AP PhotoSharon Stone's son will remain a Frisco kid for the time being.
A San Francisco court's ruling that Roan, Stone's 8-year-old son with ex-husband Phil Bronstein, should continue to live in the Bay Area with his father is not a refutation of Stone's custody rights—rather, it's only an order mandating that Roan stay in his current elementary school, according to Stone's attorney.
Despite a judge's statement that Bronstein "shall have permanent sole physical custody," Stone still retains joint physical and legal custody of Roan, per their original agreement filed on Oct. 4, 2007, attorney Martin Singer told E! News Tuesday.
What happened was, the judge denied Stone's request to have Roan attend school in Los Angeles, saying the child was to “permanently stay in San Francisco,” Singer added.
“The court order of 2007 provided that Roan was to go to school in San Francisco. Sharon went to court to try and modify the existing order...She wanted the court to modify the order so her child could go to school in Los Angeles. But the court felt that, for whatever reason, that she did not meet a burden to move him out of San Francisco during the school year.”
Stone filed court papers back in April seeking a change in the boy's primary residence.
Per a minute order filed Sept. 12 and obtained by E! News, a judge determined that Bronstein, a former editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, "provide a more structured continuity, stable, secure and consistent home that...Roan needs." (View the document.)
If Stone relocates to San Francisco, where Bronstein and now Roan reside, or if Bronstein moves away from the Bay Area, the order can be revisited.
Pointing out a line in the order reading that there is to be no change in Stone's "custody, visitation, holiday and vacation schedule," Singer emphasized that the Basic Instinct star had "not lost any iota of custody or visitation that she had before."
“She thought it was best at this young age that she had these two younger children to have her older son be with them and the court didn’t want to modify the order. She loves her son and felt it would be better to have her child in Los Angeles.”
Stone and Bronstein tied the knot in 1998 and divorced in 2004; they adopted Roan back in 2000.
The actress has two other children, sons Laird, whom she adopted in May 2005, and Quinn, whom she adopted in June 2006.
A perfunctory subsequent hearing to address attorney's fees in the matter has been set for Nov. 18.
(Originally published Sept. 23, 2008 at 11:10 a.m. PT)
—Additional reporting by Claudia Rosenbaum