After 14 years of marriage, singer Shania Twain and her music producer husband Robert John “Mutt” Lange are separating.  A spokesperson for the couple has confirmed the split.  They have one child, a six year old son named Eja.  Twain and Lange were married in December 1993, six months after they first met.  Unlike many celebrity couples, they have successfully stayed out of the media spotlight.

In 2000, the couple left North America behind and set up their permanent household in Switzerland.  The couple also reportedly has homes in New York and in New Zealand.  It is unclear where exactly the divorce will occur.  If the Swiss divorce courts hear the case, Twain and Lange will either have to agree to the divorce and all custody, support and property issues or they may have to wait for two years before the divorce is granted. 

Switzerland allows no-fault divorces but requires the two year waiting period during which time the couple must live apart.  The waiting period can be waived if the filing spouse can prove in court that the marriage is irretrievably broken.  In New Zealand, there is a similar two year waiting period - but it cannot be shortened for any reason, even by agreement of the divorcing spouses.

The waiting period in New York would be a little shorter.  New York allows no-fault divorces only where the parties have lived separately for at least one year. At-fault grounds include adultery, cruelty, abandonment for more than a year or imprisonment of one of the parties for more than three years.

Twain, an award-winning and best-selling singer, is originally from Canada; Lange was born and raised in Rhodesia (now Zambia) and South Africa but lived most of his adult life in England.  Lange has produced records for AC/DC, Def Leppard, Foreigner, Bryan Adams and Loverboy as well as for Twain.  He is famously private - he hasn’t given an interview in years - and the couple’s representative has indicated that there will be no additional statements regarding the split.

Actress Anne Heche claims in court documents that she cannot afford to pay the nearly $15,000-a-month in child support and spousal support she is currently obligated to pay to ex-husband Coleman Laffoon because she is now unemployed. Heche most recently starred in the television series Men In Trees, which was cancelled. Heche has asked the court for a modification of her support obligations going forward.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge suspended Heche’s $14,798 per month support obligation for the month of July, pending a hearing on the matter. The judge also ordered Heche to file updated income and expense disclosures with the court before the next hearing.

Heche claims that she is seeking new work but has no offers and is fearful that the looming Screen Actors Guild strike will put her at a further financial disadvantage.

In a court declaration in support of the requested modification, Heche claimed that she has less than $35,000 in assets and can no longer afford to pay the monthly support, along with private school tuition for their 6-year-old son Homer, the mortgage on her house in Canada where Men In Trees filmed, rent on her Los Angeles home and car and personal expenses. She also noted that she has approximately $364,000 in outstanding debt, resulting largely from the bitter divorce and custody battle with Laffoon.

Child support is almost always modifiable if the parent seeking the modification can prove a substantial change in circumstances which would make the original support amount unreasonable. Certainly, the loss of a job could meet the criteria of a substantial change in circumstances. The court, however, is unlikely to reduce Heche’s support obligation to zero due to her current unemployment. She has a history of regular acting work - including very recent, regular work - therefore, the court will likely impute or assign an income level which would be equal to some historical average of Heche’s wages. The imputed income level would then be used to calculate a reasonable amount of child support. Courts use this imputation method as a dis-incentive for parents to quit their jobs as a means to avoid paying child support.

Heche and Laffoon were married in 2001, shortly after Heche split from her long-term girlfriend, comedienne Ellen DeGeneres. The divorcing couple has only one child, Homer. They split in early 2007 amidst reports that Heche was having an affair with her Men in Trees co-star James Tupper.

The divorce has been pending now for over a year without final resolution. As we noted in a November 2007 post about this case, the couple has battled viciously and publicly over both custody and property. Interestingly, the judge in Heche and Laffoon’s case appointed the same custody evaluator as in the Britney Spears-Kevin Federline custody battle. Heche is represented by the Jaffe & Clemens law firm. Laffoon is represented by Freid & Goldsman.

At a hearing on Tuesday, pop star Britney Spears was reportedly granted additional visitation with her young sons, Sean Preston Federline and Jayden James Federline. TMZ.com reports that she will now have three days of supervised visitation every week with the boys. She was apparently getting one day of supervised visitation weekly since being discharged from inpatient psychiatric care earlier this year. A formal custody evaluation was submitted to the court and attorneys last week and was reportedly had both positive and negative things to say about the pop singer as a parent. Reports indicate that she is not yet allowed to keep her sons for overnight visits but that the plan is to slowly increase the time she spends with the boys over time. The goal apparently is to restore the 50/50 physical custody arrangement that she previously had with ex-husband Kevin Federline.

It is important to note that Federline retains all legal custody of the boys at this point. Spears has only visitation. She is currently under the conservatorship of her father Jamie Spears and has been since her hospitalization. Jamie Spears has legal control of his daughter’s personal and financial affairs at least until a July hearing in that case. It is not surprising then that Commissioner Scott Gordon in the custody case has not restored any legal custody rights to Spears - seeing as she has been deemed by the probate court to be unfit to handle her own affairs at this time.

Still, the visitation plan indicates that Commissioner Gordon and the Federline camp are pleased with Spears’ mental health progress and her father’s supervision. It is generally a family court’s goal to keep parents and children together and to facilitate meaningful familial relationships. It appears that the court in this case has a specific plan on how to accomplish that for the Spears-Federline family. Federline’s attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan indicated that the ex-couple had “mostly” agreed on the revised visitation plan and that he was cautiously optimistic about moving forward with the new, graduated plan.

After three and a half years of marriage, television host Star Jones has filed for divorce from husband Al Reynolds. Jones actually filed almost a month ago in New York Superior Court in Manhattan, but the filing was sealed and not discovered by the media until this week. The case is apparently “uncontested”, suggesting that Reynolds does not dispute the need for divorce. Reynolds has hired high-profile New York divorce attorney Stanford Lotwin, who previously represented Donald Trump, Geraldo Rivera and Howard Stern. The name of Jones’ attorney has not yet been reported.

Jones and Reynolds were married in a highly criticized, lavish wedding in New York City in November 2004. At the time, Jones was a co-host on the television talk show The View and courted corporate sponsors and freebies for the nuptials. Almost immediately, gossip columnists and bloggers began speculating about Reynolds’ sexuality and reporting an imminent split. In July, 2006, it was reported that Reynolds was spotted at Lotwin’s offices in Manhattan - a charge which both denied at the time. (Quite a coincidence that Reynolds would hire Lotwin now but claimed the meeting reports were false back in 2006!) The couple has no children.

It is unknown whether the couple signed a prenuptial agreement before their marriage. 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 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. At-fault grounds include adultery, cruelty, abandonment for more than a year or imprisonment of one of the parties for more than three years. Reynolds is possibly living in Florida which may indicate that no-fault divorce is a possibility here.

Although Jones couldn’t stop talking about her wedding and relationship four years ago, she now predictably requests the media give her privacy during the divorce process. Reynolds’ spokesperson claimed that his client would “take the high road” in the divorce. Time will tell.

Sources: etonline, People.com

After almost two and a half years, the divorce of actors David Hasselhoff and Pamela Bach is final. The pair married in 1989 and separated at the end of 2005. They were granted a divorce in August 2006 but the court bifurcated or divided the case and reserved custody, property and support issues for a later date. Hasselhoff and Bach battled publicly over custody of their two teenage daughters, tossing allegations of alcohol and drug abuse at each other. Custody of the kids was resolved last August and now, apparently, the support and property distribution matters have been settled as well.

The judgment entered by the Los Angeles Superior Court this week indicates that the couple signed a prenuptial agreement before their 1989 wedding but that, rather than fight in court over the validity of the agreement, Hasselhoff and Bach reached an agreement to resolve their financial issues. California is a community property state which would result in a 50/50 split of all marital assets. It is unclear if this is what happened in the Hasselhoff divorce or not - but it probably comes pretty close. It does appear that they were each awarded 50% of the interest in their marital home, which will be listed for sale. They divided their household items and likely split their marital bank accounts. Bach was awarded 50% of Hasselhoff’s retirement accounts and pensions, which will be divided by a Qualified Domestic Relations Order or QDRO. Bach was also awarded half of the future earnings from Hasselhoff’s memoirs and a few other projects.

Hasselhoff retained the rights to all of his various professional acting and singing endeavors - including rights to the phrases “The Hoff”, “Malibu Dave” and “Don’t Hassle the Hoff.” He will pay his ex-wife $1,000,000 to equalize the division of their marital assets. Hasselhoff also agreed to pay Bach $21,000 per month in spousal support until either of them dies or she remarries. Hasselhoff will pay $4,000 per month in child support (this amount will be reduced to $2,500 when the older daughter turns 18 and presumably graduates from high school next month) and will pay for the private high school tuition of each child. The couple shares joint physical custody of the girls as well as joint legal custody.

Hasselhoff was represented by attorneys Melvin Goldsman and Marci Levine of the Freid and Goldsman firm. Bach went through about five different attorneys or law firms over the course of the litigation.

After Pamela Anderson’s latest split from Paris Hilton-sex-tape-star Rick Salomon, I started seeing her name pop up again in all of the celebrity gossip blogs, linked to several different new men. All I could think was “stop the madness!” This, of course, is the woman who has been married three times (longest marriage - three years) and engaged several other times. The whole thing got me wondering about the shortest celebrity marriages on record. I think we’ve come up with a pretty comprehensive list of the quickest unions and separations in Hollywood history. Here ya go:

• Robert Evans and Catherine Oxenberg - he was old (68) and she was not (36); they split after 12 days of marriage
• Ali Landry and Mario Lopez - this acting couple dated for six years and separated after two weeks of marriage
• Eddie Murphy and Tracey Edmonds -they dated after Murphy broke up with Scary Spice, then married on an island in the Pacific on New Year’s Day; they acknowledged that the marriage wasn’t legal and planned to have a legal ceremony in L.A.; it never happened, they split two weeks later
• R. Kelly and the late Aaliyah - the singers were married for less than three months before the union was annulled due to Aaliyah’s age (15)
• Janet Jackson and James DeBarge - the young Miss Jackson was secretly married to DeBarge for four months
  
• Nicky Hilton and Todd Meister - married in Vegas, this marriage was annulled after four months
• Charlie Sheen and Donna Peele - this lasted four months; Sheen has married and divorced since and is now engaged again
• Colin Farrell and Amelia Warner - these two co-starred in a movie and were married for four months
• Renee Zellweger and Kenny Chesney - an odd couple, this marriage was annulled after four months

Oh yeah, there’s more… Continue reading "The Shortest Celebrity Marriages Ever"

Rapper 50 Cent is being sued by the mother of his 10 year old son for allegedly trying to evict her from a $2 million home he owns in New York. Shaniqua Tomkins, 50 Cent’s ex-girlfriend and mother of their son Marquise, claims that 50 Cent (real name: Curtis Jackson) promised to provide her with the house but ultimately put the house in his own name. She claims that he is now trying to evict her from the home. She was apparently allowed to stay in the home following a child support modification case on the condition that she begin looking for a different place to live, presumably paid for by her. Tompkins is suing for breach of contract and unjust enrichment.

Tompkins does receive child support payments for Marquise from the rapper. 50 Cent recently won a child support battle in a Long Island, New York court. Tomkins originally asked the court to award her $50,000 a month in child support. The court had awarded $25,000 on a temporary basis, while reviewing Tompkins’ monthly expenses.

After months of battling, the court ultimately reduced the child support award to $6,700 a month. The award was based upon the reasonable monthly needs and expenses of Tompkins and young Marquise.

Forbes magazine has estimated that 50 Cent made $33 million in 2006. The rap star’s stake in the VitaminWater company was part of a Coca Cola buyout in 2007, netting him an estimated $100 million - and that was in addition to his music sales, record label income and endorsement deals.

As never-married parents, 50 Cent and Tompkins originally had child support established through the filing of a paternity suit. After the rapper was legally determined to the father of Marquise (either by DNA test or admission), a judge would have had authority to establish custody, visitation and child support. New York, like most states, uses a government-created mathematical calculation to determine the amount of child support awards. The calculation is largely based on the combined incomes of both parents. New York State Child Support Standards generally award 17% of the non-custodial parent’s adjusted gross income as child support for one child. For parents whose combined income exceeds $80,000, however, the courts are not required to abide by the 17% guideline. The courts will take into account the reasonable needs of the child and other considerations such as the lifestyle the child would have enjoyed if the parents lived together. In New York, however, courts have traditionally kept child support for one child below $12,000 per month - even for millionaires and billionaires.

Tompkins was represented in the child support case by renowned New York attorney Raoul Felder. Felder has previously represented many high-profile divorce clients including Rudy Giuliani, David Gest (Liza Minnelli’s ex-husband) and Joumana Kidd, ex-wife of NBA star Jason Kidd. She has hired a different attorney for the house and eviction-related lawsuit. 50 Cent was represented in the support modification hearing by attorney Brett Kimmel, a former associate in Felder’s law firm. Kimmel has previously represented Mysa Hylton-Brim in child support actions against Sean “P. Diddy” Combs.

sources: Radar, AP, Forbes

Marsha Garces Williams, wife of actor/comedian Robin Williams, filed a petition for divorce last week in San Francisco. The couple has been married since 1989. They met while Garces Williams worked as a nanny for Williams’ oldest son. She then worked as Williams’ personal assistant. Shortly after Williams divorced his first wife, he and Garces Williams were married. Garces Williams and Williams have two children, Zelda, born in 1989 and Cody, born in 1991.

While the extent of the Williams’ marital property is unknown, Garces Williams will likely receive a large property distribution. The divorce is filed in California, which is a community property state, and Garces Williams’ petition cited irreconcilable differences as the grounds for divorce. This indicates that she is pursuing a no-fault divorce. In such situations, the marital property will be divided equally between the husband and the wife. Presumably, after a 19 year marriage, Garces Williams will also receive spousal support - either in regular payments or in a lump sum.

The parties’ children are teenagers, which may make the custody and child support determination fairly simple. In California, child support must be paid until the child becomes 18, unless the child has not graduated from high school, in which case the support payments continue until the child has graduated high school or turns 19, whichever occurs first. Parents can agree, however, that child support will continue into the child’s college years. Zelda, the older child, is almost 19. Cody is 16 years old (he’ll be 17 this fall). Child support was not requested for Zelda, an indication that she has already graduated from high school. Support for Cody will be fairly short-term. As far as custody goes, Cody is old enough to voice his own opinion on the matter if his parents are unable to agree on an arrangement. Often, visitation schedules for teenagers are relatively flexible due to their school, extracurricular, employment and social requirements. Garces Williams has requested joint legal custody of Cody and primary physical custody with visitation rights to Williams.

No further information about the split was released by Williams’ representative or by Garces Williams’ attorney, Robert Kaufman. Kaufman is a Los Angeles-based family law attorney who has previously represented such major names as Jessica Simpson, Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon.

Pamela Anderson finally got her annulment on earlier this week. Her five month marriage to Rick Salomon was declared a nullity by a Los Angeles County judge on the basis of fraud. Anderson originally filed for divorce in December, 2007 but withdrew her petition in order to reconcile with Salomon. She re-filed her petition in late February, 2008, this time seeking an annulment. Anderson’s petition claimed fraud as her grounds for annulment. Last week, Salomon filed his own request for annulment on the grounds of fraud. Neither has specifically stated how they were defrauded by the other.

You can read more about annulment in Monica Mazzei’s March 8th post on the Anderson-Salomon case. This week’s judgment does not appear to reference any property division. Presumably, Anderson and Salomon kept their assets separate for the entire two months of their marriage and did not accumulate or earn enough during that time to argue over. Anderson, of course, is an actress and model, famous for the TV series Baywatch and for her Playboy features. She was previously married to Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee and to music star Kid Rock. Salomon is known for his videotaped bedroom romp with former girlfriend Paris Hilton. He was previously married to actress/singer Elizabeth Daily and to actress Shannen Doherty. He reportedly made millions from the release of his sex tape featuring Hilton. Interestingly, Salomon was represented by attorney Laura Wasser, who represented Johnny Knoxville in his divorce last week.

Johnny Knoxville of MTV’s Jackass (and the movies of the same name) officially got divorced late last week in Los Angeles. Knoxville, whose real name is Philip John Clapp, originally filed for divorce from his wife of 11 years, Melanie Clapp, last summer. The couple has a 12 year old daughter, Madison. Knoxville and his wife have apparently been separated since July, 2006.

Last week’s divorce judgment was the result of a bifurcation of the case. Bifurcation occurs when the entire divorce case is not decided at the same time. Certain matters can be split from the rest of the case and decided at a later date. In the Knoxville case, Knoxville and his wife were granted a divorce only, meaning each is now legally single. However, all matters relating to custody, visitation, child support, spousal support and property distribution are still pending and will be decided later (in other words, all of the difficult matters are still left). In his initial divorce filing, Knoxville sought joint legal custody and joint physical custody of their daughter. He also acknowledged that he would have to pay spousal support. It is unclear exactly why Knoxville and his wife decided to bifurcate their divorce.

In the states that allow it (some states such as New York, Texas and Michigan do not generally allow bifurcation), a case can be bifurcated in several different ways. Probably the most common bifurcation is to separate the actual divorce or change in marital status from the child-related and economic matters. Two of the most common reasons for this type of bifurcation are to allow one or both spouses to remarry and to allow one or both spouses to take advantage of a single tax filing status. Bifurcation can also be used as a psychological tool - granting the divorce itself can help some spouses move on emotionally and facilitate settlement. Sometimes, it is just used because the financial or custody aspects of the case are so complicated that full investigation and trial of the issues will take many months or even years.

A case could also be bifurcated in situations where the husband and wife agree on custody, visitation and support but not property distribution - or vice versa. The divorce can be granted and visitation ordered and then a trial can be held later to decide on property division and support.

Knoxville is represented by Laura Wasser at Wasser, Cooperman and Carter, a high-profile family law firm in Los Angeles. Laura Wasser and the Wasser firm have represented many Hollywood celebrities in their divorce and custody cases. Most recently. Laura Wasser was one of Britney Spears’ attorneys in her pending custody case. Wasser and Spears parted company last fall.