AP Photo/Mary AltafferChristie Brinkley wanted her divorce trial to be open to the public to ensure nothing was kept private. She should be careful what she wishes for.
Neither Brinkley's attorneys nor estranged hubby Peter Cook left any sordid stone unturned when the confessed philanderer testified as the case's first witness today.
Chief among the revelations from the 49-year-old architect's testimony was the admission that after sleeping with his then-18-year-old employee Diana Bianchi for the first time—in his office, no less—he paid her $300,000 in hopes she would keep their affair under wraps.
Money not that well spent, as it turns out.
Facing questioning from Brinkley's attorneys, Cook also copped to showering the teen with spending money. At one point he hid $500 for her under a rock and another time behind a painting, and he bought her various gifts, including a London Jewelers watch and Victoria's Secret lingerie.
In opening statements that surely did not disappoint the swarm of media assembled in the courtroom, Brinkley attorney Robert Stephan Cohen revealed that Cook spent in the vicinity of $3,000 a month on Internet porn sites during his marriage to Brinkley.
Per Cohen, Brinkley discovered, after learning of his infidelity, that Cook was logging on to two sex sites in particular, using the names "wannaseeall" and "happyladdie2002," and at one point even went so far as to upload a video of himself masturbating.
"That is the man who's come before this court and asked for custody of his 13-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter," Cohen said in scathing opening remarks.
Cohen also accused Cook of being something of a wicked stepfather to Alexa Ray Joel, Brinkley's 22-year-old daughter with ex-husband Billy Joel, claiming Cook had "constant criticism" for the young woman. Alexa Ray Joel is expected to testify later on during the trial. While Billy Joel is not expected to take the stand, Cohen said he is nevertheless a part of the children's lives.
"Uncle Billy is around to support these kids," Cohen said.
Meanwhile, Cook's attorney, Norman Sheresky, acknowledged his client's online proclivities but said that it did not preclude his being a good parent.
"It was wrong, and he said it was wrong," the lawyer said, adding that Brinkley's own past was hardly exemplary.
"For goodness' sake, she's on her fourth husband. Your honor, we're here because of the self-indulgent wrath of a woman scorned."
Bianchi, now 21, took the stand next. She showed up late to the courthouse donning a fitted white shirt, gray pencil skirt and peach patent leather shoes.
"We had been working together, and he had shown interest in me and I reciprocated," Bianchi explained. "It was a mutual thing."
She said Cook began giving her thousands of dollars in gifts even before they began their affair.
Alexa Ray Joel was also among the first-day witnesses and offered testimony of Cook's constant criticism of her, including an incident that took place at her mother's Southampton home back in 2003.
In addition to criticizing her piano playing and lashing out if she so much as "chewed too loud," Joel said that Cook, though perfectly pleasant to her before tying the knot with Brinkley, was quite the opposite afterwards.
"He was just very critical of me in general," she said.
She relayed an incident in which a somewhat lengthy shower she took at her mother and Cook's home lead to a leak in the kitchen below. She testified that Cook burst into the bathroom and demanded that she clean up the mess.
When she went downstairs into the kitchen, wearing only a towel, she said Cook pushed her head into a bucket and yelled, "You clean this up!"
Upon telling Brinkley the news later, she said her mother "was horrified."
While first-day talk has mainly revolved around Cook's infidelity, thanks to a prenup, financial matters are not at stake in the trial. Instead, both sides are fighting for custody of daughter Sailor and son Jack, Brinkley's child from a previous marriage whom Cook adopted.
Cook's attorney wasted no time in getting in an early dig on Brinkley's parenting skills, saying the court need look no further than her desire to keep the increasingly salacious trial open to the public.
"That's putting her agenda in front of the best interests of the children. What kind of a mother wants her husband flogged in public?"
Make that soon-to-be ex-husband.
Before the trial kicked off this morning, a tearful Brinkley, 54, told reporters, "I'd hoped with all my heart we could have settled this out of court."
And at the end of this long first day, she said in a brief statement: "I heard a lot of new things I didn't know today...I need some time to let it all absorb."
The proceedings are expected to last about a month.