The troubled marriage of James Gandolfini is officially on ice.
After months of much publicized--and often salacious--legal wrangling, The Sopranos star and Marcella, his wife of three years, were granted a divorce Wednesday by a Manhattan judge. The couple, who have a three-year-old son together, decided to play nice long enough to settle their issues sans trial.
State Supreme Court Justice Judith Gische--who has also presided over the high-profile splits of Rudy Giuliani and Donna Hanover and Robert De Niro and Grace Hightower--granted the divorce in favor of Marcella. Gische did not reveal the grounds for the split, but abandonment appears to be at the root of the decision--TV's Tony Soprano moved out of their New York home in February of 2001.
"I wish you a lot of good luck," Gische told the couple Wednesday.
Lawyers for both sides are keeping mum on the terms of the settlement, but both camps are claiming the marriage ended peacefully.
Gandolfini's attorney, Robert Stephan Cohen, called the divorce "one of the friendliest I've ever seen. And it was done in almost record time."
"They're both happy it's over," added Marcella Gandolfini's lawyer, Norman Sheresky.
Even the lovable mobster himself is decidedly un-explosive about the whole thing. "It's over. Everyone loves each other very much," he told reporters outside the courtroom.
Though the waters seem smooth now, the split got downright nasty at its lowest points.
Gandolfini, 41, quietly filed for divorce from Marcy in March and tried to maintain a Mafia-like code of silence by refusing to comment about the breakup.
But the gloves were off by October, when the two-time Emmy winner was forced to go public with past battles with drugs and alcohol because of the breakup. Marcella made allegations of Gandolfini's cocaine use, excessive boozing and "kinky sex with multiple mistresses" part of the legal filing, which was conveniently leaked to the National Enquirer.
"To bring [up the drug problem] now, as an attempt to gain leverage and a better settlement during the divorce, is just reprehensible," Gandolfini rep Dan Klores said at the time.
When it comes down to it, this just hasn't been Gandolfini's year for marriage--onscreen or off. His Sopranos alter ego isn't doing so hot with his wife either. In the HBO much-watched season finale two weeks ago, his long-suffering wife Carmela (Edie Falco) booted him out of the house, fed up with his constant cheating.
But that bust-up ended with a better sound byte. "You've made a fool of me for years," Carmela ranted on the 75-minute, fourth-season ender. "You've had quite a time on my watch."
But don't feel too sorry for the actor, who's apparently focusing on work to get through the rough patch. He's currently in negotiations to star opposite Ben Affleck in the dark comedy Surviving Christmas. He's also working on the indie drama Before the Devil Knows You're Dead and will presumably start work sometime in the next year on the fifth, and likely final, season of The Sopranos.