Man Wins Divorce from Angry Wife in YouTube Video

NEW YORK (AP)  -- A Broadway mogul whose actress wife trashes him in a widely viewed Internet video has been granted a divorce from her.


Juliet Papa Reports

A Manhattan judge granted Philip Smith a divorce from Tricia Walsh-Smith on Monday on the grounds of cruel and inhuman treatment.

Walsh-Smith lashes out against Smith in the tearful and furious YouTube video, which has attracted more than 3 million hits. She makes embarrassing claims about their intimate life and then calls his office to repeat those claims to a stunned assistant.

On the video, Walsh-Smith also goes through their wedding album, describing family members as ``bad,'' ``evil'' or ``nasty,'' and expresses concern about eviction from the couple's luxury apartment.

Judge Harold Beeler blasted Walsh-Smith for her video stunt, which he called ``a calculated and callous campaign to embarrass and humiliate her husband'' and to pressure him into settling the case on more favorable terms than were stated in their prenuptial agreement.

``She has attempted to turn the life of her husband into a soap opera by directing, writing, acting in and producing a melodrama,'' the judge said.

He said Monday that the prenuptial agreement, signed three weeks before the couple's 1999 wedding, was valid. This means Walsh-Smith must leave their Park Avenue apartment within 30 days and Smith, president of The Shubert Organization, the largest theater owner on Broadway, must pay her $750,000.

Smith said after the ruling he was ``sorry it had to come to this.''

``I'm happy with the decision of the judge, and I'm happy with the outcome,'' he said.

Walsh-Smith didn't see the decision the same way.

``I think it's disgusting,'' she said. ``I'm really, really disappointed with the decision.''

She accused Smith of ``basically throwing me out on the street.'' One of her attorneys, Joseph P. McCaffery, said they would appeal.

The famed divorce attorney Raoul Felder briefly represented Walsh-Smith after she made the video. Felder had termed the whole thing ``funny, but there's also sadness.''

``This is a victim who is holding her head up,'' he said. ``I think she comes off well.''

Felder has explained that his client was ``acting out of passion.''

He called the prenuptial agreement she'd signed with her husband, who is a quarter-century older than her, ``stupid.''

So why did his client sign?

``Why do women sign these things? Love is blind, and sometimes it is deaf and dumb, too,'' Felder said.

The video, he added, was the act of a powerless person, and ``revolutions are made by powerless people.''