Andrea Peyser
Will the madness ever end?
Kelly Rutherford is a celeb who plays socialite Lily van der Woodsen on TV’s “Gossip Girl.’’ But at heart, she’s just a mom.
And on Friday, this hurting mother sprinted from the “Gossip’’ set in Long Island City and boarded a plane at JFK — coach class — to France. That’s where her children, Hermes, 5, and Helena, 3, who’ve lived their entire young lives in New York, were sentenced by a California judge to dwell with their father.
And what a dad!
Kelly’s ex-husband, Daniel Giersch, is a German citizen who evidently sponges off his mother and her French boyfriend. Giersch, by the way, is forbidden by the US Department of State from setting foot on American soil.
The children were handed to this character in May by LA Superior Court Judge Teresa Beaudet. It was to be temporary. But as spring turned to summer and then fall, and the kids started attending a French school (for which Kelly pays), the judge is showing no sign of letting up.
Beaudet — call her Judge Ratched — has dispensed international junk justice. And two little kids pay.
“I show up. I stay in a hotel. I’m jet-lagged. I see my kids after not seeing them for three weeks,’’ Kelly told me.
“We hold onto each other and tell each other, ‘I love you more than every leaf on every tree.’ They won’t let go of me, and then I have to leave.
“I’m just trying to keep myself together.”
Lately, Hermes has gone from screaming, “Mommy, I love you!’’ to keeping silent, unable to deal emotionally with the turmoil.
How the hell did this happen?
Is Kelly the world’s worst mom? How else to explain ripping small tots from her side?
Truth is, no one has called Kelly negligent or cruel. She’s a gem. Even the kids’ court-appointed law guardian recommended she get custody.
But Kelly has fallen victim to a specious claim that’s getting nearly as common as divorce itself. Kelly is accused by her ex of “parental alienation’’ — a new fad in bust-ups that’s wielded against women like a club.
Alec Baldwin was not the first.
The bullying actor won sympathy, claiming “alienation’’ forced him to call his then-11-year-old daughter, Ireland, a “thoughtless little pig’’ on voicemail. When Alec got caught, he played the victim of Ireland’s mom, Kim Basinger. He didn’t win custody. But he wrote a self-serving book on divorce that won a spot on the New York Times best-seller list.
It was worse for former Playboy model Bridget Marks. Her crying 4-year-old twins were ripped from her arms in 2004 after she suspected their dad, who was married to someone else, molested them. A judge ruled that just making the claim amounted to “parental alienation.’’ The kids eventually were returned. Gov. David Paterson signed 2009’s Bridget’s Law to protect women who make good-faith claims of abuse.
