Ugly Divorce: Allegations of Pedophilia/Exhibitionism Haunt Actor Stephen Collins

Stephen Collins is an accomplished actor who has performed on and off- Broadway, and in a variety of films and television productions over a lengthy Hollywood career. He is most famous for playing the father in the WB network’s “7th Heaven” for over 10 years.

After a first marriage lasting seven years, he married actress Faye Grant in 1985 and they have one child together. Ms. Grant has not seen the same career success as her husband.

Unfortunately, in 2012 their marriage broke down and Mr. Collins filed for divorce. According to Ms. Grant, about that same time they were in couples’ counselling and during a confidential counselling session Mr. Collins allegedly admitted he had sexually molested several young girls. A tape recording of this session was made by Ms. Grant without Mr. Collins knowledge and she saw to it that the tape was delivered to the police in New York.

After an apparent investigation no charges were filed agains Mr. Collins and that might have been the end of it, until gossip giant TMZ recently received a copy of the tape and released it on their website.

TMZ has stated that the tape came from Faye Grant although she has denied their claim. In the meantime, court documents filed by Ms. Grant have surfaced that are adding more fuel to the fire and Stephen Collins’ career resembles a funeral pyre, with the release of this startling information.

He was about to commence production on a movie but was immediately let go and has also resigned from the national board of the Screen Actors Guild.

The sad and sorry part is that the this tape and the accompanying allegations have nothing to do with the divorce that is before the court. Their child is an adult. The only issues are financial. Ms. Grant is seeking $13,000 a month in spousal support and division of their family community property, which reportedly amounts to $13 million.

Mr. Collins’ lawyer has said that Ms. Grant used the audiotape to extort additional monies from his client, beyond the amounts she would be entitled to by law. Of course, Grant’s attorney denies that, only allowing that she wanted him to provide a trust fund for their adult daughter and make a donation to a sexual abuse charity.

It can’t be a coincidence that the tape was released on the eve of their divorce trial this week, which has now been postponed because Faye Grant’s lawyer refuses to continue to act for her, citing a dispute regarding his legal fees and an “irremediable breakdown of the attorney-client relationship”.

If she is entitled to a substantial portion of their $13 million dollar
estate, her attorney’s excuse for dropping out of the case sounds suspicious. Could it be that her attorney realizes she has sabotaged her case by the release of the tape?

With no income coming to Mr. Collins, Ms. Grant must surely understand that any thoughts of significant spousal support are a pipe dream. And now she also has to respond to her husband’s lawsuit against her, where he is seeking $1 million dollars in damages for the harm she has caused to his career and his lost income.

At this stage, no alleged victims have surfaced and I suspect that is why the police investigation in 2012 came to a stand-still. Nonetheless, true or not, it will be a miracle if Stephen Collins can recover his reputation and professional status in Hollywood.

So ugly, and so unnecessary….Let the criminal justice system deal with this issue. It has no place in family court.

Lawdiva aka Georgialee lang

.

Canucks Divorce Trial Will Play to Standing Room Only

It’s a rare occasion when the Vancouver Courthouse is the setting for the divorce of a billionaire, but if Francesco Aquilini, Canucks co-owner and his wife don’t settle their dispute between now and next Monday, the biggest divorce trial in British Columbia history will play to standing room only.

Unlike a large percentage of high-net worth divorces, where private negotiations with a phalanx of lawyers, valuators and accountants, discretely results in big-money resolutions, this case has already been splashed across the media.

Earlier this year Talia Aquilini asked a judge to order the sale of her husband’s impressive wine collection so that she would have money to fund the litigation. At the same time, she sought an order that her husband be compelled to answer questions about the adultery allegations she made in her court filings.

On both counts she went away empty-handed, not because her husband’s lawyers outgunned her counsel, but because the law in British Columbia simply does not support the relief she sought.

In the case of the wine collection, it is unusual for a court to order the sale of family property before a trial, unless the parties both agree. Mrs. Aquilini wanted the proceeds of sale to pay for the litigation, however, in British Columbia, a court will not order an advance of family monies to pay a lawyer. A court may order that funds be advanced to hire an accountant or business valuator to value family assets, but the parties had already engaged accounting professionals to do that work.

Mrs. Aquilini’s divorce documents cite adultery as a reason for the breakdown of the marriage, a plea that is rarely invoked in modern divorce litigation. Now, it’s not that adultery has waned as a factor in divorce, it’s simply because it is much “cleaner” to divorce on the basis that the parties have been separated for one year.

When Canadian divorces were grounded in “fault”, either adultery or physical or mental cruelty, courts were regaled with graphic testimony from private detectives, paramours and other unruly scoundrels, a distasteful situation for all. Once divorce based on separation was enacted, judges gradually determined they did not need to have the “dirt dished”, a legal climate that prevails today.

Thus, Mrs. Aquilini’s application to force her husband to provide the gritty details was a non-starter.

So why would a litigant ask for orders that he or she is unlikely to obtain? Welcome to the world of high-conflict divorce, where legal sparring is de rigueur, where spouses seek to gain any advantage they can, even when the odds are against them, just because they need to win, even when they can’t.

Lawdiva aka Georgialee Lang