WHILE it is par for the course for celebrities to snipe at each other via the press, the situation has been taken to new heights by an Internet-savvy generation.
Former actress Trisha Walsh-Smith used YouTube to make public the reasons for her divorce from husband Philip Smith in a video which garnered four million views. Travis Barker and Shanna Moakler of MTV reality show Meet The Barkers carried out a war of words on their MySpace blogs back in 2006.
Whether it is simply to vent or to generate publicity, no one can tell.
Ex-supermodel Christie Brinkley has now also let her divorce trial go public. A media frenzy has surrounded 54-year-old Brinkley's divorce battle with her fourth husband Peter Cook, 49, which offers talk of Mr Cook's cheating on his wife with an 18-year-old and alleged "addiction" to Internet pornography.
Videos and media reports surrounding the divorce and films of Ms Diana Bianchi (the former mistress of Cook) are widely available online.
Marriage experts say that such public humiliation is, of course, worse if there are children involved.
"Kids are watching at home and are also watching the public arena, just the way the rest of the world is," says Ms Chong Cheh Hoon, senior vice-president (media and resource) of Focus On The Family. "They are conscious of how others interpret the divorce as well, which can be traumatising and surreal."
"I just don't see an edge to be gained (from public divorces)," celebrity divorce lawyer Brett Kimmel told Reuters.
He is representing rapper 50 Cent in a custody battle with his longtime girlfriend Shaniqua Tompkins.
"It's a regrettable approach because I don't think it garners a tremendous amount of sympathy with the person it matters to most - the judge."
DENISE RICHARDS & CHARLIE SHEEN
The lowdown: Officially divorced in 2006, Richards, 37, and Sheen, 42, have used the media to snipe at each other. She recently told the New York Post that Sheen told her to "rot in hell" when she sent him a text message to say that their daughter Sam, four, was ill.
Google it: Check out Richards' confessional reality programme on E!, It's Complicated, which premiered in the US in May. Snippets are online with an episode guide on the E! site.
TRISHA WALSH-SMITH & PHILIP SMITH
The lowdown: The former actress and playwright, 52, says she made the videos after her husband Smith, a 76-year-old millionaire theatre owner and producer, threatened to leave her penniless.
In them, she accused her husband and his daughters of conspiring to evict her from the apartment. The videos were played in court.
Google it: Go watch the videos on her website at www.trishawalshsmith.com
TRAVIS BARKER & SHANNA MOAKLER
The lowdown: Former Miss USA Shanna Moakler, 33, and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, 32, commented on their split in 2006 in their MySpace blogs. They were granted a divorce in February.
Barker accused Moakler of cheating on him in his blog and she said she was "concerned for his mental well-being".
Google it: The blogs have subsequently been taken offline, but news of the spat with snippets quoted are still on sites like TMZ.com.
