Don't believe the stories being planted in the tabloids about Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel being on the outs, or Christie talking Billy down to her kids. Nothing could be further from the truth.

But the volume is going up on this as the start of Brinkley's divorce trial with architect Peter Cook heads to a Long Island, NY, courtroom on Wednesday. The tone of Cook's "items" is getting more and more desperate.

The latest sad little attack from the Cook side warned Brinkley that on the stand, it could come out that she had somehow talked down Joel, her former husband, to her kids.

If only Cook could make that stick. But it was only seven weeks ago when Brinkley brought son Jack and a friend to see his sister Alexa sing with Joel at the Rain Forest Foundation. Backstage, the entire extended family could not have been cosier.

Ditto last summer when Brinkley brought her brother, as well as Jack and Alexa to see Joel sing at the Ross School show in East Hampton.

Many have pointed out the obvious: it only takes one look at the poised, genteel Alexa, now a burgeoning pop starlet on her own, to see how well she was raised by Brinkley and Joel. The couple has always remained incredibly friendly since their 1994 divorce.

As well: there are plenty of people will testify about Joel coming to Brinkley's aid a few years later after her brief and disastrous marriage to Colorado businessman Rick Taubman. By that time, Joel was seeing other people. His and Brinkley's friendship was solidified.

Cook, friends say, is going to have to "Cook" something up if he intends to go that route at the trial. Brinkley - who is shockingly beautiful anyway - is going to look like an angel, friends say, when examined in front of a jury.

To wit: Last week, Brinkley was honored by the American Heart Association. She is also on the board of directors of the Global Security Institute (they work for world peace and non-nuclear proliferation) and was recently in Rome for the Nobel Laureate Peace Summit. She was also honored by the Radiation and Public Health Organization for her contribution to the "Tooth Fairy Project," which is part of a study on children's baby teeth to see the level of radioactivity.

By the way, a lot of people are asking who's doing the leaking about the details of Cook's financial arrangements with his former 18 year-old lover, Diana Bianchi. Only Cook, Bianchi and her stepfather would have been privy to those details. Even Brinkley, they say, was surprised to hear all about it.