N.Y. {heart} Celebrity Divorces

NEW YORK, July 4 -- When the media capital of the world encounters a celebrity divorce, it's a breakup made in tabloid heaven. So the city that has hosted the spectacular splits of Woody Allen, Liza Minnelli and Rudolph Giuliani now is feasting on the salacious details of model Christie Brinkley's fourth marital breakup.

"It's a freak show," celebrity divorce lawyer Raoul Felder said Friday of the latest chapter in divorce, New York-style.

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 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."

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. In the late '90s, on display were the petty squabbles between 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 each other over such things as whether their daughter could receive riding lessons or attend summer camp.

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.

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. The ultimate public announcement of a breakup came when then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced at a televised conference that he was filing for divorce -- before telling then-wife Donna Hanover.

Even before Brinkley vs. Cook winds down, it's shrinking on tabloid front pages, pushed out by reports of the newest 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. Rodriguez is mum; Madonna's publicist denies it. Stay tuned.