Peter Cook's lawyers made one good point in their defense against Cook's ex-wife, Christie Brinkley, today in court: that it isn't going to be so good for their children to see their dad get dressed down and embarrassed on a public stage.

They might as well have added: because their dad is a dirty, dirty dog.

Things that came out in court today:

• He only hired 18-year-old Diana Bianchi because he wanted to bang her. Well, maybe not only: But "it was an inducement into hiring her," he said.

• Also, according to Cook, she was "18 1/2."

• He wrote crap e-mails: "I don't know, you put me under your spell. You never asked me, but I left you money anyway," he wrote in an e-mail, which he read on the stand. (He hid the money under a rock, and behind a painting.)

• He told the 18 (1/2)-year-old to keep their affair a secret and sent her threatening e-mails: "I can tell you if you [we] don't deal with it it's going to blow up and I will not be alone when it does. You decide."

• He "pleasured himself over a Web cam … and would hit on potential sexual partners with lines like, 'Hey there, I'm a horny dude, spare me the philosophy and "eff" me.'"

Well. At least he wasn't the type to use profanity.

Christie Brinkley's Divorce Trial Gets Under Way [NYP]
Christie Brinkley Emotional At Start of Divorce Trial [NYDN]