hearing that Peter had conducted the interview. The judge denied her request.

“My hope is that the world will see that I’m not the scumbag pervert that I’ve been painted to be,” Peter told Walters. “The misinformation that came out during the trial is the elephant in the room. It’s the elephant in the room for my kids. And I’m hoping maybe if I can correct some of the wrongs.”

However, according to Christie’s lawyer, he’s only made things worse.

“This is a tragedy,” Cohen’s statement concluded. “Mr. Cook has proven once again that the court appointed psychiatrist Dr. Stephen Herman was right when he testified that Peter Cook has an insatiable ego and needs constant reassurance. Mr. Cook continues to put himself first, ultimately hurting the children. The court awarded Ms. Brinkley full custody of the children and all decision making concerning them. That decision speaks for itself.”

The statement added added that the supermodel intends to continue to explore her legal options.

As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, Cook and Brinkley split after 10 years of marriage in 2006, after he engaged in an extramarital affair with an 18-year-old assistant. Their divorce case earlier this year included a bitter custody battle for son Jack, 13, and daughter Sailor, 10, which Brinkley won.

After days of acrimony in court and a night of intense negotiation going into the wee hours of the morning, Christie Brinkley and Peter Cook settled their contentious divorce case.

“It is my pleasure to report to the court that with much hard work … we reached an agreement,” Brinkley’s lawyer Robert Cohen said in Suffolk County Supreme Court in Central Islip.

After Judge Mark Cohen signed off on the deal and Cook left the courtroom, Brinkley hugged two friends and sobbed quietly.

“It’s to me a very bittersweet moment because it really is the death of a marriage,” Brinkley said later, outside the courtroom. “I’m very pleased with the results today. I was here fighting for custody.”

She held an elaborate dinosaur diorama she had helped her son make for a science class that had been used as evidence at the trial.
“It’s everything I asked for,” Cook said as he walked quickly away from the building.

The hard-fought deal’s main sticking point – custody of the couple’s two children, Jack, 10, and Sailor, 13 – was resolved with Brinkley getting sole custody and final decision-making power over the children.

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Cook is allowed visitation and will be consulted regarding decisions about the children.

Brinkley retained ownership of all real estate holdings and her boat Sweet Freedom. She agreed to pay Cook a flat amount of $2.1 million, mainly to cover his legal costs. The rest of the terms remain confidential, the pairs’ attorneys said.

The marathon negotiating session to end their 10-year marriage was held at a Marriott hotel in Islandia and finally ended at 6 a.m. Both sides appeared relieved to have the ugly trial concluded.

The settlement comes after five days of all-out war in the courtroom, where a string of witnesses, including Brinkley, 54, and Cook, 49, painted the model’s husband as a narcissistic horndog who slept with a teenage employee and had a $3,000-a-month Internet porn habit.

When asked why they didn’t settle sooner, Brinkley – wearing a pink, brown and tan skirt, pink sweater over a white blouse and designer high-heel open-toed shoes – said she didn’t “have a choice.”

“I was trying to settle the day I learned about – you know – about the absolute truth, the facts. I wanted to settle but, unfortunately we could not reach an agreement until 6 a.m. this morning,” she said.

Cohen said that after days of bruising testimony, Cook realized that settling was a wiser option.

“Most of you heard what went on in that courtroom – I think it was pretty clear where this case was going and so it was resolved,” he said.

At the center of the trial – where custody of the couple’s two children was at stake along with her considerable assets – was the affair Cook had with Diana Bianchi, a teenager he hired as an assistant for his architecture firm and paid $300,000 for her silence.

Then, two days ago, a court-appointed psychiatrist deemed Cook a self-obsessed egomaniac, and said Brinkley should have primary custody of the children.

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Yet another beauty linked to Peter Cook since his breakup with supermodel Christie Brinkley will be named at his divorce hearing, the Daily News has learned.

Bridget Nisivoccia is a pretty blond interior designer who told the Daily News she was hired to design Cook’s new home in Sag Harbor, L.I.

She is expected to become part of the blockbuster trial this week when another witness discusses Nisivoccia’s connection to Cook, a source close to the case told The News.

The 36-year-old joins a growing list of women in Cook’s life since his 10-year marriage to Brinkley, 54, dissolved in 2006.

The source did not imply that Cook, an architect, and Nisivoccia were romantically involved. Nisivoccia described their relationship as “professional.”
She owns property in New Jersey and has offices in New York, Miami, Los Angeles and the Hamptons.

“We have mutual clients and share a professional relationship and a respected friendship,” Nisivoccia told The News.

Fitness model Carri Lyn Ciamarra, who dated Cook for about six months last year, has been called to testify Thursday along with Cook’s current squeeze, Suzanne Shaw.
Ciamarra, 31, a married mom of one from Westchester County, says she wants no part of the scandalous divorce hearing, and her lawyer vowed to fight the subpoena.

Shaw, on the other hand, spent Independence Day in the Hamptons with Cook and his son and, sources say, she has nothing to hide.

As week two of the Brinkley-Cook divorce trial begins today, both sides will begin the battle over custody of the couple’s kids – Jack, 13, and Sailor Lee, 10.
Last week, the two sides fought over the grounds for the divorce, and sordid details emerged of Cook’s penchant for Internet porn.

Diana Bianchi, who had an affair with Cook as a teenager, also testified that he showered her with gifts and left her money under rocks and behind pictures in his office.

Brinkley’s lawyer Robert Cohen is expected to call on the women as part of his argument that Cook should not get a fifty-fifty custody split because he’s shown “bad judgment” where the children are concerned.

Cohen plans to show Cook, 49, has introduced his son to his new girlfriends and also that he bought both youngsters dangerous motorbikes and drove at more than 80 mph with his daughter in the car.

Recklessness is an “overriding feature of his character,” Cohen told the judge during his opening statements last week.
Cook’s team plans to hit back with evidence that Brinkley has tried to vengefully cut her ex out of her children’s lives and is an “angry, angry” woman who cannot get over the betrayal.

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On the second day of her divorce trial against Peter Cook, Christie Brinkley broke down in tears as she recalled how her ex had an affair with his teenage assistant.

“My world was completely shattered,” she told the court, according to the New York Post.

She said she learned the news after delivering a commencement address at a high school in NYC’s Hamptons area in June 2006.

She said the grads were taking turns collecting their diplomas on stage and Cook and son Jack cheering her on from the front row when the teen’s step-father approached her.

“Suddenly, I heard these words … I heard, ‘That husband of yours just won’t knock it off. He’s having an affair with my teenage daughter and that bastard won’t knock it off and I have to come to you,’” Brinkley, in tears, said.

“I said, ‘What did you say?’ At this point my eyes were fading out at the edges, this tunnel vision in a way,” Brinkley told her attorney.

“I looked at Peter and he was just going ‘no’ and I thought it’s true — he did that,” she continued.

Brinkley also told the court that Cook was suicidal after his adultery was exposed.

“I’m going to plow my car into a tree,” she recalled him saying from his cell phone while driving. She said it was the first time she had heard her husband cry.

On Wednesday, Cook detailed the affair and his mistress, Diana Bianchi, also took the stand, calling their fling was “mutual.”

Brinkley’s attorney also revealed how Cook spent $3,000 on Internet porn sites.

The battle is expected to get more heated as the days continue as both bash each other’s parenting skills in an attempt to win custody of their two children, Jack, 13, and Sailor, 9.

Cook told the Post the sensational trial “is about parenting and remaining in my children’s lives in the same presence I’ve always had.

“I’m not going to let her take my children the way she has with the last two fathers,” he said.

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Former supermodel Christie Brinkley came face to face with the 21-year-old who had an affair with her husband on the opening day of the couple’s bitter divorce trial.

Brinkley’s estranged husband Peter Cook and his former lover Diana Bianchi, 21, both spoke about their brief affair during the public trial in a Long Island, New York court.

Miss Bianchi was 18 and working as Mr Cook’s personal assistant at his architectural practice when the affair happened. He met her in early 2005 when she was 18 and working at a toy store.

Their affair began that March, around the time he hired her.

She was paid a salary of around £10,000 to type magazine articles on to the company’s website.
He also left her cash payments in various spots – £250 under the rock outside his office, more behind a painting, and gave her £7,500 to help her purchase a car.

Before their relationship ended in late 2005, they had sex in the office a number of times, and at homes in the Hamptons owned by Miss Brinkley.

Testifying in court yesterday, Miss Bianchi said: ‘He had shown interest in me, and I reciprocated. In his office he asked me how I would feel if he told me that he was attracted to me and that’s really how it all started.

‘I think I was a little taken aback, but I wasn’t against it either really. I wouldn’t say that one of us pushed the other. I would say that it was a mutual thing.’

Cook said their affair lasted ‘less than a year’ and he recalled they had sex about 12 times in various locations.

The affair was revealed when Miss Bianchi’s stepfather, a policeman, confronted Cook and accused him of taking advantage of the teenager.

The fling stunned Long Island society, of which Miss Brinkley is a leading light.

She filed for divorce two years ago as it emerged that Cook had paid Miss Bianchi £150,000 ’shut-up’ money.

Miss Brinkley also intends to call as a witness a married woman who left her husband for Cook and was then dumped by him.

During opening arguments at Central Islip Court on New York’s Long Island, Miss Brinkley’s lawyer Stephen Cohen said Cook visited websites devoted to sexual swingers – using their 12-year-old son Jack’s name.

Jack is Miss Brinkley’s son from her third marriage, to property developer Richard Taubma.

Cook, her fourth husband, adopted Jack shortly after they wed in 1996.

Mr Cook acknowledged his porn usage and admitted their son Jack caught a glimpse of the adult material by accident in 2006.

He sobbed: ‘He said, “Mom is looking at naked pictures of your girlfriends on the computer.”‘

Mr Cook claimed his wife sometimes joined him when looking at pornographic material.

His lawyer said: ‘It was a precursor to sex.’

Miss Brinkley fought to have the hearing held in public, saying her children needed to know the truth about the break-up.

In court yesterday, Mr Cook’s lawyer Norman Sheresky attacked the model for failing to protect her children from the couple’s bitter divorce battle.

He said: ‘For goodness sake: She’s on her fourth husband.

‘Your honour, we’re here because of the self-indulgent wrath of a woman scorned. What kind of a mother wants her husband flogged in public.

‘Opening the case to the public is bad for the kids. That’s not good motherhood, that’s not acceptable.

‘She wants nothing but to get even. She and her lawyers and her PR people are pitching a new history.’

The couple are battling for custody of Jack and his sister Sailor, 10.

Miss Brinkley also has a 22-year-old daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, from her marriage to Billy Joel, her second husband.
Taking to the stand yesterday, Miss Joel said her relationship with Mr Cook was good at first, but it began to disintegrate after he married her mother.

She said: ‘He was just very critical of me in general.’

She claimed Mr Cook reacted in an angry manner towards her in 2003 when her lengthy shower caused a leak in the kitchen below at the family’s home.

Miss Joel said: ‘He was pushing me down the stairs… I went down in a towel… and the drips were already coming down into the bucket. He shoved my head into a bucket and said, “You clean this up.”‘

The 54-year-old mother of three – the inspiration for Joel’s hit Uptown Girl – intends to bring 44 witnesses in the case.

Cook’s current girlfriend and an interior designer he briefly dated are also expected to be hauled into court.

At the opening yesterday Mr Cohen called Cook ‘a liar, drunkard and adulterer’ who spent £1,800 a month on porn but failed to contribute to household expenses.

Cook’s lawyer said his client had acknowledged he had used porn. ‘It was wrong and he said it was wrong,’ he said.

Regarding the affair, the lawyer told the court: ‘Peter has apologised.

‘He’s cried his eyes out. He’s lost his marriage.’

Cook wants full custody of the children, whom he sees every other weekend, claiming that Miss Brinkley employs nannies to look after them.

Leaving court yesterday afternoon, Miss Brinkley said: ‘I need some time to let it all absorb.’

The trial continues.