Sharon Stone: An Overreacting Parent?

Oct. 02, 2008— -- A judge who denied Sharon Stone's motion to move her son from San Francisco, where he lives with her ex-husband Phil Bronstein, to Los Angeles, where she lives, found the actress to "overreact" to her 8-year-old's health and questioned uprooting his "consistent home" in the Bay Area.

In a tentative statement on Stone's motion to modify custody, a judge described Stone as overreacting to her son Roan's health, such as when she suggested he get Botox injections for smelly feet and delegating her parenting duties to "third parties."

"Mother appears to overreact to many medical issues involving Roan," Judge Anne-Christine Massullo wrote in a document filed Monday in San Francisco County Superior Court and retrieved by the Web site TMZ. She described one instance in which Stone believed Roan had a spinal condition, but "there was no evidence to support this allegation."

The document continued: "Another example of an overreaction is that Mother (Stone) suggested that Roan should have Botox injections in his feet to resolve a problem he had with foot odor. As Father (Bronstein) appropriately noted, the simple and common sense approach of making sure Roan wore socks with his shoes and used foot deodorant corrected the odor problem without the need for any invasive procedure on this young child."

Stone's attorney Martin Singer, in a statement sent to ABCNews.com, disputed the court document. "Sharon Stone never made this statement," he said. "It is a complete fabrication."

According to People magazine, Massullo also wrote that Stone "simply refused" to participate in counseling unless her "schedule is accommodated and her demands are met."

"Such conduct on the part of any parent ... is unacceptable and does not serve the child's best interest," the judge wrote, adding that Stone "is unable to provide the structure, continuity and reliability that Roan needs, and candidly, deserves."

Last week, "Entertainment Tonight" incorrectly reported that Stone had lost custody of Roan, and many media outlets picked up on the story. Singer told ABCNews.com last week that Stone continues to share joint legal and physical custody of Roan with her ex-husband, who is the executive vice president of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Stone was seeking to change an October 2007 court order that gave Bronstein primary custody of Roan during the school year.

"What was before the court," Singer said, "was Sharon Stone, the respondent, had filed a motion to modify custody. She wanted Roan, who had been attending school in Northern California, to attend school in Los Angeles.

"She loves her son," he continued. "She wanted him to spend more time with her other kids [Stone adopted two more boys after her divorce] and thought it would be better to have him there with her during the school year."

Alexandra Leichter, a Los Angeles certified family law specialist, said a judge would be unlikely to change a previous custody order just so Roan could live with his younger half-brothers. "These are not children who grew up together," she said. "That's a very weak argument."

Singer said Judge Massullo denied Stone's request because she failed to meet the burden of proof that the 2007 order should be modified. But the judge's filings make it appear as though Bronstein is the more stable of the two parents.

Massullo's minutes filed on Sept. 12 said Bronstein "can provide a more structured continuity, stable, secure, and consistent home that child, Roan needs."

And in the tentative statement Monday, Massullo wrote, "Father has championed for Roan's well-being out of, what appears to this Court, nothing less than the unconditional love for his son. Unfortunately, and for unexplained reasons, it appears that Mother did not involve herself to the extent she could or should have in this process ... Mother has attempted to put up roadblocks to Roan's getting help, or has decided against participating in his care."

The court documents also provide a glimpse into the ongoing battle between Bronstein and Stone over custody of Roan. The couple married on Feb. 14, 1998, and adopted Roan shortly after his birth on June 1, 2000. By July 2003, they had separated.

After their 2004 divorce, both filed for sole custody. Stone stated that she had been Roan's primary caretaker since he was a baby. Bronstein disputed that, saying Roan's care was "delegated to a series of full-time nannies," although he did concede that Stone's career meant she had to spend a great deal of time away from their son.

Up through kindergarten, Roan alternated spending three weeks with each parent, traveling with a nanny hired by Stone between the two cities. In November 2005, a judge ordered a two-year rotating schedule, in which Roan would live with Bronstein for the first two years and his mother the following two.

The October 2007 ruling changed that, and Bronstein was given temporary primary custody of Roan during the school year. This latest ruling by Massullo will make that arrangement permanent. All the other custody arrangements laid out in the 2007 order -- that Stone have Roan one weekend per month, most of the summers and some holidays -- remain the same.

Singer said in his statement: "Sharon loves her son Roan and only wants the best for him."