NEW YORK, FEB. 20 -- Seeking the upper hand in what has become a battle of salacious tabloid headlines, Ivana Trump's publicist offered a front-page banner for today's story: "IVANA FIRES DONALD'S LAWYER."
Day 10 of Trump: The Divorce looked to be a slow news day until Ivana Trump's Park Avenue lawyer, Michael Kennedy, informed Donald Trump's Park Avenue lawyer, Jay Goldberg, that Ivana and her legal team would have no further dealings with him.
Goldberg's offense was a colorful boast to New York Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams in which he declared: "I'm a killer. I can rip skin off a body."
Kennedy replied in a letter to his adversary: "Mrs. Trump views these statements of yours as threats against her and her children's lives and mental well-being and has instructed my firm and other colleagues representing her and her children to have no further negotiations nor anything else to do with you."
Goldberg, who has also represented Bess Myerson's beau, Carl (Andy) Capasso, was unavailable for comment. In the Cindy Adams interview, Goldberg explained why he was the guy to ensure that Trump paid "not a penny" more than the $20 million spelled out in the couple's prenuptial agreement:
"Once I was to cross-examine a guy in a real estate deal and, before I was hired, the people told me, 'We want you to cause him physical pain on the stand.' I said, 'Sure, OK, I can do that.' And I did. He collapsed on the witness stand. It happens Trump knew all about this case."
Ivana Trump's PR man, John Scanlon, expressed outrage on behalf of the former Czechoslovak model: "Mrs. Trump emigrated to America from a repressive police state where violence was commonplace. She did not expect that she and her children would ever be threatened again, particularly by her husband's lawyer."
As public sentiment has rallied to his wife's side, The Donald seems struck by the unfairness of it all. The man who has eagerly plastered his last name on everything from airplanes to board games now complains that coverage of his divorce has become a "media circus."
If that's the case, readers who have taken a brief respite from the three-ring extravaganza may need an update on the billionaire's attempt to execute a leveraged buyout of his marriage:
The New York Post says today that Trump had three beefy bodyguards keep a 24-hour tail on his alleged mistress, actress Marla Maples, to make sure she never ran into his wife. Citing "a high-ranking source in the Trump Organization," the paper said the squad followed Maples from New York to Atlantic City, spiriting her in and out of Trump hotels and casinos for clandestine visits by the mega-developer.
Maples said today through her spokesman, Chuck Jones, that she has hired a lawyer to prevent unauthorized use of her pictures. "We plan an active pursuit of litigation against people wrongfully selling photos and videotape or making libelous statements against Marla. ... These people are making money off Marla's misfortune. It's going to stop," Jones said.
As Maples, 26, continued to deny through friends that she is the Trump Tower home wrecker, Trump also grew more explicit in his denials, telling USA Today flatly that "there's no affair."
But Cindy Adams unearthed a former friend of Maples, art dealer Steve Marco, who reported that the blond actress was "totally obsessed" with Trump as long ago as the summer of 1988 and had showed him jewelry and other gifts Trump had given her.
The Queens-born tycoon also declared that he wants the Daily News's star gossip columnist, Liz Smith, fired because, among other things, she is "hurting them, Ivana and the children." Smith fired back that Trump "created this situation, not the media."
Ivana Trump remained secluded at the Plaza Hotel, where the staff gave her a champagne party for her 41st birthday. Donald skipped the affair, despite having flown to Palm Beach, Fla., over the weekend for yet another Ivana birthday bash at their 118-room Mar-a-Lago estate. The Florida trip produced a spate of reports that a reconciliation might be near, but that was squashed by another patented New York Post headline.
"SEPARATE BEDS," the paper announced.
Trump spokesman Howard Rubenstein dismissed the reconciliation talk with the solemnity of a State Department spokesman, saying Trump and his wife had only a "brief, cordial" chat. Trump went to Florida primarily to see his three children, Rubenstein said.
Local television news has been feeding the frenzy. WCBS-TV last weekend broadcast an "exclusive" home video of the buxom Maples jumping up and down in a form-fitting leotard, the chief purpose of which seems to have been ... well, you know.
There are growing signs that Trump has become a trifle testy about the saturation coverage. When Marcia Kramer, a platinum blond political reporter for the Daily News, asked him for an interview in Palm Beach, Trump replied: "They will think I am having an affair with you. Anyone who is blond and attractive, they think I am having an affair with."
More telling was the Trumpian rage vented at Liz Smith, who broke the divorce story and attended an intimate birthday luncheon for her friend Ivana last week. After another of those restrained Post tabloid headlines quoted Marla allegedly telling a friend about Donald's bedroom prowess ("BEST SEX I EVER HAD"), Smith told her Daily News readers that "Donald was delighted with The Post. He commented: 'Did you see it? Wow! Is that terrific?' "
The columnist opined that Trump "still relishes his macho-man publicity" and urged Ivana to "stop sobbing over Donald Juan."
That was a bit much for Mr. T. "Liz Smith is being used, she was played like a fiddle," he thundered to the News. Trump also said Smith had "disgraced the industry," was "making up quotes" and "writes whatever comes into her head," adding: "I may bring suit against her."
Not everyone is cheering Smith on. At her own paper, columnist Mike McAlary wrote a satirical piece mocking her name-dropping style and her role as a journalist-participant in the Trump saga. The News killed the column.
The public seems to be in Ivana Trump's corner; a Daily News phone-in poll found 82 percent of respondents siding with her. She also got a warm shoulder from Cardinal John O'Connor, who said he had counseled Ivana for about 45 minutes.
For those who suspect that the rich really are the same as you and me, only richer, there was this heartwarming footnote out of Palm Beach: Fred and Mary Trump, Donald's parents, took Donald Jr., 12, Ivancka, 8, and Eric, 6, on a buying spree at the local Toys 'R' Us to cheer them up.