It’s become fairly common knowledge that the power couple, Frank and Jamie McCourt, who have run the Los Angeles Dodgers since 2004, are going through a bitter divorce, with the ownership of the team waiting in the balance.

A recent article in the Chicago Tribune has taken a deeper look into the divorce, specifically at the judge presiding over the case. The judge’s demeanor is especially relevant in this case, as many divorce cases, because there will be no jury and the judge will solely determine the outcome.

The judge for the case is Scott Gordon, a former police officer and a man described repeatedly as “no-nonsense”.

The Tribune article began by describing a telling scene between Judge Gordon and attorney for Frank McCourt, Steve Susman.

Susman is one of the most well respected attorneys in America, and is ranked as one of the top 10 trial lawyers in America.

Susman suggested to Gordon how to number the exhibits for trial, and during the third attempt at explaining the ordering, Gordon cut off Susman.

“You’re from Texas?” Gordon asked. After Susman responded with an affirmative head nod, Gordon continued, “It’s a fantastic state… The last thing I would do in Texas is tell a Texas judge how to run his court.”

Judge Gordon seems to be a good fit for the trial, as Lynn Sodik, a Santa Monica family law attorney states, “He’s perfect for this case… He’s very smart. Sometimes it can be hard when you’ve got heavyweight attorneys, some from out of town. [Gordon’s] not intimidated at all.”

Gordon, 54, studied at the Air Force Academy and at Cal State Dominguez Hills and then joined the Santa Monica Police Department in 1977.

Gordon eventually went to law school and graduated from Southwestern Law School in 1985. He then went to a law firm for several years before joining the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. His areas of expertise was domestic violence, child abuse and sexual assault.

Gordon also played a part on the prosecution team in the O.J. Simpson trial. After the trial, Gordon was reportedly disappointed in the system and desired something more meaningful.

After the Simpson trial, Gordon researched and co-wrote a book about eight German terrorists sent to the U.S. by Hitler during World War II.

This led to Gordon working with the United Nations tribunals prosecuting war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Eventually, Gordon secured more than $1.5 million so the tribunal could use computers instead of handwritten notes, and GPS devices to find crime scenes.

In 2002, Gordon became a court commissioner, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him a judge in April.

Gordon made a point to remind the parties that their high-profile doesn’t make their case a high-priority in his courtroom. child custody cases and battered spouse cases carry greater urgency than a case to determine the owner of a baseball team.

Copyright © 2010 TotalDivorce, LLC. (as licensee). All rights reserved.

Peter M. Brant and his soon-to-be ex-wife and former super model Stephanie Seymour have been in an extravagant divorce to end their 15-year marriage.

When Brant met Seymour, he was a billionaire and know for his vast art collection and his very own polo team. She was a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model and the ex-girlfriend of a rock star.

The divorce is gearing up to be one of the biggest. According to an article in the New York Times, when the trial begins on September 20th, the divorce will have caused more than 12,000 pages of public divorce documents, and millions of dollars in lawyer’s fees.

According to the Times, the divorce “[a]t the most basic level… has turned into a case of ‘he said, she said,’ with charges ranging from infidelity to rampant drug use.”

A clear oversight by Brandt has made the divorce even messier: he didn’t have a prenuptial agreement. This means that his net worth of $500 million is left to be divided by the court system, instead of being decided upon in advance.

The ultra-famous, or infamous, depending on your view, real estate mogul Donald Trump has expressed his attitude that Brant should have had a prenuptial agreement.

“I was very surprised when he married her [without a prenup]” said Trump, “It’s a lot easier to get done when you love each other than when you hate each other. And they hate each other. It’s a mess.”

The two lead glamorous lives before ever meeting.

Seymour dated Axl Rose, made the cover of Vogue five times and was a Playboy cover girl in 1991 and 1993.

Brandt made his fortune in newsprint, and at the age of 20 met one of the most well known artists, Andy Warhol. Continuing his contact with artists, such as Julian Schnabel and Richard Prince, which allowed him to put together one of the best collections of modern art.

Once Brandt and Seymour began their relationship, they were a common sight at gallery opening and parties.

The two have two sons, Peter Jr., 16, and Harry, 14, as well as a daughter, Lily, 5.

The divorce hit many close to the couple by surprise. The two did a good job hiding it. Even in February the couple was seen, and photographed, smiling and talking with guests at a party.

As of late, the divorce is getting nastier. Seymour has begun accusing Brant of everything from “bad-mouthing her, changing the locks and safe combinations at their home and telling school officials to not let her pick up Lily after school.”

There are claims of infidelity and even requests for drug and alcohol tests. The divorce is likely to get more intense as the trial approaches. All we can do is stand back and watch the whole scene unfold in front of the judge and public.

Copyright © 2010 TotalDivorce, LLC. (as licensee). All rights reserved.

Friends were stunned when the model Stephanie Seymour and the millionaire many times over Peter Brant were married without a prenuptial agreement, according to a recent article in the New York Times.

Donald Trump was among those surprised when the two married without a prenup. “It’s a lot easier to get done when you love each other than when you hate each other. And they hate each other. It’s a mess.”

The divorce that has been going on since 2009 has featured a wide range of accusations and bitter disputes. Seymour claimed that Brant was too controlling, and Brant claimed that she was unfaithful and that she had abused alcohol and drugs.

As the 15-year marriage dissolves, the high-brow Connecticut community of Greenwich where they live is watching the ordeal, in the words of the New York Times article reporting on the divorce, as though it were a car crash they wish would go away.

Each side of the power couple met in court this week, to continue their divorce battle. In the courtroom, Seymour and Brant avoided eye contact, as she sat calmly and he fidgeted with paperwork.

This wasn’t the first time they’d been in court. Since Seymour’s March 2009 filing, the couple or their lawyers have been in court five times previously. There was a charge that one of Brant’s security guards wouldn’t let Seymour into the family home, which was later dropped. Mandatory drug testing is ongoing, as mandated by the court. Three different judges have heard portions of the case.

It was the drug testing that was under scrutiny in their recent trip to divorce court. Brant was arguing that he should be able to discontinue the testing, and that he was “clean as a whistle.” The judge turned down the request, offering that it wouldn’t be prudent to change the rules of the divorce at that point in the proceedings.

The judge was also concerned that the estranged couple was getting off track.
Brant vs. Brant is scheduled to go to trial in late September. With a volume and grandiosity that the public has come to expect from the rich, powerful and famous, the two will have already spent millions of dollars on lawyers’ fees by the time the case goes to trial. There are thousands and thousands of pages of paperwork that have been generated in the case.

Their wealthy, famous friends have had to take sides.

Alberto Mugrabi is an art collector and friend, who, in addition to Trump, has looked on the divorce with a hint of melancholy. “It’s a sad occurrence,” he said. “What is amazing to me is how people who have kids can kill each other in a public arena. I just don’t understand it.”

The art dealer Tony Shafrazi was best man at their happy wedding in 1995. “We danced until 7 a.m.,” he said. “It was a very moving, beautiful thing.”

The two met while in New York City in the early 90s. Seymour was a star of the gossip column, dating rock stars like Axl Rose and making headlines. Brant was a millionaire who made his money from making paper and investing in high-priced real estate. He was also a major art collector, and friend of artists Andy Warhol and Julian Schnabel.

A high-profile courtship and marriage gave way to a peaceful existence in Connecticut, that they hid well in advance of their divorce. Many friends were surprised by the filing in 2009.

“It was a shock to me,” said Shafrazi. “We had Christmas in St. Bart’s and there was no sign of trouble.”

Copyright © 2010 TotalDivorce, LLC. (as licensee). All rights reserved.

Elin Nordegren has granted an interview to People magazine, to talk about her recently finalized divorce from her now ex-husband, golfer Tiger Woods.

As Tiger’s golf game suffers under what could be the stress of the divorce, Elin shared some of her experience in the interview that has the whole world listening to the story of the wife who Tiger cheated on with women around the world.

According to the interview, she never saw it coming. She also never hit her husband with a golf club, as many news sources implied after the night when Tiger ran his car into a tree and injured himself.

“I’ve been through hell,” Nordegren told the magazine. “It’s hard to think you have this life, and then all of a sudden—was it a lie? You’re struggling because it wasn’t real. But I survived. It was hard, but it didn’t kill me.”

The couple has a 3-year-old and an 18-month-old together. Elin and the children have been living a mile away from Tiger in a rented house with five bedrooms and gated security in Windermere, Florida. Tiger has to get permission to get past the guards to see her and the kids.

She said that therapy and long runs were two things that helped her to get through the hardest times in the wake of the scandal. She also kept a journal of what she was going through and what her emotions were at the time. “I haven’t gone back and read what I wrote in December and January,” she said. “I’m afraid to.”

Golf is no longer a part of her life. She said she hasn’t watched a minute of it. She’s even regained her sense of humor, and she laughed at a few of the parodies that were made about her and the situation, calling them “pretty hysterical.”

But just because she can laugh about it now doesn’t mean that there aren’t scars. Nordegren never lusted for the spotlight, so when the gossip news broke nine months ago, she has had to battle with the desire for her life to remain private.

“This was one of the things I had the hardest time with people thinking,” she said. “There was never any violence inside or outside our home. The speculation that I would have used a golf club to hit him is just truly ridiculous.”

She also talked about Tiger’s secretive ways as he cheated with numerous women, and what it felt like to learn about his habits and activities.

“I felt stupid as more things were revealed,” she said. “How could I not know anything? The word betrayal isn’t strong enough. I felt like my whole world had fallen apart. I felt betrayed by many people around me.”

At a press conference at the golf course where Tiger was preparing for his latest tournament, he expressed sadness at the divorce finalization.

“It’s a sad time in our lives, and we’re looking forward to how we can help our kids the best we can. It’s one of those things where it’s a sad time.”

Copyright © 2010 TotalDivorce, LLC. (as licensee). All rights reserved.

It’s no secret that Tiger Woods life took a sudden and abrupt down turn after late night one-car accident unraveled his alleged string of illicit affairs. There was much speculation on how this would affect his golf game, and after a strong first outing back, he has been on a downward slide which has included his worst 72 hole performance as a professional.

A recent article in the Los Angels Times explores the reasoning for Woods’ incredible decline.

It is impossible to know exactly what is affecting Woods’ game, but it seems relatively easy to assume that at least some of the stress from his personal life is affecting his golf game.

The titles of the article, Too many lawyers, too little practice means his game won’t change anytime soon, seems to muse that the lack of practice due to his divorce proceedings are the cause of his decline.

The article states that “[Woods is] hardly the first guy whose job performance took a nosedive in the middle of divorce proceedings, and he won’t be the last to get his bearings back, either. The only question is when not if.”

Echoing this confidence that Woods is likely to get his game back at any tournament he enters, are the odds makers in Las Vegas.

Tiger Woods has still been listed as the most likely to win the golf tournaments that he has entered, as high as 6-1 favorite in PGA event at Brigdestone.

The article talks about a change that has occurred in Woods’ practice time.

There was “a time when his practice time was almost sacrosanct, when business and everything else had to be put on hold for two weeks or more at a time, if that’s what his playing schedule demanded.”

Woods’ has been admittedly practicing less than he has. His personal life has become a large factor that weighs on him. Because he has been so distracted by his family life and divorce proceedings, Woods has had less time to prepare and focus on his goals.

There seems to be little confidence that Woods will be able to rebound completely until his personal life is finalized. This means that until Tiger Woods can finish his divorce proceedings, he will very likely be less than his potential on the golf course.

However, it is surprising just how certain both the odds makers and the article are that Woods will be a dominant force in the golf world again. In sports, when there are never any guarantees, it is unexpected to see this much certainty that someone like Tiger Woods will be able to regain such an extremely high level of play.

The only way to see of the confidence people have in Tiger Woods is misplaced or accurate is to see how he responds after his divorce is finalized.

Copyright © 2010 TotalDivorce, LLC. (as licensee). All rights reserved.

This week’s celebrity divorce news round-up features the full slate of love and scandal that we have come to expect from the headline-grabbers and gossip column characters.

Among the stories, a TV psychologist finds new love quickly on the heels of a divorce, a songstress denies breaking up another marriage, and an on-again, off-again Hollywood marriage finally and officially comes to an end.

Kelsey Grammer recently Tweeted and blogged about the divorce from his wife of 13 years, Camille Donatacci, denying a few rumors that were floating around and asking the press for privacy. Well, only a month on from his wife’s divorce filing, Grammer has been seen around town with a new flame.

CNN is reporting that Grammer has been seen out and about with “a mystery blonde.” A publicist for Grammer did not expand upon the identity of the TV star’s date, but did say that “they are very happy together,” and provided the tidbit that his new fling is not involved in the entertainment industry.

TMZ.com had posted a video of Grammer and the woman kissing and holding hands while walking in Manhattan. Grammer is currently starring in the musical “La Cage Aux Folles” on Broadway.

In potentially more scandalous news, American Idol star and singer Fantasia Barrino has had to deflect a series of rumors stemming from a divorce filing that claims that her affair with a married man broke up that marriage, according to USAToday.

A North Carolina woman made those claims in a divorce filing, saying that her husband, Antwuan Cook, had a “covert adulterous affair” with Fantasia, which was a reason for the couple’s break-up.

Fantasia, however, has denied that anything that she did was a reason for the divorce. According to her manager, “Fantasia is certain that she is not responsible for the deterioration of the Cook’s marriage.” Fantasia’s lawyer went so far as to claim that the woman, Paula Cook, was attempting to sensationalize her divorce, telling TMZ.com, “Mrs. Cook gratuitously included claims about Fantasia to sensationalize that litigation and to insure that her tale would be picked up by tabloids.”

Mrs. Cook also claimed in the divorce filing that she had spoken to Fantasia on the phone, and that the American Idol star told her, of her husband, “he don’t want you. Maybe the next time that you get a husband you’ll know how to keep him. That’s why he is here with me.”

The ongoing marriage saga of actors Sean Penn and Robin Wright seems to be over, now that divorce papers have officially been filed. The couple has split and gotten back together a number of times over the years, but court show that they are now officially divorced, according to the Associated Press.

Their 14-year-marriage ended after Wright filed for divorce last August. This was the third time that they had petitioned for either separation or divorce. The couple will share custody of their 16-year-old son. They also have a 19-year-old daughter together.

There were no details on financial figures, and the couple has not responded to requests for comment.

Copyright © 2010 TotalDivorce, LLC. (as licensee). All rights reserved.

It looks like the Speidi divorce could be real, as Heidi Montag has filed for divorce from her fellow reality star and husband, Spencer Pratt.

Montag and Pratt, two pseudo-celebrities who made names for themselves on the pseudo-reality show The Hills, have been known to do strange things for attention.

Whether they are crashing premiere parties or bailing out of reality TV shows, it’s always questionable what is real or fake, and what about them can be believed.

What seemed like their latest ruse, however, could turn out to be more of a reality than many thought, as Montag has in fact filed for real divorce in Santa Monica, California, Superior Court, according to People.com.

The divorce filing came several months after Montag went to court to seek legal separation from Pratt. She cited irreconcilable differences in the divorce filing, a commonly cited reason for divorce.

“Heidi has amended her petition for separation and today has filed a petition for dissolution of marriage from Spencer Pratt,” said her lawyer, Jodeane Farrell. “The couple has agreed they would like their divorce to be finalized in a timely manner in an out of court settlement. Both parties are amicable with each other and over the possibility of finalizing their divorce.”

Such a tone was widely unexpected, as many speculated that the announcements about their separation were simply the latest in their series of publicity stunts meant to draw attention to themselves and raise the hackles of the celebrity-tracking public.

Even after Montag filed for divorce, there have been rumors circling that the two are living together, acting as though nothing had changed in their lives together.

They put those rumors to rest, however, saying that while they do still spend time together, they were no longer living in the same place. And they aren’t going to get back together.

“We don’t live together,” Pratt told People.com. Montag lives in Malibu, while Pratt spends some time in their Pacific Palisades home.

Montag let the public know that the two were on pretty good terms. “Spencer and I are finally moving forward with our lives,” she said, “but with any divorce there is much to work through. We’ve been together for almost five years—there are assets to divide, work to be discussed, and we share our puppies.”

Montag noted that it hasn’t been an easy process. “This has been a heartbreaking experience to go through,” she said. “We just want different things in life.”

Pratt agreed, in his usual strange way, telling the press that his marriage was “a show. It was part of The Hills world, and that world is on a sound stage.”

He went on to spout even stranger explanations, referring to himself in the third person: “It’s clear that reality TV-fame-loving Spencer Pratt does not fit with my ex-wife Heidi Montag’s ambitions for a motion picture actor/pop star career and being a single sex symbol for the world.”

The couple was married last April, in a Pasadena, California, church.

No word yet on who will get custody of the puppies.

Copyright © 2010 TotalDivorce, LLC. (as licensee). All rights reserved.

Tiki Barber once received headlines for his on the field heroics, then for his football commentary, but now he’s getting the headlines for a less desired reason.

In Aprill, Barber was seen around town with a former NBC intern. To make Barber’s actions more distasteful, his pregnant wife was spending a week in the hospital at the time.

Barber is now facing a divorce from his wife, according to the New York Post. Tiki and his wife, Ginny, already have two sons, age seven and six, but that hasn’t stopped Barber from moving on to his new girlfriend.

Ginny is apparently outraged at Tiki’s apparent low-balling in their out of court negotiations surrounding financial support.

The divorce was filed in a Manhattan Supreme Court, which in New York is the trial level of the judicial system, and accepted by Tiki’s attorney.

Reports state that Tiki broke it off with his wife of 11 years for the 23-year-old intern, who he met while she was still a student at Mount St. Mary College in upstate New York.

The aftermath of Tiki’s decision was immediate. Barber was benched from his job as a correspondent for NBC Sports after the New York Post first reported on his infidelity.

Apparently Tiki and Ginny had been having problems even before she became pregnant this most recent time.

The 23-year-old that Tiki ran off with, Trace Johnson, was courted by Barber with a shower of gifts, according to another article from the Post.

Even as the relationship between Barber and Johnson was at its very beginning, Johnson was being discouraged. Reportedly while she was an intern at the Today show, her boss got wind of lunches between the two and reportedly told her that since she was only an intern she shouldn’t been seen in public having lunch with Barber.

The only effect of this warning was for the two to make their relationship more secret. As their relationship built, the one between Tiki and Ginny deteriorated to the point that a divorce was filed while Ginny was eight months pregnant.

Barber and Johnson have said very little about their relationship. Most of the information about the two is from sources close to the couple. With the relationship costing Barber his job with NBC, it is not a surprise that he would not want to add more details to a relationship that the public at large seems to disapprove of.

For Tiki to find himself back in the public’s favor, he’s going to have to do a lot of work, and hope that his wife doesn’t take any steps that could cause him to be less employable.

Copyright © 2010 TotalDivorce, LLC. (as licensee). All rights reserved.

Las Vegas is a city known for quick marriages, but Nevada’s governor, Gov. Jim Gibbons, recently finalized his divorce from wife Dawn when a family court judge in Reno, Nevada, signed the divorce decree.

According to the Associated Press, the first family of Nevada has officially split.

The Gibbons’s divorce marks the first time in the state’s history that a sitting governor has gotten a divorce. That’s not the only first, however. Gibbons was also the first incumbent governor to lose a party primary. Gibbons lost the Republican primary a month ago, to a former federal judge, and so he won’t be returning to the governor’s role.

The divorce between Jim Gibbons and ex-wife Dawn was not an extremely amicable one. They had reached a tentative divorce settlement in December, the AP article says, but even since then they raised disputes about details in the case.

The couple still had some things to work out, but Judge Frances Doherty was confident that the pair’s lawyers could settle those outstanding matters among themselves. Such items that were still in dispute include political memorabilia, some as objects signed by President Ronald Reagan.

Dawn Gibbons was emotional after the trial, appearing in tears after she left the courtroom. She declined comment, but her lawyer, Cal Dunlap, spoke on her behalf, saying, “she’s officially divorced.”

Governor Gibbons after the court appearance said, “Nobody is happy about today. The only thing that pleases me is that I can stop paying attorney fees.”

This divorce has not been without its dramatic turns and salvos lobbed back and forth. Gov. Gibbons, for his part, filed for the divorce in 2008, comparing his wife in one court document to an “enraged ferret in a phone booth.”

Dawn Gibbons, on the other hand, claimed that Jim was having affairs with the estranged wife of a doctor in Reno, and with a Playboy model. Gov. Gibbons denied these allegations.

According to the divorce settlement that was reached recently, Gov. Gibbons will have to pay 25 percent of his gross income in alimony to Dawn. That’s around $4,000 per month through the end of his term as governor, which will come later this year.

The pair already sold their home in Reno, and will sell 40 acres of land in Lamoille, Nevada.

The political memorabilia mentioned above include some correspondence from President Reagan, and 10 White House Christmas cards from both the Clinton administration and the Bush administration.

The governor claims that he already gave away the Christmas cards to big-time campaign contributors. The judge, then, told him to give Dawn the names of those that he gave them to. She described them as “framed paintings” depicting White House Christmas scenes.

“I would love to have my half of those,” she told the AP.

The governor, on the other hand, claimed that there were no paintings. “They are just poster,” he said. “Lithographs. They are not thousands and thousands of dollars.” He said that all of his political memorabilia was in storage. “She can have what’s in the warehouse,” he said in court.

There is little else to determine in the case. “If we are down to this last issue, I think we can all feel pretty good about what you have done here,” the judge told the participants.

Copyright © 2010 TotalDivorce, LLC. (as licensee). All rights reserved.

The recent announcement that Kelsey Grammer and his wife Camille are divorcing has been big news. What’s an even bigger story is the fact that the multi-millionaire Grammer did not have a prenuptial agreement.

A recent article on a pop-culture website gives us a list of the top ten celebrities that didn’t have a prenup when they needed it most. Here is a sampling from the list of famous and most expensive divorces without a prenup.

When Mel Gibson got divorced after 28 years of marriage, he was forced to give up a full 50 percent of the money he earned over the course of their marriage.The result? A whooping $900 million was divided between the two, leaving his ex-wife Robyn with $450 million.

Another major notable divorce was the dream couple Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe. Both are household names, but at the time of their divorce, Reese Witherspoon was making approximately 8 times per movie what her husband earned, $20 million a picture versus $2.5 million. Their lack of a prenup caused Witherspoon to split the savings fifty-fifty.

A prenup-lacking divorce that could have ended up costing the main bread winner a lot more than it did was the Madonna-Guy Ritchie divorce. Despite the fact that Madonna was worth an estimated $500 million, and the fact that she didn’t have a prenup, she should consider herself lucky that she was able to settle for a rumored $76-to-$92 million divorce settlement.

One couple that isn’t divorced, but is still lacking a prenup, is Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi. Ellen was quoted stating her opinion that prenups are unromantic, and that this was the reason that, despite her $63 million net worth, she does not have one. Giving away half of her multi-million dollar fortune would, however, probably also not sit well with the actress and talk show host.

In 1990, Roseanne Barr’s attorney suggested that she get a prenup with her soon-to-be husband Tom Arnold. Roseanne’s attorney was fired. Four years later the two divorced and Tom Arnold walked away with $50 million, probably to her lawyer’s satisfaction.

The near-divorce between Larry King and his eighth wife almost went down as one of the largest of all time. Larry King allegedly cheated on his wife with her sister, and, lacking a prenup, a divorce could have cost him over $70 million. Fortunately for King, and his financial portfolio, he was able to reunite the marriage.

There seems to be no end to the list of famous people who have decided to let the local and state laws split their assets during a divorce. Prenuptial agreements are, if nothing else, a great tool to keep things predictable. But for every prepared couple, there will be a Rosanne and Ellen ready to ignore the common sense of a prenup for what they deem to be a more romantic route.

Copyright © 2010 TotalDivorce, LLC. (as licensee). All rights reserved.