Ex-wife sues Jackson

Los Angeles – Debbie Rowe, the former Mrs. Michael Jackson, has sued the pop singer, claiming he has failed to pay her what he promised when the two divorced in 1999.

In the lawsuit, filed July 3 in Los Angeles Superior Court, Rowe seeks an immediate payment of $195,000 for attorney fees and $50,000 in living expenses so that she can continue pursuing her child-custody case against him.

The next court hearing on the matter is slated for July 26.

Rowe is the mother of two of Jackson’s children, Prince Michael Joseph Jackson, 9, and Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson, 8.

She gave up her parental rights to the children in 2001 but asked a judge to reinstate them in 2003 after she learned of Jackson’s arrest on child molestation charges.

Rowe says in the lawsuit that Jackson stopped making his promised payments to her in October 2003.

Jackson agreed when they divorced to pay his ex-wife $1 million a year for the first three years after their split and $750,000 annually for six more years. Rowe also received a house in Beverly Hills and a 1998 Ford Explorer. She agreed to visit her children only once every 45 days, according to the lawsuit.

Brinkley, husband separate

Los Angeles – Christie Brinkley and her fourth husband, Peter Cooke, have separated, her publicist said.

Cooke and Brinkley married in 1996 and have a daughter.

The 52-year-old supermodel was previously married to Frenchman Jean-François Allaux, Billy Joel and developer Richard Taubman.

She and Joel have a daughter, and she and Taubman have a son.

‘South Park’ episode that angered Cruise to air

Los Angeles- “Trapped in the Closet,” the controversial “South Park” episode that skewers Scientology and its popular proponent Tom Cruise, is hitting the airwaves again.

Comedy Central plans to air the Emmy-nominated episode on July 19. It was last scheduled to rerun in March but was abruptly pulled by the network.

The network rotates its 150 episodes of “South Park” in and out of the broadcast schedule, spokesman Tony Fox said Wednesday.

“This episode just happens to be rotating back in,” he said.

The show’s co-creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, were told in May that the episode was pulled from the schedule to appease Cruise and his partners in “Mission: Impossible III,” according to reports.

“If they hadn’t put this episode back on the air, we’d have had serious issues, and we wouldn’t be doing anything else with them,” Stone said in Wednesday’s edition of the trade paper Variety.