CHRISTIE BRINKLEY BIOGRAPHY

• Christy Brinkley was born Christie Lee Hudson and was born on February 2, 1954 in Detroit, Michigan. Her father was TV writer/producer/director Don Brinkley (The Man From Uncle, The Virginian, Trapper John, M.D.). At a very young age, her family moved to sunny Malibu, California.

• She grew up a normal Californian teenager, however, she attended, Le Lycée Français de Los Angeles, a French-American High School in Los Angeles. She was also artistically inclined as a child. Armed with the knowledge of French and a love of art, she moved to Paris in 1972, at the age of eighteen and enrolled in an art school.

• Soon after coming to Parris, she fell in love and married Jean-François Allaux in 1973. Their marriage lasted until 1981 and the couple did not have any children.

• After art school, she found a job as an illustrator. After three years, she was spotted walking on a Paris street by an American photographer and her career as a model began. She was hesitant at first because she would be giving up a career that she enjoyed – But, her new husband was in the army, and her dog was sick so the photographer convinced her that she was a natural beauty that would be perfect for modeling and would make money to pay all of her bills. Her first modeling appearance was in Parents magazine – where she modeled wearing a bikini. In little time, she was signed by the Ford modeling agency and her career took off. [I am not going to write about the allegations made in the book Model.]

• Within a year (1976), she signed her first contract as the cover girl for Cover Girl cosmetics and she literally became the face of the company for an unprecedented twenty years. However, her fame came to new heights when she posed for the cover of the 1979 edition of the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated. The poses in this magazine gave her international fame. In fact, she posed for the 1980 and 1981 editions as well wearing smaller and smaller bikinis.

• She made her short, yet memorable movie debut in 1983 as Chevy Chase’s dream girl in National Lampoon’s Vacation. She was happy being a supermodel and did not pursue a career in television or the movies like many of today’s models slash actresses.

• She did not let her creative skills get rusty and in 1983 wrote a book on beauty and fitness, appropriately titled “Christie Brinkley's Outdoor Beauty and Fitness Book,” which appeared on the New York Times best seller list.

• Being at the top of her industry, Christie Brinkley found love again, this time with a musician at the top of his industry – Billy Joel. Christie and Billy were married in March 1985. He featured her in several of his music videos, including the famous “Uptown Girl” video that showed off his classically beautiful wife. The couple had their only child, Alexa Rae on new years day 1986. [Note: she also appeared in Joel’s video “Keeping the Faith” and Mick Jones’ video “Just Wanna Hold.”

• In the mid to late 1980s Brinkley would take brief respites from the modeling word and stand at the opposite end of camera as the photographer. She was highly skilled and had her pictures published in many magazines including Autosprint and American Photographer. In fact, she could also be seen at ringside at many boxing events run by Don King as the official photographer. In addition to boxing, she has also photographed race car driving and baseball (whose pictures appeared on cards produced by Pinnacle) She had also created the cover art for Billy Joel’s River of Dreams album.

• In 1992, Christie had a short gig as the host of a news/culture journal show entitled Living in the ‘90s with Christie Brinkley. She introduced several pre-filmed segments as the host. Being dissatisfied with the format, she left only after a few weeks. She has made several other TV appearances on talk shows and even a role in an episode of the sitcom Mad About You in 1994 and the comedy variety show Blue Collar TV in 2004.

• Throughout the 1990s she balanced between the two loves of her life, modeling and motherhood. Her modeling was in less demand, but her mothering began to increase. However, her love life began to turn sour in the early 1990s and she divorced Billy Joe in late August 1994. Soon was comforted by a friend, real estate magnate Richard Taubman, who married her in December 1994. Their son, Jack Paris Brinkley, was born in early June 1995. Their marriage was short lived and they divorced in 1995. [Fast fact: Taubman and Brinkley survived a helicopter crash in Colorado in March 11994.]

• She gained a new fame towards the end of the 1990s, not because of her role as a magazine model, but because of an infomercial in 1997 for Total Gym – which showed a still very sexy 40+ year-old Christie Brinkley. The infomercial was highly successful for the company.

• It seems that the fourth time is the charm for Brinkley when it comes to love and marriage. She married her fourth and current husband, architect Peter Cook in September 1996. They had a daughter together in July 1998 named Sailor Lee Brinkley Cook.

• In 1997, Christie began to branch out and went into business. She launched her own perfume called Believe. This was the start of her business side which has expanded to designer eyewear and toys for toddlers.

• In 1998, Brinkley sued the National Enquirer for basically calling her crazy. However, the judge threw out her $42 million dollar suit because even though the article, Christie Cracks Up was “truly obnoxious” it did not subject her to “hatred, contempt or aversion.”

• When not working or being “mom,” she spends her time volunteering for different causes, such as nuclear disarmament and the Make-A-Wish-Foundation. She also has spent time working for various politicians she believes in – and was a delegate at the 2000 Democratic Convention in Los Angeles. [Fast fact: she is a vegetarian]

• She has graced the cover of well over 500 magazines during her illustrious career (including Cosmopolitan, Time, Life, Vogue, Mademoiselle, Ladies’ Home Journaland and many more) – and has just signed a contract (now at the age of 51) to model for Cover Girl once again. She has also modeled for many products besides Cover Girl including Prell shampoo, MasterCard, Diet Coke and Chanel perfume.

• Her husband, Peter Cook has been caught cheating on her with an 18 year old. The couple has split and in late July 2006, he has made a public announcement that his is "stupid" for the affair and wants them to stay together.