Is Gest risking public ridicule for a payoff?

[TexasStooge]

(Court TV) — Is it really worth $10 million to admit to the world that you've been beaten up by Liza Minnelli?

For David Gest, it just might be.

This week Gest, 50, sued Minnelli, his wife of 16 months, for $10 million claiming he's suffering from lingering emotional and physical damage due to numerous beatings he has suffered at Minnelli's hands.

Aside from supplying delicious tabloid fodder — something Gest has mastered — his suit may have a far shrewder purpose than garnering headlines.

New York divorce law, as well as a reported prenuptial agreement, may leave Gest with a slim windfall after conventional divorce proceedings. The civil suit could help Gest grab a bigger portion of any shared assets the couple has, and could help him pressure Minnelli into a settlement.

"When someone sues outside their marriage, it's sometimes a way ... to manipulate public perceptions to try to get somebody to be intimidated into a settlement that you otherwise might not have gotten," said Jacalyn Barnett, a New York matrimonial lawyer.

Gest's lawyer, Raoul Felder, has been on the other side of this dynamic before. In the summer of 2002, his client, former New York Mayor Rudolf Giuliani, was goaded into a near-$7 million settlement with his wife, Donna Hanover, admitting that his open relationship with current wife, Judi Nathan, amounted to "cruel and inhuman" treatment.

That's the key to beating New York divorce law, which provides for an equitable distribution of the marital assets, or a 50-50 split, explains New York divorce lawyer Stan Lotwin.

"If you can prove that the marital fault, in this case cruel and inhuman treatment, was so egregious that it shocks the conscience of the court, then you can get more than half," said New York divorce lawyer Stan Lotwin.

In his suit, Gest says Minnelli's vodka-fueled rampages, pill-popping and constant beatings left him a shell of a man, trapped in an "unrelenting cycle of pain" and saddled with numerous hospital bills and ailments.

"When you have so many violent assaults and the result is that this man has been in pain and on medication, to me that could be a grievous fault and be considered by the court," said Lotwin.

Minnelli is taking the same tack, signaled by the divorce suit she filed Thursday citing "cruel and inhuman" treatment at the hands of the dough-faced producer.

But there might not be much money to split up.

In New York and other states, a couple's marital assets consist of money made during the marriage. Neither Gest nor Minnelli worked much during their short marriage, and a planned VH1 reality series was scrapped during filming.

"There's really no pot of money to divide," said Bob Nachshin, a Los Angeles-based matrimonial attorney and author of the book "I Do, You Do, But Just Sign Here." "I think he's going to stick with his civil suit because he's figured out that that's the only way he can get money from her."

The civil suit, agreed Barnett, will become a bargaining chip in the divorce negotiations.

"If he was restricted by a prenuptial agreement," said Barnett, "this is a way of getting around it. Considering that it's a short-term marriage, this is probably the only way for there to be a substantial payment."

Even without a prenuptial agreement, New York law restricts the amount of property that can be considered in a divorce. The home the couple purchased in Honolulu in May 2003 — which Gest now calls home — could be one of the choice prizes, for example, but Minnelli would be entitled to reclaim whatever part of the $2.9 million purchase price she footed.

In the end, Gest's take could be well below the $10 million he is seeking.

"I'm sure they will have a settlement," said Nachshin. "And it will be a settlement of all of his marital rights as well as all of his civil rights. She'll probably end up paying him six figures. It's not bad considering a year and a half marriage."

Neither Minnelli's attorney, Allen Arrow, nor Felder returned requests for comment.

Whatever the result, the dispute will almost certainly be played out in the papers as much as in court. "Both of them used the media throughout the engagement and the marriage," said Barnett. "So it should hardly be a shock that their breakup is going to be played out in the tabloids."

[stormchazer]

Show me the MONEY!!!