Brinkley ex 'pushed my head in bucket' - daughter
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Christie Brinkley with daughter Alexa Ray Joel who accused her former stepfather of shoving her head in a bucket.
Thursday July 03 2008
Sensational testimony about Christie Brinkley's estranged husband Peter Cook has opened their divorce trial, giving the public a salacious peek into the former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model's fourth marriage.
Meanwhile, Alexa Ray Joel, Brinkley's daughter with Billy Joel, said Cook once shoved her head into a bucket of water.
And Diana Bianchi, the young woman whose affair with Cook set off a tabloid frenzy and ended the couple's marriage, testified that he gave her $15,000 (€9,450) to help her buy a Nissan Maxima in 2005.
Cook met Bianchi, then 18, while she was working at a toy store in 2004. He testified that he soon hired her to work at his architecture firm, paying her $20,000 (€12,600) to type magazine articles onto the company's website.
Before long, he seduced her while they were working together in the office, she testified.
Cook said he was concerned that Bianchi might file a sexual harassment lawsuit and a $300,000 (€189,000) payout came in May 2007. No lawsuit was ever filed.
Alexa Ray Joel (22) testified that Cook treated her well before he married her mother. But she said he was constantly on her case afterward, chastising her if she chewed too loud and criticising her piano playing. "He was just very critical of me in general," said Joel, a singer, songwriter and pianist.
When her lengthy shower caused a leak in the kitchen below in 2003, Cook demanded she mop up immediately, Joel testified. When she got downstairs, he pushed her head into a bucket and yelled, "You clean this up!" she said.
When Brinkley found out, "she was horrified," her daughter said.
