Jesse James, Sandra Bullock Win Custody Battle With Porn Star Janine Lindemulder
Sandra Bullock and Jesse James win custody of his daughter from porn star.
Dec. 9, 2009 — -- Miss Congeniality wins.
Jesse James, the husband of "Blind Side" actress Sandra Bullock, won his custody battle with his porn star ex-wife, Janine Lindemulder, earlier this week. Bullock and James get custody of James' 5-year-old daughter, Sunny.
Court papers say Lindemulder, Sunny's mother, can now visit her daughter only during daytime hours. While Lindemulder wanted Commissioner Thomas Schulte to expand the visits to include overnight stays, he negged her request, but threw her a bone: Sunny can spend Christmas Eve with Lindemulder, as long as she returns the girl to James and Bullock by noon Christmas day.
It's a bittersweet end to James and Bullock's battle. Last month, the star of the Spike TV series "Jesse James Is a Dead Man" finally spoke out about the months-long bitter custody dispute.
"Sandra Bullock is not a party to this litigation," James' attorney, Marilyn Slifman, said in a statement to People magazine in November. "Mr. James' sole concern is for the safety, welfare and best interests of his daughter. The proper forum to resolve this case is in the courtroom."
Slifman called Lindemulder's claims about the custody battle, made recently on "Good Morning America," "inaccurate and unfortunate."
"It hurts tremendously, the accusations, especially from Sandra," Lindemulder said on "GMA" in her first interview about the case. "Even more so because we've never sat down and talked. You know, that's the one thing that I wish more than anything, for a remedy for what's happening here, is just communication."
Bullock, the perpetual girl-next-door actress famous for films including "The Proposal" and "Miss Congeniality," has been helping her husband raise Sunny since January, when Lindemulder was in prison for tax evasion.