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Emotions fill courtroom at Brinkley-Cook divorce trial

New demands by ex-model, husband unveiled in divorce trial

BY LUIS PEREZ | luis.perez@newsday.com

11:02 PM EDT, July 2, 2008

The tears had not begun rolling down Peter Cook's face Wednesday in a Central Islip courtroom when he testified in excruciating detail about his sexual relationship with a Southampton teenager and his expensive Internet pornography habit while married to former supermodel Christie Brinkley.

>>Update: Brinkley ready to testify on Thursday

"These are not fond memories I keep close to my heart," Cook said during the heated testimony in the trial, adding of his wife: "She was angry, upset, as she should have been."

Then came the sobs. One of Cook's attorneys approached him on the stand, asking if he had viewed Internet porn recently.

"I have not done that since June 25, 2006," said Cook, 49, citing the day that Brinkley, 54, filed to divorce him.

Cook's public flogging in a courtroom packed with reporters furiously typing on BlackBerrys and laptops fulfilled a threat by Brinkley's attorneys two weeks ago. The trial began with a whirlwind of testimony aimed at exposing Cook's cheating.

It was both expected, and for Brinkley's attorneys, legally necessary, as they build their case that Cook's sexual habits put his marriage and children at risk. Cook sparred with Brinkley's attorney about whether his son, Jack, 12, had inadvertently seen some pornography.

Cook said he wooed Diana Bianchi, then 18, after first seeing her at a Southampton toy store in 2005, then repeatedly had sex with her in his office and at two homes he shared with Brinkley. He also showered Bianchi with gifts and a paid office job.

He also spent as much as $3,600 a year on Internet pornography during their marriage, sometimes viewing it in family homes.

Cook fathered a daughter, Sailor Lee, who turned 10 Wednesday, with the former model. He also adopted Brinkley's son, Jack, whom she had with Richard Taubman.

According to terms set out by acting State Supreme Court Justice Mark Cohen, the trial, which may last at least four weeks, will move through three phases: adultery, child custody, and assets, which include cash, three boats and several parcels of East End real estate.

Brinkley's attorney Robert Cohen said all three issues are "intertwined" as he painted the Uptown Girl as the victim in his opening statements. She was a single, working mother who was "devastated" to learn of Cook's betrayal from Bianchi's stepfather while attending the 2006 graduation at Southampton High School, where she gave the commencement speech, Cohen said.

Cook's attorney, Norman Sheresky, painted Cook as a talented architect who helped Brinkley build a real estate fortune, and a doting dad who admits to adultery -- but also to having an overdemanding wife.

Taking the stand herself, Bianchi at times contradicted Cook's testimony about gifts and cash he gave her. She said he gave her a $15,000 down payment toward a 2005 Nissan Maxima (Cook said he hadn't) and revealed that Cook once left her $500 cash behind a rock outside Brinkley's $30 million Tower Hill mansion (Cook said he left it outside his office).

Bianchi also ventured where Cook didn't, in offering the number of times they had sex.

"Ten at the most, I would say," she said.

Also testifying was Alexa Ray Joel, 22, Brinkley's daughter with singer Billy Joel, who said Cook was at first warm and loving, but sour toward the end of the marriage. Cohen has said that, during that period, Billy Joel was a better father to Brinkley's children than Cook.

One day when Alexa Joel was taking a shower, Cook barged in, demanding she fix a leak it had caused, Alexa Joel said. "He shoved my head into a bucket and said, 'You clean this up!'" she said.