Alexa Ray Joel showcased her musical talents for benefit in New York

Proud parents Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley were more than happy to take a back seat on Saturday to watch their daughter Alexa Ray showcase her own musical talents at a benefit event in New York.

After guests at the sold-out fundraiser had enjoyed locally produced wine and cheeses, the talented 22-year-old daughter of the Piano Man took to the stage to provide the entertainment, singing a selection of tracks from behind her keyboard.

Encouraged from an early age by her famous father and classically trained on the piano, Alexa is an accomplished performer in her own right and delighted the crowd – including mom and dad – with her soulful blues sound.

The night had special meaning for the trio as the aim was to raise money for the Save Sag Harbor fund, a cause that helps preserve local shops in the area that Alexa, Billy and Christie have all called home.

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'No regrets,' but next time, 'a brunette' says Peter Cook post-Christie

Peter Cook and new girlfriend Suzanne Shaw seemed relaxed Saturday morning at the American Hotel in Sag Harbor.

Cook in his own modeling days, with Carol Alt. Asked what he was looking for in his next relationship, he replied, 'A brunette.'

Peter Cook, his reputation in tatters but his mood considerably brighter, looks back on his doomed marriage to supermodel Christie Brinkley without regret.

"I will never regret marrying her," he told the Daily News Saturday over breakfast. "We had great times for 10 years. I've got two beautiful children."

Cook said his divorce settlement with Brinkley, after a week where he was publicly exposed as a sex-obsessed, two-timing narcissist, ended a dark chapter in his life - one he doesn't intend to revisit.

"My only option is to be healthy, happy and prosperous," he said. "If I'm not, how's that good for the kids?"

And he believes most people will forgive him the sins detailed over eight days of lurid testimony.

"Intelligent people understand that we are all imperfect, that we all have flaws," said Cook, dressed casually for an alfresco meal at the American Hotel in Sag Harbor.

"Short of Mother Teresa, the Pope and Gandhi, no one really wants every dark corner of their life exposed to the world, and certainly not to their children."

Cook, 49, wore a Rolex on one wrist and a black bracelet - with the inscription "I am what I am" - on the other. In T-shirt, white jeans and flip-flops, he was relaxed and jovial, sitting with current girlfriend Suzanne Shaw.

His new love offered plenty of kinds words and a kiss for Cook as he spoke publicly for the first time since the trial ended last week.

Cook took a public relations pummeling during the often-salacious testimony. He wept on the stand while confessing his sexual shenanigans, which included spending $3,000 a month on Internet pornography and masturbating live for a cyberaudience via Web Cam.

He also confessed paying $300,000 in hush money to an 18-year-old girl after their sordid affair - which included sexual liaisons in two homes owned by Brinkley.

Even a court-appointed psychiatrist - one of the few witnesses with no ax to bury in Cook's back - labeled him a narcissist who chose his sexual compulsions over his family.

But he was able to joke about the headline-making trial, which ended with a settlement perceived by many as a victory for Brinkley.

Asked what he was looking for in his next relationship, he replied, "A brunette."

And asked what he'd learned from the whole experience, the architect said with a laugh, "You call your lawyer before you tell your wife anything."

He and Brinkley were raising two children - Jack, Brinkley's son from a previous marriage, and 10-year-old Sailor Lee, their daughter.

Under the deal, Cook will reportedly maintain his visitation rights with the children.

Cook said the public flogging, his adultery and the fallout haven't soured him on marriage. He remains a romantic, and would consider another walk down the aisle.

"Sure," he said. "And I'm going to use [Christie's] prenup."

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Christie Brinkley Hired P.I. to Follow Ex

Christie Brinkley and Peter Cook's abrupt settlement after days of acrimonious he-said-he-said was the result of damaging evidence gathered against Peter by private investigators.

P.I. twins Ty and Stephen Dux were hired by Christie last year to tail her estranged husband, and the two accumulated footage that most definitely would've swayed the case Christie's way, causing Peter to halt the trial.

"It's not of sexual nature. More information that would have been damaging to him [Cook] with his relationship to his children and possibly his community," Ty tells Extra. "Some of his actions might have been a little reckless with his kids that could have caused them some harm. Some of it could be considered illegal. But not to the fact that it's criminal."

Court shrink Dr. Stephen Herman, who labeled Peter as a narcissist with sexual issues, testified on Tuesday that the architect showed "poor judgment" when it came to parenting and his fling with Diana Bianchi caused "irreparable harm" to his children with Christie, Jack, 13, and Sailor, 10.

"They [video tapes] were going to be introduced as evidence," Ty says. "I believe he [Cook] had enough already."

The twins aren't allowed to release any more information of the content of the videos, but Ty admits it's probably not needed as Peter is "ruined already." Still, the 49-year-old, who received parenting time in the settlement, "needs some type of relationship with his kids. He's going to be with them. He's the father."

As for Christie, who won sole custody of Jack and Sailor and all 18 of their real estate properties, Ty says, "She's a truthful person. Sincere mom. She's the queen of the Hamptons."

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Christie Brinkley wins sole custody of children

The bitter battle between Christie Brinkley and Peter Cook is no more.

One week after the nasty divorce trial began, Brinkley was awarded sole custody of the couple’s two children, Jack, 13, and Sailor, 10.

The trial created much controversy, specifically Brinkley’s decision to make the case open to the public.

The exes reached a settlement Thursday morning at 6:15 a.m., a source close to the case told People magazine.

Brinkley will keep all real estate and has agreed to pay Cook $2.1 million, the magazine reports.

The pair were spotted separately in the same Long Island hotel Wednesday night as lawyers for both sides worked furiously to put the finishing touches on a deal they had been negotiating throughout the day, said the magazine.

Another source confirmed to the magazine that Brinkley and Cook briefly spoke to one another during the negotiations, but added “they don’t communicate well.”

The couple split two years ago after Brinkley learned of Cook’s affair with his then-teenaged assistant Diana Bianchi, now 21.

Brinkley cried outside the courtroom Thursday, telling the press, “It’s what I hope and pray for.”

The settlement came a day after a court-appointed psychiatrist testified that Brinkley should get custody of the children.

Brinkley also has a 22-year-old daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, with Billy Joel.


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Christie Brinkley's cheating husband 'slept with THIRTY FIVE women'

The divorce case between Christie Brinkley and her fourth husband Peter Cook grew increasingly bitter when it was revealed that her husband had slept with 35 women.

The former supermodel scored the first victory in her divorce battle when a court-appointed psychologist testified that she should have custody of her two children.

Dr Stephen Herman slammed her estranged husband Peter Cook as 'a narcissist' who constantly needed his insatiable ego fed.

He continued to draw gasps from the courtroom when he revealed that Cook told him he had slept with 35 women.

It was not made clear whether he had cheated with that number during his marriage or if that was the total number of partners he’d had.

The Manhattan psychiatrist said Cook’s affair with a teenager and his £1,800 a month porn habit were driven by a 'narcissistic' and 'self destructive' nature that was probably out of control.

Miss Brinkley is battling for sole custody of her two youngest children Jack, 13, and 10-year-old Sailor.

She split with Jack’s father - her third husband Rick Taubman - just weeks after his birth and the boy was adopted by Peter Cook after their 1996 marriage.

Dr Herman said he had met the parents and children 11 times before coming to the conclusion that shared custody was 'not at all a viable option.'

But he said that Cook should be allowed to see the children, although he felt Miss Brinkley should be the main care giver.

'Despite everything that has gone on here, the two children love their parents a great deal and need to have contact with them on a regular basis,' he said.

He said she needed therapy as “an outlet for her anger and feelings of betrayal.”

Earlier in the week Miss Brinkley painted herself as Supermum – telling the court how she baked cakes, threw lavish children’s parties and organised Christmas carol services at her £15 million Hamptons mansion with her ex-husband Billy Joel playing piano.

She also admitted stockpiling gas masks in case of a terrorist attack and having her children’s baby teeth analysed when she learned of cancer clusters near their home.

Asked about her staff, she said in the past she had employed a laundress because Cook liked his underwear ironed, along with a nanny, a cook and a groundsman to run her 22-acre estate.

Miss Brinkley, 54, constantly dabbed tears from her eyes as she recalled her horror at discovering her husband, who is five years her junior, was cheating on her with a teenager and had posted naked pictures of himself on a porn site.

Miss Brinkley, who also has a 22-year-old daughter Alexa Ray with second husband Joel, fought to have her divorce case heard in public claiming her youngest children needed to know the truth about the marriage break up.

Cook also wants sole custody of the children. He claims she is a bad mother who leaves child care to her staff and has problems controlling her anger.

The couple had a pre-nuptial agreement but they are also battling over three yachts and several houses in the Hamptons, the jetset summer playground on Long Island, New York, immortalised in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby.'

Miss Brinkley bought the investment properties – worth between £30 to 40 million -for Cook to renovate.

It was at one of those houses – purchased under her family business name Whocanya Trust –- that blonde Miss Brinkley later discovered beer and wine chilling in the fridge and a long dark hair on a rumpled bed.

Dr Herman said both Cook and Brinkley needed to go to therapy, adding that the former supermodel 'needs to start working on deeper issues', including her 'choice of male figures'.


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Christie Brinkley testifies ex was arrested at gay truck stop

When it comes to her marriage to architect Peter Cook, Christie Brinkley has plenty of regrets.

In another round of searing testimony, the former Sports Illustrated model told the court on Tuesday that her estranged husband was once arrested “in a gay truck stop”—and that she never would have married him if she had known the dirty details of his arrest.

Brinkley testified that Cook downplayed the arrest, which took place in his early 20s, when he revealed it to her a week before their marriage.

“If I heard the facts as I know today I don’t think I would have gone forward with the marriage,” she said, according to People magazine.

Cook reportedly laughed out loud when Brinkley said that she eventually learned the arrest didn’t happen in New York, but “in a gay truck stop.”

Grilled by Cook’s lawyer about whether Brinkley wanted to get revenge on her ex, the supermodel shot back, saying, “Absolutely not. I didn’t want this trial. It’s humiliating for all of us. ... I really, really wanted to settle this.”

She added that most of the scandal already had been aired in the newspapers before the trial.

“I think I have done absolutely the best to hide any feelings I have about this from the children,” she said. “For two years, I concealed all of this. I’m just trying to give the children the kind of life they had before.”

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Christie Brinkley Hangs with Ex Billy Joel

Christie Brinkley spent the Fourth of July "blowing off some steam" at ex Billy Joel's Sag Harbor, N.Y., house, a source tells PEOPLE.

Brinkley, whose ugly divorce from Peter Cook has been heating up in court, arrived with daughter Alexa Joel, 20, and "seemed good," says a friend of the supermodel's. "She was just blowing off some steam, being with family. It was just a relaxing little get-together. Nothing special. Just what everyone does on the Fourth."

Another onlooker says Brinkley, Alexa, Billy and about a dozen friends "were having a blast," eating barbecue ribs and corn and sipping white wine.

At one point Alexa dropped her first plate of food – "they were all laughing about that," says the source.

As for Brinkley, "she was hugging the kids there, they were all laughing and eating. They seemed really relaxed."

The day before, Brinkley also surrounded herself with family and friends, enjoying a midday lunch with her son Jack, 13, and a girlfriend at Gosman's Dock in Montauk, N.Y.

"Christie looked beautiful in a white floral sundress, but she wasn't exactly upbeat," says a fellow diner. "Maybe just a little tired but she seemed relaxed – kind of just getting away from it all and having a nice lunch."

"She seemed OK, said hi to a few friends," says the source. "She was very pleasant – calm and casual."

Meanwhile, Cook spent the holiday with his 13-year-old son Jack and girlfriend Suzanne Shaw. After picking up Jack from Brinkley's house, the trio went for a ride on Cook's boat, The Sweet Freedom.

"He seemed fine, relaxed," says an onlooker at Island Surf shop in Sag Harbor, where Cook stopped in with Jack to pick up T-shirts and "stuff for camp." Adds the source: "He's always in here with his son. He's a good guy – and a great dad."

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A tearful Christie Brinkley testifies about husbands affair

On day two of Christie Brinkley’s explosive divorce trial, the former supermodel took the stand and tearfully testified about her husband’s affair with a teenager.

On Thursday, a day after her ex Peter Cook testified in detail about seducing high school senior Diana Bianchi in 2006, Brinkley told the court about the moment “her world was completely shattered.”

Brian Platt, a police officer and Bianchi’s stepfather, informed Brinkley of the affair at a 2006 graduation at Southampton High School where the model was a speaker.

He tapped her on the shoulder and said, “That husband of yours won’t knock it off. He’s having an affair with my teenage daughter.”

Brinkley said she looked at Cook and thought: “My God, it’s true. He did do that.”

“That was also the day that my world was completely shattered,” said Brinkley.

During his testimony Wednesday, Cook admitted he had given Bianchi, now 21, a $300,000 payoff and spent thousands of dollars on online porn. He also visited sites to look for anonymous sex partners.

Brinkley said she told Cook to give her his computer passwords “if you’ve got nothing to hide.” She found e-mails there from Bianchi and the porn sites Cook visited.

“I know a lot of men look” at pornographic sites, she said. But, in Cook’s case, she said, he was trying “to connect with people” in their neighborhood.

Brinkley, 54, and Cook, 49, were married in 1996.

She filed for divorce a decade later, in the midst of rumors about Cook’s affair.

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Christie Brinkley's divorce trial hears of porn and teen lover

A scandal unfolds: Supermodel Christie Brinkley (left); her husband Peter Cook and his former mistress Diana Bianchi outside the New York State Supreme Court building. Photo: AP

A $300,000 payoff to a teenage mistress. Thousands of dollars of online porn. Extramarital trysts in the office and his supermodel wife's Hamptons homes.

Sensational testimony about Christie Brinkley's estranged husband opened their divorce trial in Central Islip court in Long Island on Wednesday, giving the public a salacious peek into the former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model's fourth marriage.

The husband, architect Peter Cook, testified that he and Brinkley used pornography "to get the mood going". Alexa Ray Joel, Brinkley's daughter with "Piano Man" Billy Joel, said Mr Cook once shoved her head into a bucket of water. And Diana Bianchi, the young woman whose affair with him set off a tabloid frenzy and ended the couple's marriage, testified that he hid cash for her under a rock and gave her $15,000 to help her buy a Nissan Maxima in 2005.

Mr Cook told the court at the start of the divorce trial that he had sex with his young lover in the office of his Hamptons architectural firm, then paid her $300,000 while hoping to keep their affair quiet.

Earlier, the former supermodel's lawyer said Mr Cook spent about $3000 a month on pornographic websites. "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," attorney Robert Stephan Cohen said.

Mr Cook's lawyer, Norman Sheresky, said of the porn allegation that his client had acknowledged it. "It was wrong and he said it was wrong," Mr Sheresky said.

But the main focus of the trial is Mr Cook's affair with the then 18-year-old, which set off a frenzy in the tabloids. "Peter has apologised. He's cried his eyes out," Mr Sheresky said. "He's lost his marriage."

Mr Sheresky said Brinkley was partly to blame for the public spectacle. "For goodness sake, she's on her fourth husband," he told the court. "Your honour, we're here because of the self-indulgent wrath of a woman scorned."

Brinkley, 54, and Mr Cook, 49, wed in 1996. She filed for divorce a decade later, after his affair with Ms Bianchi exploded into public view. Mr Cook said he met Ms Bianchi in early 2005 when she was working at a Hamptons toy store. Their affair began that March, about the time that he hired her. She was paid $20,000 to type magazine articles on to the company's website. He also left her cash payments in various spots: $500 under the rock outside his office; more behind a painting.

Before their relationship ended in late 2005, they had sex in the office a number of times, and at homes in the Hamptons owned by Brinkley.

Ms Bianchi was given the $300,000 in May 2007. The exact purpose of the money was not specified, but Mr Cook said he was trying to protect himself and his family from scandal.

Mr Cohen said Brinkley paid for everything throughout the marriage as her husband "quickly transformed himself as a person to the manor born". But custody, rather than money, is the couple's main dispute.

Brinkley's ownership of her $US30 million ($A31.3 million) Bridgehampton home is not being contested.

Mr Cohen said his client was a doting mother whose work schedule revolved around her children. Ex-husband Billy Joel is also involved in their lives.

Mr Sheresky said there was ample evidence that Mr Cook was a good parent, including interviews in which Brinkley referred to him as "the best dad in the world".

The lawyer quoted Brinkley as saying: "Peter is our rock." He blasted Brinkley for wanting to keep the trial open to the public.

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Second other woman in Christie Brinkley's divorce

Christie Brinkley’s divorce battle with Peter Cook – which includes allegations of surfing for porn and looking for sex partners online – is heating up even more.

The supermodel’s attorney claims that Cook seduced a married fitness trainer after his affair with his then 18-year-old assistant Diana Bianchi ended.

Cook, an architect, “met and pursued” married fitness trainer Carri Lyn Ciamarra, 31, sources tell the New York Post.

When Ciamarra, who has a young son with her husband, left her spouse for Cook, who then got cold feet and dumped her, the paper reports.

“She was devastated,” said a close friend. “She’s still devastated. He led her on, he strung her along and then, boom.”

Brinkley and Cook’s divorce trial is set to start Wednesday, July 2.

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Christie Brinkley's daughter defends her mom's public divorce

Christie Brinkley’s fight to go public with her nasty divorce from architect Peter Cook has raised some eyebrows, to say the least.

Critics say the supermodel, who pushed for her divorce trial to be open to the public, is putting the couple’s two kids – Jack, 13, and Sailor, 10—at risk by airing her dirty laundry with their dad for the world to see.

Brinkley has accused Cook of such nasty deeds as trolling internet porn and checking out swinger sites for partners. The architect has already fessed up to having an affair in 2006 with his then-18-year-old assistant and reportedly paid the girl $300,000 to keep quiet.

Although the model has been getting flak for skewering her ex in public, Brinkley’s daughter defends her mom’s move to go public with her divorce battle.

“She’s standing up for herself,” Alexa Ray Joel, 22, tells People magazine.

Adds Joel, Brinkley’s daughter with Billy Joel: “I think that is admirable. There’s such overwhelming support for her.”

Brinkley and Cook’s case is scheduled to go to court July 2.

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Christie Brinkley Wants Public Divorce

Peter Cook and Christie BrinkleySplit 10 yearsAfter a decade of marriage, Brinkley filed for divorce and accused Cook of having an affair with his 18-year-old assistant.

Former supermodel Christie Brinkley visited New York Supreme Court this morning in an attempt to make her divorce trial public.In 2006, Brinkley filed for divorce from architect Peter Cook after a decade of marriage. She accused him of having an affair with his then 18-year-old assistant.

If made public, allegations that Cook surfs Internet porn sites are expected to surface. Sources told Access Hollywood that Brinkley wants the case to be made public because she is still upset at her ex.

According to the source: “She’s still spitting mad at Cook."The case is slated to begin on July 2.

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