Actress Patricia Arquette, star of TV’s Medium, has filed for divorce from husband/actor Thomas Jane. Arquette filed Monday in Los Angeles, waiting until just after the holidays to sound the death knell of this two year marriage.

Arquette and Jane were married in June 2006, three years after the birth of their only child, daughter Harlow. Arquette’s petition for divorce seeks sole legal and physical custody of Harlow with visitation to be granted to Jane. TMZ.com reports that there was no prenuptial agreement - although I haven’t seen anything to confirm this yet.

Arquette is the sister of entertainers Rosanna Arquette, David Arquette and Alexis Arquette. She was briefly married to Nicolas Cage and has a 19 year old son by musician Paul Rossi. Jane has appeared in films such as The Punisher and The Mist. He was recently announced as the star of the upcoming HBO series, Hung. He was previously married but has no other children.

Arquette is represented by renowned Hollywood divorce attorney Laura Wasser. Wasser also represents actress Kate Walsh in her pending divorce from Alex Young. Wasser has previously represented Britney Spears, Johnny Knoxville, Nick Lachey, Angelina Jolie, Kiefer Sutherland and more.

As 2008 comes to an end, I thought we could take a look back at the celebrities who took trips to divorce court this year. As usual, the list is not short. Quite a few couples called their family law attorneys and dug out copies of their prenups since January. Let’s take a look:

January

• Comedian Tracy Morgan and Sabina Morgan - divorce papers re-filed in January after 22 years of marriage

February

• Singer Pink (real name: Alecia Moore) and motocross racer Carey Hart - separated in February after two years of marriage
• Rock drummer Travis Barker and former Miss USA Shanna Moakler - finalized divorce in February after 3 1/2 years of marriage
• Actress Anna Faris and Benjamin Indra - ended a four year marriage in February

March

• Model-actress Pamela Anderson and Rick Salomon - finalized annulment in March after a two month marriage
• Actor Robin Williams and Marsha Garces Williams - split in March, ending a 19 year marriage
• Jackass star/actor Johnny Knoxville and Melanie Clapp - divorced in March after 11 years of marriage. All other details of the split were finalized in September.
• Music icon Paul McCartney and Heather Mills - finalized their bitter divorce in March, ending their six year marriage

And that’s just the first quarter! Click below to see who split up during the rest of 2008. Continue reading "2008 Celebrity Split Wrap-Up"

Former major league baseball player Troy Neel was arrested earlier this month by federal agents as he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport from Sydney, Australia. Neel has been charged in a Texas federal court with foreign travel to evade child support obligations. He potentially faces a two year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine. That’s some pretty intense child support enforcement.

Neel played first base and designated hitter for the Oakland A’s from 1992 to 1994. He then played for six seasons in Japan, ending his career there in 2000. In 1998, Neel was ordered by a Texas court to pay $5,000 a month to his ex-wife for the support of their two children.

According to the indictment, which was sealed until Neel’s arrest, Neel moved to the South Pacific island country of Vanuatu in 2000. Neel and his new wife own a 16 acre island and run a 21-room resort on that island. He was forced to leave Vanuatu and return to the United States because of an expired passport.

During his eight year stay in Vanuatu, Neel paid no (or possibly only partial) child support and now owes over $700,000 in back support. The current charges have been pending since a grand jury issued the indictment in 2005.

Neel’s lawyers told the media that Neel “loves his kids and wants to do the right thing.” They claim that Neel made some partial payments but simply couldn’t afford the $5,000 per month obligation. They have now filed a motion to modify the child support judgment. They also stated that the resort was not a money maker and is now in receivership. The Texas State Attorney General’s office did not comment on the statements of Neel’s lawyers.

Here’s my two cents on this (without, obviously, knowing both sides of the entire story): I presume Neel hasn’t seen his kids in the eight years he’s been living on an island in the South Pacific. So, I guess I’m not buying the “loves his kids and wants to do the right thing” line from the lawyers. Guys who want to do the right thing will fight tooth and nail to maintain a relationship with their children, to enforce custody and visitation orders. And, if he could afford even a down payment on a 16 acre island, he could afford to send an attorney to court to file a motion to modify a child support judgment. He should have done it eight years ago. (In some states, the modification process has even been streamlined so that substantial attorney’s fees can be avoided.)

If your circumstances change and you can no longer even come close to affording your child support, you ask the court to modify it. “Good guys” don’t disappear to tropical islands and ignore their responsibilities (or their children). So, there you have it. My opinion. Worth exactly two cents, I guess.

Former child star Jodie Sweetin has been prohibited by an Orange County, California judge from seeing her eight month old daughter unless the visitation is supervised by one of Sweetin’s parents. Sweetin, who played Stephanie Tanner in the ’80’s/’90’s sitcom Full House, is in the midst of a divorce from her husband of 17 months, Cody Herpin.

Sweetin filed for legal separation in November and was seeking joint legal and physical custody of the couple’s baby, Zoie. In court documents, Sweetin accused Herpin of refusing to get a job and claimed that their house was in foreclosure and that their bills were overdue. Herpin asserts that they agreed that he would be a stay-at-home father to Zoie. Herpin seeks sole custody of the child as well as spousal support.

This morning, Herpin asked a judge for an emergency hearing to get access to Zoie. TMZ is reporting that the judge ultimately issued an order allowing Sweetin to be with the baby only if one of her parents is supervising. Sweetin has been living with her parents since filing for legal separation last month. In my experience, supervised visitation is generally ordered when the court is concerned that a mother or father is ill-equipped to appropriately parent a child (often due to a history with alcohol or drugs) or will engage is emotional or physical abuse of some sort.

Apparently, Herpin alleged that Sweetin, a recovering methamphetamine addict and alcoholic, drove while under the influence recently with Zoie in the car. A doctor testified that Sweetin had confirmed that she “fell off the wagon” recently and was attending AA meetings. Both Sweetin and Herpin were ordered to undergo drug testing before the next hearing.

Sweetin was previously married to police officer Shaun Holguin from 2002 to 2006. They divorced after she completed rehab for her meth addiction. She married Herpin in July 2007 after dating him for two months.

Also See:

• The Shortest Celebrity Marriages Ever

Pop legend Madonna and her ex-husband Guy Ritchie have officially reached a divorce settlement. The singer’s spokesperson tells the media that Ritchie will receive somewhere between £50 and £60 million British pounds ($76 million and $92 million). The two were married for almost eight years before being granted a preliminary divorce by a London court on November 21st.

The settlement is not a lump sum payment to Ritchie but does include the value of the former couple’s English country home and their London pub. Presumably, Madonna will keep the family’s London home - although she has moved with the couple’s sons Rocco and David to New York City. The couple is reportedly still finalizing custodial arrangements for the boys.

Madonna’s net worth is approximately $500 million, according to reports. Ritchie, a film director, is worth somewhere between $20 and $35 million on his own. British tabloids speculated back in October that Ritchie could walk away with a settlement in the neighborhood of $100 million. Looks like they were pretty close.

Because the marriage and divorce occurred in Great Britain, it is unlikely that this settlement is the direct result of a prenuptial agreement (or prenup). As we noted in the McCartney-Mills divorce coverage, prenups can be valid and enforceable in the United States but they are not enforceable in British courts and the courts there retain the final say in the division of property.

$76 million, by the way, earns these two a spot in the always popular Most Expensive Celebrity Divorces list. Congratulations on joining the group! They’ve left Paul McCartney in the dust and have vaulted into the ranks of Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg. Heady company, for sure. (Not sure where Madonna’s rumored paramour Alex Rodriguez falls on the list yet.)

UPDATE: Madonna and Ritchie have issued a joint statement denying the dollar figure provided to the Associated Press by Madonna’s own spokesperson now. My guess is that it’s still pretty accurate but that Ritchie’s ego was a bit bruised by the disclosure.  ”Sources close to him” previously claimed in the press that he wouldn’t take a dime from Madonna in the settlement but was only concerned about custody of the kids.

Also See:

• The Biggest Celebrity Divorce Awards Ever
• Madonna-Guy Ritchie Divorce Scheduled for Court
• Madonna and Guy Ritchie Announce Divorce
• Alex Rodriguez Divorce Settled

New York advertising mogul and former host of CNBC’s “The Big Idea” Donny Deutsch has reportedly been named in a Long Island divorce petition as a “third party” to the marriage - in other words, Deutsch is accused of being the “other man.”

Prominent hedge-fund manager Andrew Sandler allegedly hired a private investigator to tail his wife Lisa several weeks ago. Sources say that the p.i. caught Lisa and Deutsch kissing on camera. Andrew Sandler is represented in the divorce by Stephen Gassman, prominent New York family law attorney. Gassman previously represented Victoria Gotti, daughter of mafia don John Gotti, in her divorce from Carmine Agnello.

The alleged relationship between Lisa Sandler and Deutsch is relevant to the Sandler divorce filing for several reasons. First, it could have an impact on the property distribution. It is unknown whether the couple signed a prenuptial agreement before their marriage but many prenups have adultery clauses which would affect a financial award to the cheating spouse. Even if there is no prenup, New York is not a community property state. Instead, property is handled by equitable distribution. In the absence of a prenuptial agreement or a settlement agreement, a judge will divide the marital property in a fair and just manner.

Because the Sandler’s court records have been sealed, we don’t yet know if the divorce has been sought on no-fault grounds or on at-fault grounds. New York allows no-fault divorces only where the parties have lived separately for at least one year. And at-fault grounds include adultery, cruelty, abandonment for more than a year or imprisonment of one of the parties for more than three years. So, it’s easy to assume that adultery has been used as grounds for the immediate filing of this divorce.

Deutsch has some interesting experience in the family law arena already. He was married to wife Stacy Josloff in 2001. They split in 2005. Last year, he had a daughter with real estate broker Amanda Zacharia, an ex-girlfriend. Sources said at the time that the pregnancy was planned although the romantic relationship had fizzled long beforehand.

Former Grey’s Anatomy and current Private Practice star Kate Walsh and her husband of one year, Alex M. Young, are divorcing. Young, a film executive with 20th Century Fox, filed a petition for dissolution in Los Angeles on Tuesday. The petition notes that the couple separated on November 22nd.

The now-former couple was engaged in May 2007 after dating for just three months. They ultimately married on September 1, 2007.

In the petition, Young cites irreconcilable differences as legal grounds for the divorce. Young seeks no spousal support and asks the court not to award any alimony to Walsh. It seems unlikely that a judge would award alimony to either party anyway as the marriage was very short and both Walsh and Young have lucrative careers. There is no indication as to whether there is a prenuptial agreement. Walsh and Young have no children together.

Young is represented by noted Hollywood divorce attorney Robert Kaufman. Kaufman is currently also representing billionaire media mogul Sumner Redstone and has previously handles divorces for Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, and Jessica Simpson.

After six years of dating and less than a year of marriage, Ivana Trump and her fourth husband, 36-year-old Italian businessman Rossano Rubicondi have separated. Trump, 50, apparently filed for legal separation three months ago but that information was not made public. She indicated that she did not want to jeopardize Rubicondi’s appearance on the Italian version of Celebrity Survivor (I guess the word “celebrity” has officially sunken to a new low).

It was Rubicondi’s behavior on that show which raised media eyebrows. He apparently had a sexual tryst on the show and has recently been photographed in Italy kissing other women.

The former couple married in April 2008 at the Florida estate of Trump’s ex-husband Donald Trump. Ivana Trump has been married four times. First, at age 19 to an Austrian who helped her escape Communist Czechoslovakia by immigrating to Canada. That marriage lasted eight years. She was married to Donald Trump from 1977 to 1992, when they had a made-for-the-tabloids divorce. Ivana reportedly received $14 million and two multi-million dollar homes in that settlement. Now a wealthy single woman, Ivana had a lot of money to protect going into her next marriage.

Ivana rebounded by marrying Riccardo Mazzucchelli, another Italian businessman in 1992. They were married for less than two years before divorcing. Trump sued Mazzucchelli for violating a confidentiality clause in their prenuptial agreement. The suit was settled out of court.

Presumably, Trump and Rubicondi entered into a prenuptial agreement prior to their marriage. Ivana certainly knows a lot about them by now.

Also See:

• The Biggest Celebrity Divorce Awards Ever
• The Shortest Celebrity Marriages Ever
  

Okay, sometimes I make light of the divorces reported here. But this one? This one makes me a little sad. CSI actress Marg Helgenberger and her actor husband Alan Rosenberg are divorcing after 19 years of marriage.

The couple met when both were acting on the long-since-canceled soap opera Ryan’s Hope back in 1984 (which I remember watching as a child before then and I think that makes me officially old). They began dating in 1986 and married in 1989. They have an 18 year old son named Hugh (it wasn’t reported whether Hugh is still at home, in high school, or if he has graduated).

Helgenberger has played Catherine Willows on the original CSI since 2000. She also starred in the series China Beach in the late 80s/early 90s. Rosenberg starred in L.A. Law and its spin-off Civil Wars in the early 90s. (He played a divorce attorney actually.) He then had a four season run on the sitcom Cybill, followed by a few seasons on The Guardian. He is currently the president of the Screen Actors Guild.

I would be very surprised if these two have a prenuptial agreement. Both were working actors at the time of their marriage but neither was a huge success yet. My guess is that this couple is mature and will handle their property division quickly and quietly. California is a community property state so any division will be as close to 50/50 as you can get. With (probably) no custody, child support and (probably) no alimony to fight over, I imagine that this will not be a tabloid headline grabber going forward.

It sure seems like all the interesting divorces are happening in the U.K. lately. Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones is knee deep in divorce settlement negotiations with his estranged wife Jo Wood. Ron, 61, has been married to Jo, 53, since 1985. They were a couple for several years prior to that and have two adult children.

The couple originally split in July when Wood left their English home and went on an adulterous alcoholic binge trip to Ireland with 20 year old Russian waitress Ekaterina (Katia) Ivanova. Wood was convinced by family to leave Ireland and Ivanova and check into a rehab facility where he purportedly stayed until September. He took up with Ivanova again immediately upon leaving rehab. Jo pursued divorce after photos of Wood and Ivanova popped up in the tabloids.

Wood, guitarist for the Rolling Stones since the mid-70’s, has an estimated $108 million fortune. Newspaper reports suggest that Wood has now offered Jo $4.5 million a year in alimony plus an additional multi-million dollar lump sum to settle the divorce. The ultimate settlement could top $75 million. Wood has reportedly instructed his attorneys to give Jo whatever money she wants in order to avoid going to trial. Jo has previously indicated that she would still like to reconcile with her husband if he would drop his young lover (who wasn’t even born when Jo and Ron got married and is, incidentally, ten years younger than their daughter Leah).

Wood is represented by Joyce Smith, who represented bandmate Mick Jagger in his split from model Jerry Hall.

Also see:

• Formula 1 Racing Boss Divorcing; Could Be $3 Billion Split
• Madonna-Guy Ritchie Divorce Scheduled for Court
• The Biggest Celebrity Divorce Awards Ever