Good Lawyers in Injury Divorce DUI

In this week’s celebrity divorce news, R&B singer, actress and record producer Christina Milian has filed for divorce from her husband, the record producer known as The-Dream. Also, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has filed for divorce from his wife of 16 years, after which she was arrested for DUI.

Milian and her husband, Terius “The-Dream” Nash, confirmed their split via their representatives, signaling an end to their year-long marriage, according to People.com. They had decided to split up in late 2009, but the couple kept the news private until recently in order to protect the privacy of their newborn daughter, Violet.

Questions had arisen not long ago as pictures came out of The-Dream in an embrace with and personal assistant at the beach in the Caribbean. Confirmation that Milian and The-Dream were no longer together quickly followed.

The couple eloped in Las Vegas in September of 2009, after The-Dream proposed to Milian in July with a 6-carat diamond ring. Their daughter was born in February.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., meanwhile, filed for divorce from his wife Mary, just days before she was set to appear in court to face DUI charges.

While neither party is speaking with the media, the New York Daily News is reporting that sources are suggesting that Mary’s trouble with the law sprang from Robert Kennedy’s efforts to get a divorce.

On May 13, a day after Robert Kennedy filed for divorce, the police were called to the troubled couple’s home in Bedford, New York. In the domestic incident report, it was recorded that Robert told police that his wife was intoxicated.

Following close on the heels of those legal troubles came Mary’s May 15 DUI arrest. She was stopped outside of the St. Patrick’s School in Westchester, and she measured a blood-alcohol content of 0.11 percent. She pleaded not guilty to the charge, but still had her license suspended and was ordered by a judge to undergo an evaluation to determine if she had an alcohol abuse problem.

This is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s second divorce. He was married to his first wife, Emily Ruth Black, for almost 12 years before he quickly divorced her in 1994. Only weeks later, he married Mary.

She is an architectural designer, according to the New York Daily News. Recently, she was featured in a coffee table book about herself and RFK converting their home into a more environmentally friendly “green house.” She also worked with her husband on environmental initiatives like the National Resources Defense Council and his Riverkeeper and Waterkeeper movements.

A source told the New York Daily News that RFK’s decision to divorce his wife was not related to the legal issues that she has faced recently.

Mary is scheduled to appear in court again in late July. Her lawyer declined to comment to the press about the case, and Robert did not return calls from the press.

In Japan, there is a battle raging among the progressives and the conservatives. The Democratic Party of Japan, the progressives, came into power last year with a plan to give women the freedom to choose their married name. The current law in Japan allows only one surname per family, which is traditionally the man’s.

Many feel this requirement is wrong, and that neither side should have to change their names.

The Democrats came into power after 55 years of nearly continuous conservative control of Japan. Part of the agenda was a bill that would allow Japanese women and men to keep separate surnames after marriage.

Conservative politicians have stalled the bill, and accused the Democrats of pushing an agenda that would destroy Japanese family traditions, according to the Chicago Tribune.

According the leader of the former ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which counter-intuitively is the conservative party, allowing two surnames for one couple “would destroy the country.”

With elections looming, a poor showing at the polls could make it difficult for the Democrats to progress on this bill.

Japan is one of the few countries that still require both members of a marriage to have the same surname. Even China and South Korea allow women to have different surnames than their husbands.

Many of the Japanese women that have progressed into the professional, corporate and academic world want the right to retain their maiden names and many even use aliases at work.

With the Democrats in power, Japan may have a historically rare opportunity to make this change and give women the freedom of keeping their names.

This opportunity may be slipping as a strong opposition is mounting. “I don’t understand the mentality of couples who marry to be together but prefer separate surnames,” said Shizuka Kamei, leader of the People’s New Party. “Do we want to see door signs showing various surnames written on them at each home?”

Absent from Kamei’s argument, however, was an explanation how separate names on door signs would destroy the country.

The current system is disproportionately burdensome on the women. It places inconsistencies on social activities and can even cause the loss of identity for women.

In some very rare cases, Japanese couples use the wife’s surname. But this is typically done is the rare case that the women is an only child or to benefit the couple financially.

To force a couple to have to choose a single surname is putting an unnecessary amount of stress on a couple. With many women starting their careers before getting married, it can become an increasingly difficult task to convert an entire profession world and reputation to a new name. When a successful professional man meets a successful professional woman, it just seems wrong to require one of them to cave and have to re-establish their name among their peers.

From movie stars to championship athletes, the round-up of celebrity divorce news continues to show that the rich and famous are as likely to split as the rest of us.

Sandra Bullock and Jesse James have finalized the divorce that began with the scandalous news that James had been having an extramarital affair with a woman who was found to have posed for photos while wearing Nazi paraphernalia. CNN is reporting the finalization, as well as the news that the divorced couple will continue to co-parent James’ three kids, aged 6, 12 and 15.

The completion of the divorce also lets Bullock finish the adoption proceedings for her 6-month old son, Louis.

A source told People Magazine, “it’s not like they’re talking every day, but they’re in touch about things. It really seems like it’s about the kids more than anything.”

Bullock has been spending time with her son in New Orleans and Austin, Texas. James has apparently also made clear his intention to move to Austin also.

A friend of James’ told People that the biker bad boy wants normalcy back in his life, and a sense of family.

Another celebrity divorce was finalized, as NBA star Dwyane Wade and wife Siovaughn formally ended their marriage in Cook County, Illinois.
Dwyane expressed relief that the divorce was complete after a three year separation process, according to the Chicago Tribune. “I feel relieved,” he said outside of the courtroom. “It’s been a long, long process, and to finally get this behind us, I feel great, even though we still have more to get done.”

Wade was referring to the fact that the division of the couple’s assets and custody of the couple’s children remains up in the air. Siovaughn and her representation have said that as a result of these loose ends they will appeal the judge’s decision to dissolve the marriage. Her lawyer’s claim is that it isn’t proper to dissolve a marriage before the assets division and custody arrangements have been completed.

The ex-wife of Michael Douglas has claimed that she is entitled to half of his earnings for his upcoming Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps film. Diandra Douglas cites a provision in their 2000 divorce saying that she had a right to half of the earnings he made from any movie of his made during their twenty years of marriage, according to the Herald Sun.

According to her lawyer, the provision includes spin-offs of movies made during that time. The original Wall Street movie was made in 1987.

“It’s the same character, the same title, just years later,” said Diandra’s lawyer to the judge. The debate circles around whether a spin-off is different from a sequel.

The couple went through a vicious divorce in 2000, in which Diandra alleged that Michael was a sex addict, and a habitual adulterer. Diandra received a reported $45 million in assets in the case.

The couple have recently been in the spotlight for the arrest and conviction of their son, Cameron, on drug-dealing charges. Even at that time, Michael had little good to say about his ex-wife, claiming that she was a “young mother without any parenting skills handed down from her own parents.”

Elizabeth Edwards has no plans to divorce her estranged husband John, despite his long-term affair and child with former campaign videographer Rielle Hunter.

Edwards spoke of her marital commitment in an interview conducted with People Magazine. In the interview, topics range from her tumultuous personal life in the tabloids, to the nature of her life-threatening cancer and its treatments.

According to People, Edwards discussed her estranged husband in the interview, saying that “John’s conduct through this whole thing was terrible and it makes people want him to pay for it. On a personal level, he’s paid a lot.”

John was a presidential candidate for a time, as well as the governor of North Carolina before news of his affair broke and led to his political downfall.

It wasn’t easy for Elizabeth Edwards to leave her husband, even given the public scandal. She finally did, though, close the door on him, so that she could move on from it, as she struggles with her own illness and the uncertainty of her future.

The treatment for her cancer is stringent, the interview with People revealed. Elizabeth must take chemotherapy injections through the breast every day. These treatments can last up to several hours at a time.

In the interview, Elizabeth also put an end to the rumor that she would not want John to play a part in her kids’ lives after her death. She has, the article said, every confidence in John’s abilities as a parent.

Elizabeth doesn’t know how long she has to live, but she told the magazine that she would like to live at least eight more years, which would give her time to see her 10-year-old son Jack graduate from high school, to see her daughter Emma select a college major, and to witness her 28-year-old daughter Cate marry her longtime boyfriend.

Cate Edwards also wrote an essay about her mother for the issue of People that will run the interview. According to CBS News, that essay is “short and sweet,” and it does not mention her father’s infidelity or public scandal except to say that her mother taught her how to show grace when “somehow [your life] becomes savaged by people you never invited into it.”

According to Cate, she remains close with her father.

Elizabeth said she does not know if John still sees the woman that he had the affair with, Rielle, but that she would probably be the last one to know, anyhow. John has denied that the two still see each other.

Elizabeth didn’t know if she would work again, in the face of her illness. “Nobody wants to hire the girl with cancer,” she told People.

When asked if she was dating, she continued the theme, saying “it would surprise me even more if someone fell in love with me.”

Though she wasn’t planning on divorcing John, she does allow that she would get a divorce if one of the couple planned on marrying somebody else.

TV’s Frasier Crane probably wouldn’t have used Twitter, but the actor who played him, Kelsey Grammer, is using the social media platform to share news and thoughts on his ongoing divorce from his wife and former Playboy Playmate Camille.

With celebrities using social media to bypass the traditional media and engage directly with their fans, it shouldn’t be a surprise when a celebrity shares their thoughts on a major life event.

Kelsey Grammer, the star of TV shows like “Cheers” and “Frasier,” isn’t surprising many, then, as the latest celeb to give his own take on the rumors by broadcasting his thoughts online. He even went so far as to confirm rumors of his divorce from wife Camille via Twitter, according to E News.

“Hello everyone thank you for ur support and Yes it’s TRUE Camille and I are Divorcing I ask U 2 respect our privacy in these difficult,” the Grammer tweeted recently.

Grammer’s public representative followed up with a statement that included a few more periods and completed words. “Kelsey and Camille value privacy. They understand that private lives sometimes get played out in public but ask on this occasion that their privacy—and the privacy of their children—be respected.”

Grammer would take it a step further by blogging on a fan site about the divorce, attempting to set the record straight about various rumors that had been circling online celebrity news sources, which are reporting that he didn’t call his children on Father’s Day, and that he was seen out on the town canoodling with a woman that was not his wife.

“I have had a very interesting week to say the least,” he wrote.

Grammer listed in some detail his activities on Father’s Day as a way to say that he had, in fact, attempted to speak to his children on the holiday. He also that the woman that he was seen out with was actually his daughter.

“I do take issue with the characterization that we were smooching but surely if that were the case then even I admit it might be newsworthy in some fashion,” he said of the botched reports about a tryst with a mystery woman.

Kelsey and Camille were married for 13 years before the divorce proceedings started. Camille was the one to ultimately file the divorce papers, though the couple had discussed the possibility already. She noted that irreconcilable differences were the cause for the divorce. She is seeking primary custody of the couple’s children, who are 8 and 5-years-old.

This is Grammer’s third marriage. He and Camille met on a blind date in 1996. They married a year later. She is a former Club MTV dancer and Playboy model. She will be a figure in the upcoming reality show Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and Grammer is currently starring in a Broadway production of La Cage Aux Folles.

As a couple, they own homes in New York, Colorado, Malibu and Maui.

In China, divorce may still come with a social stigma attached, but more and more recently, new economic conditions and changing social relationships are leading to record highs in divorce in the country, according to CNN.

Take, for example, the case of TV actress Tang Yi, who has been married to her film director husband for a decade. She did not get along with her in-laws, and told CNN in an interview that he had been taking their side in disputes. “He was a sort of mamma’s boy,” she said.

Making a choice that in the past would have perhaps been avoided, she ultimately decided to divorce her husband. The free-spirited woman followed the trend that is on the rise in China: divorce.

A report from China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs said that in 2009, one out of every five marriages in China ended in a divorce. That totals 1.71 million couples who decided to untie the marriage knot. This figure represents a rise of 10.3 percent from 2008, and the numbers indicate a rising trend.

The ratio of divorces totals about 1.85 per thousand people. This presents quite a rise from the 1985 numbers, which logged only 0.4 divorces per thousand people in China.

Chinese culture, traditionally, has worked against divorce as a practice, according to CNN. The article quotes an ancient proverb which says that newlyweds should “be married until your hair turns white.”

Traditionally, women who marry more than once are looked upon with disdain, and divorced women are frowned upon and considered disgraceful. There’s even an insulting nickname for divorced women: “old shoe.” It has long been easier in Chinese culture for a man to make it through a divorce less scathed than a woman.

Recent legal changes have had an impact on the culture of divorce in China, which for the last half century has undergone some dramatic shifts.

In 1950, the Chinese government enacted a marriage law that banned arranged marriages but allowed divorce only after mediation and counseling failed. There was a surge of divorces to correct the culture of arranged marriages.

1981 saw a new law that granted a divorce if there was evidence of an affair, domestic violence or addiction to drugs or gambling. One member of the couple could ask for a divorce, even if the other didn’t want it.

As recently as seven years ago, a couple needed written permission from their employers or from their neighbors to get a divorce. People stayed in dead marriages to avoid the social stigma.

But in 2003, a new law dropped the divorce-by-committee requirement and simplified the divorce procedure.

Divorce got easier, women became more empowered, and the cultural shift continued. Only children raised in the 80s have a different view of marriage. They’re better educated, they’re more economically independent and they have a stronger sense of self, which are characteristics that can lead to shorter marriages.

Staid Chinese officials are alarmed at some of the fickleness of young couples in marriage. The “blitz marriage” is a phenomenon in which couples marry quickly, only to find that they’ve made the decision too hastily. Some legislators have pushed forward a cooling off period that gives couples time to work out marriage problems before divorcing.

Linda Jaivin, an expert on Chinese culture, says that the shift in marriage culture mirrors that of the culture as a whole. “People have to rely on themselves to feed and clothe and house themselves. They can’t really rely on the state to look after them, and people have become practical in that way.”

Even as divorce increases, there is no shortage of weddings in China. In 2009, 24 million people got married.