A Model Marriage

Christie Brinkley has been on television more in the last few days than she has been in the last 20 years. Where has she been? What has she been doing?

Oh, sure, there are those abdominal exercise machine info-mercials that she has been doing with Chuck Norris, but you know that's not what I mean. We have seen the lovely Christie going into court, coming out of court and talking about her time in court. The press is offering us Christie Brinkley as the misused and neglected wife in what appears to be sordid divorce proceeding.

There is no doubt that the marriage had problems. And I am fairly confident that it should end. There was extravagant use (abuse?) of pornography. There were affairs with teen-agers. Life was hard in the Cook- Brinkley house.

Before I go any further, let me assure you that I have no sympathy with Peter Cook, Brinkley's soon to be ex-husband. For whatever reason he felt it necessary to spend thousands of dollars on pornography, with and without his wife. He also had an affair with an 18 year old girl and then paid her hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep quiet about it. There is a fine line between adultery and prostitution, and an even finer line between an affair and child sexual abuse. No, this is man is not innocent.

However, let's not be too quick to paint Christie Brinkley as the victim. She has been an admitted participant in at least some of her husband's pornography viewing. Not only that, she is on her fourth divorce. I believe that there are times when people get in bad marriages and need to get out. I fully support those who have been mistreated and abused and their desire for freedom from maltreatment. But let's be very careful about calling someone a martyr or a heroine who has four failed marriages. This person needs to get some wisdom before her next trip down the aisle.

I know a couple who just celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary. I wish that they got as much attention as a flamboyant Hollywood couple's divorce.