14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday brought the shocking revelation that Stephen Collins, the actor who famously played the doting father and kind pastor on the hit TV series “7th Heaven,” was a pedophile, as an audio recording of his confession, made in the presence of his estranged wife at a therapy session, leaked online.
Today, Collins’ attorney is telling TMZ, the same media outlet that leaked the audio, that this was all part of a scheme put together by Grant in her desperate bid to get more money from the actor.
The two were married for 27 years and she filed for divorce in January 2012. They have been duking it out in court ever since.
The leak of the tape is blackmail, but its content can’t be “addressed at this time”
On the tape, the actor is heard coolly admitting to exposing himself and / or acting inappropriately around 3 minor girls, over the course of several years. His youngest victim, as per his own words, was 10 years old, while the oldest was 13.
Two other persons are with him in the room: his wife, who is shocked to find out that there is more than one victim, as she was previously led to believe, and the therapist, who is probably trying to help them work their problems so that they don’t end up in divorce.
Grant taped the entire session without Collins’ consent because, in California, you can do that if you believe you’re about to hear a confession of a crime, especially against minors.
When the audio emerged online yesterday, no one was able to trace it back to Grant or, for that matter, to anyone, hence the assumption that it got leaked. Collins’ attorney is now telling TMZ that Grant sold it to the press because all her other attempts to blackmail her estranged husband had failed.
The attorney refuses to address the content on the audio, saying that he is not at liberty to discuss the matter right now. The NYPD is now investigating the allegations, so we’re to assume a comment would come when that is over.
Painting the wife as the bad guy
Mark Vincent Kaplan, attorney to the stars and Collins’ legal representative in this case, is obviously trying to make Grant the bad guy in the scandal. He claims that she didn’t just release the audio to intentionally harm Collins, but that she’s actually looking to make a profit out of the whole thing.
As if that – assuming that’s what she really did – is worse than what Collins did to those 3 girls.
“Over the course of my representation of Stephen in the divorce case, Faye has repeatedly threatened to give this audiotape to the media unless Stephen agreed to pay her millions of dollars more than that to which she was legally entitled,” Kaplan tells the celebrity e-zine.
“When these demands were rebuffed, Faye attempted – without success – to peddle the tape in numerous ways to numerous different people. It appears that she has finally found an audience for this tape – not surprisingly, on the eve of the trial in the divorce case where, again, she is seeking millions of dollars more than that to which she is legally entitled,” he continues.
It’s difficult, if not downright impossible, to believe that Grant would have had any trouble selling the tape before, had she wanted to; given its explosive content, it would have gone for a lot of money to the highest bidder, especially given Collins’ association with his character on “7th Heaven.”
Another source close to the actor tells TMZ that the incidents mentioned on tape happened a very long time ago, between 20 and 40 years before the day the confession was made.
Here is a segment of the leaked audio. *Please note that discretion is recommended, as its content is disturbing.
