AP Photo/Mary AltafferJust when it seemed like Peter Cook couldn't do anything else to piss off Christie Brinkley...
The model has made good on her threat to launch legal action against her ex-hubby in the wake of his sit-down with Barbara Walters—a violation of a court order preventing either side from publicly blabbing about their marriage—by filing a request for a temporary restraining order against her former spouse.
The request, filed in New York's Suffolk County Court yesterday, was an attempt to prevent Cook's scheduled visitation with the duo's children from taking place this weekend, as it would come in the immediate aftermath of tomorrow night's highly publicized 20/20 interview.
"They wanted to suspend Cook's visitation for this coming weekend because they had word that there was going to be an interview with Barbara Walters tomorrow evening with Mr. Cook, and they didn't want the children exposed to that," Cook's attorney, James Winkler, tells E! News.
The request was denied.
"It was a silly application," Winkler continues. "Obviously, there are TVs all over the place, and Mr. Cook had no intention of exposing his children to any interview."
Instead, Cook agreed to take children Sailor and Jack out of town for the weekend as an alternate safeguard.
"On consent of the parties, the children would not be exposed to the interview. And on consent of the parties, Mr. Cook agreed to take the kids away for the weekend."
"The court order mandates that since Peter Cook has the children this weekend, his parenting has to be away from his home and he can't expose them to the 20/20 broadcast," Brinkley's attorney, Robert Stephan Cohen, confirmed.
"Christie Brinkley's sole concern is to protect her children."
The failed legal action came in the wake of ABC releasing snippets of an interview with Cook set to air on 20/20 tomorrow night, in which the 49-year-old architect defended his infidelity during the duo's 10-year marriage.
"I'm not the...pervert that I've been painted to be," he tells Walters. "I wanted a little acknowledgement, a little attention, a little thank-you every now and then for my efforts, for the amount of time I took to care for her and my family, for the wealth I was building."
Cook's justification was out of line in more ways than one. Brinkley's attorney warned on Tuesday that Cook's disclosure was in violation of the couple's divorce settlement.
"It is shocking that Mr. Cook, after having his day in court, would continue this firestorm created by his bizarre behavior by violating an agreement and court order that prohibits either party from discussing their marriage or divorce in any way," Cohen said.
The duo's divorce was only formally signed off on last week.
—Additional reporting by Claudia Rosenbaum
(Originally published on Oct. 9, 2008 at 11:22 a.m. PT)