The bitter divorce saga between former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey and Dina Matos McGreevey continues. McGreevey, in 2004, publicly disclosed that he’s gay, resigned and came clean about having an affair with a male aide.

Dina McGreevey, who last month published a tell-all book, Silent Partner: A Memoir of My Marriage, blames Jim for lackluster book sales because he called her “homophobic.” Unlike what she says in her book, Dina has also taken issue with the fact that he now claims she knew he was gay while they were married.

Meanwhile Jim says her book isn’t selling because it’s “poorly written” and “dull,” and, get this, because she dressed inappropriately for an interview on “Oprah” to plug the book. In a letter to a family court judge, McGreevey cited Dina’s “awful appearance” in “an inappropriate and ill-fitting ballgown with a plunging neckline.”

Thought your divorce was bad? Boy, do these two ever hate each other. My first impression of Jim’s comments, like most everyone’s I’m sure, was just a big “Huh? How stupid is that?” But think about how deep these marital wounds must be on both their parts.

I bet those fashion comments have less to do with Jim being an idiot and more to do with a well-thought out way of publicly humiliating Dina. He wasn’t trying to trash her for her appearance. He’s trying to prove she wasn’t the “in-the-dark” wife she says she was and, that she knew he was gay by making the most stereotypically gay comment possible.

If that’s not a man giving his ex the ultimate “up yours,” I don’t what is.

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Remember when Billy Joel and supermodel Christie Brinkley were married? Well, since her separation last year from fourth husband Peter Cook—the guy who humiliated her by flinging with his teenage assistant—it looks like Brinkley is enjoying fond recollections of her days with the Piano Man.

NBC’s “Extra” caught Brinkley and Joel on camera, albeit separately, arriving at their daughter Alexa Ray’s concert. Arriving alone, serial bride Brinkley, wearing an ear-to-ear grin, told reporters that she and Joel are friends. “We had the quickest, shortest, fastest most amicable show-biz divorce,” Brinkley said. “That’s what my lawyer told me anyway.” Joel and Brinkley married in 1986 and divorced in 1994. Joel is married to Katie Lee Joel, 26, a cookbook author and food correspondent for Bravo and the Food Network.

Granted, Brinkley was mugging for the cameras, and if her divorce from Joel was tough at one time, it’s history now and she certainly wouldn’t mention it to reporters. Still, it makes you wonder why her split from the musician wasn’t bitter, while the divorce from Cook presumably is. Could it have been because Joel didn’t cheat on her (as far as we know) and Cook did?

As easy as it is to understand how people fall into adultery, it remains the hardest thing to forget. Even separation due to something like substance abuse doesn’t have such a significant long-term effect. That may be because it’s not personal. The inability to stay on the wagon has little to do with one’s spouse. So does financial irresponsibility.

But it’s near impossible not to feel the deep hurt that comes when a partner has been cheating. It’s hard to believe we’ll ever hear Brinkley singing the same tune about friendship and amicable divorce when it comes to Cook now, or 20 years from now.

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While George Bush and friends ponder whether it’s ethical and morally correct to use stem cells from a handful of embryos for scientific advancement, one couple—ironically from Texas—are battling each other over the rights of their own embryos.

The couple, Augusta and Randy Roman, are divorced but stillfighting over their frozen embryos that they stored after Augusta miscarried. Despite the divorce, she wants to have children using the embryos and he wants them either to be destroyed or kept frozen.

Augusta, who is 45, says using these embryos—which were created from her own extracted eggs and Randy’s sperm—are her last chance at having her own biological children. Randy says the embryos weren’t intended tobe used outside of their marriage or in a way that limits him to serving as a “sperm donor.”

The fight and court case of Roman v. Roman is so heated it will go before the Texas Supreme Court. Previously, a Houston trial court ordered the embryos to be turned over to Augusta, but Randy appealed and won. The Supreme Court case isn’t yet scheduled, and there are reasonable arguments to be made in favor of both sides, but it’s plausible that the fight will ultimately come down to one simple document. It’s a consent form signed in 2002 stating that the embryos would be discarded in the case of divorce.

I can see how Mr. Roman, at this point in time, doesn’t want children to come out of a marriage that’s ended. But let’s face it, sperm is cheap and rather easy to come by. For him, it’s only about masturbating into a cup.

I’ve never personally had eggs extracted, but I know it’s not fun. And it’s certainly not something a woman would want to do more than once, even if she wasn’t considered “too old” to have her eggs harvested. I hope for Augusta’s case the decision is made with the sensitivity of the issue in mind.

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We’ve heard that when men fall in love, they fall harder than women, and that males are generally happier being married than females.

However, a new study out of Canada finds that men who had divorced or separated were six times more likely to report an episode of depression than men who remained married. Also, the rate of depression for men surpasses the rate for women. In fact, men were three and a half times more likely to have been depressed than women who were still in relationships.

Perhaps, but what the statistics don’t say is which sex initiated the breakup among these respondents. If it was split 50/50, the numbers are telling. Personally, I’ve seen both reactions, that of deep depression more devastating than the wife’s, and the reverse situation from the same man.

I was a close observer of a highly masculine, very handsome, charismatic charmer who was thrilled to finally separate from his wife to be with his longtime mistress full-time. Unfaithful, (that’s what I call him), was married to her for over a decade, had two children with her but was never “in love” with her, he said, and later grew to dislike her intensely. He couldn’t stand to be with his wife any longer, but I never knew for sure if his then-girlfriend had also pressured him to leave.

Unfaithful and mistress were married immediately. They were both deeply in love and had been for years. And truth be told, she was more suited to him than wife No. 1. Frankly, I thought his second marriage would last, but she walked out on him after 15 years.

He was angry and broken-hearted. A six-foot tall wounded bird so deeply depressed, he confessed to me he considered suicide until he started taking antidepressants and running around looking for women and sex again after a month or two.

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