As so often happens, the media has missed a crucial aspect of the Anne Heche (pictured)/Coleman Laffoon custody battle. The story below explains that the two are battling over custody of their  five-year-old son Homer.

I have no particular knowledge nor opinion of either parent's character or of much else about them. But there is a very important distinction between the two's behavior here, even though the media isn't saying much about it and it's just thrown in here at the end of the story.

Laffoon is asking for joint custody, Heche is asking for sole custody. In other words, Laffoon wants (or at least is willing) to co-parent his kid with Heche. By contrast, Heche wants full control and little or no role for Laffoon. There is a massive moral distinction to be made between the two positions, and the media misleads when it ignores this in favor of clichés about "angry custody battles" and "bitter divorces."

Anne Heche Battles Ex for Son
5/24/07
Jess Boettger

In the latest high profile custody battle, Anne Heche is duking it out with ex-hubby Coleman Laffoon. The couple’s five-year-old son, Homer, is the top prize. The embittered exes have begun to take the Alec Baldwin-Kim Basinger approach to the matter: bashing each other’s credibility as a parent. Heche has flung accusations at Laffoon that he made “heinous false statements” in trying to wrongfully depict her as a bad mother. Laffoon accused his actress ex of leaving their son in the hands of a procession of nannies while she traipsed off to Vancouver, where her new TV show, Men in Trees, films.

In retaliation, the actress has done the only sensible thing: sling mud right back. She accuses her ex of carting the boy off to preschool or dropping him into the hands of nannies and babysitters, so that his busy hands are freed up to take up ping-pong, poker, backgammon, and the occasional internet porn site. She goes so far as to say that her ex-hubby allows the five-year-old boy to join in when he hosts his weekly poker game.

Laffoon filed for divorce on February 2, and is asking for $30,000+ monthly in spousal support and joint custody. Heche is not asking for spousal support if she wins, and demands sole custody.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 at 12:04 am and is filed under Family Law, Fatherhood, Fathers' Rights/Noncustodial parents' rights, Shared Parenting, Men and the Media, Divorce/Separation/Child Custody, Gender Issues (Misc.). You can trackback from your own site.