Samantha Cole capitalizing on Christie Brinkley scandal

[teforde23]

'SAMANTHA! Samantha! One more time, Samantha! Right this way, Samantha!" At the red-carpet Marquee party for VH1's "Best Week Ever" last week, the newly revitalized 30-year-old pop tart Samantha Cole is twirling, posing and puckering just like she's been doing for 10 years.

Only one difference: Now the paparazzi are making money.

Ever since the deeply tanned chanteuse came forward as Peter Cook's original Christie Brinkley-cheating lover, the busty blonde - who, as her agent notes, can be seen "smiling from coast to coast"- has become the It party girl to watch.

Barraged by reporters at Marquee, Cole entertains them all. "What advice do you have for Christie, Samantha?" "How do you stay in shape, Samantha?" "How's your career going, Samantha?" "Any beauty tips, Samantha?" "Any diet tips, Samantha?"

Answers: Stay strong, work out, really great, Ponds makeup removers and a lot of chicken.

Call it the second coming of Samantha Cole, proving once again that nothing propels (or resuscitates) a career faster than scandal. Pretty much forgotten after a pop career that landed her one Top 40 hit in the '90s and more recently a Playboy "Babe of the Month" article, Cole is suddenly everywhere.

Although she is adamant that the press came to her after the Brinkley scandal broke, Cole says she decided to go on record with her story because if she didn't tell it, someone else would. Besides, she wanted to shed whatever truth and positive light she could on the situation.

The situation being, of course, when the lover of successful architect Peter Cook, a 19-year-old aspiring singer named Diana Bianchi, came forward and said that her affair was the reason for the Cook-Brinkley marital breakup. Ten years ago, Cole had been there herself: working as Cook's 19-year-old assistant, smoking hot and bedding her boss.

"I don't think you could buy that," her agent Jason Abrams says of the publicity, "as far as name awareness and consciousness."

Dressed in barely-there hot pink, the glittery-skinned, long-lashed Cole sits on the couch at Marquee listening to comedian Christian Finnegan talking about VH1's courage in paying their commentators to "make jokes about Tara Reid's fake tits." Cole is smiling politely. Reid is a friend of hers. She doesn't like this party very much.

"I didn't know anyone there," she says, noting that she normally recognizes the "Sopranos" guys, the models, the "Oz" guys, rappers, singers, people like that. Well, she's in luck. On her next stop, at club One Little West 12, it's most definitely her scene. The owner sends his regards and a table away from her is Cuba Gooding Jr.

"I've met him before," she says. "I'll go make some good drama for you."

The Oscar winner, in town to do "The View" and "Howard Stern" and promote "Shadowboxer," says he does remember meeting Cole at the opening of Marquee a while back. And most certainly, he chuckles, he remembers her of late. "Yeah," he laughs. "My wife and I were watching something on, I think, 'Access Hollywood.'"

This is a big moment for her, he says. "I got advice a long time ago from my old publicist in the business who said to me, 'Count the columns, don't read them,'" he says. "So you've got to kind of go with it."

Samantha most certainly is.

Two nights later in a decked-out limo on the way to Long Island to promote her radio single "Obsession," Cole is swirling her Red Bull and vodka surrounded by her entourage of friends, family and agent. Her Beyoncé "Déja Vu" ringtone goes off.

"Babycakes!" a bubbly Cole squeals into the phone to her new love interest, former NBA player Donny Marshall, whom she met at a celebrity golf tournament in Connecticut the weekend the Peter Cook story broke. "I miss you baby, whatchoo doing? So you guys gonna go out on the town and get into trouble, baby? Those girls got nothing on me, I'm not worried."

She's right not to be.

"Samantha has become more relevant on a wider scale," says agent Abrams, who says he approaches the entertainment world a little bit differently. ("It's like my man purse, I do things my way.") The Brinkley scandal is "what's happening in the Hamptons this summer. For whatever reason, it's more important at various times than war." He laughs. "I'd like to see, you know, this lead to something positive for everybody.

"Yes, my client has partaken in various interviews but she's only done that to shed positive light on all of the characters," he adds. "I mean, all of the people. I shouldn't say characters."

He goes on to decry overheated press coverage, noting that she has parents, you know. But when presented with the graphic sexual content of Samantha Cole lyrics from her song "Naughty Naughty," Abrams is more thoughtful.

"Well you know it's interesting that you touched upon that," he says. "Not that her mother is walking around humming those lyrics. Or she's got a song 'Superwoman,' 'take me 32 times,' you know her parents aren't sitting there by their pool sipping lemonade and singing these tunes or blasting them for their neighbors to hear. But they respect Samantha and her artistic integrity."

In fact, Abrams says, Cole who has always been ahead of her time and is far beyond her pop peers in terms of musical ability, is advancing women through both her appearances in FHM and Playboy as well as her lyrics.

"It's not being said about her," he says. "She's saying it. She's saying, 'Yes I take charge sexually or whatever. I'm a strong woman.' She feels strong enough to make those statements in her songs. It's different than if somebody is writing it about you. I compare it to these rap wars. You know what I mean?"

Cole, who is writing a book called "It Happens To All of Us," in which, yes, there is a chapter on older men and Cook is discussed, says that she did the album in Europe and much of the lyrics were penned by a songwriter named Shamrock, who is very flamboyant.

"I was like, 'Yeah, I'll sing it,'" she says with a laugh. "The gay guys will love it. The thing about the gay audience is they're so loyal, they're like country music fans, they will follow you until you die."

Cole's brother, who is gay, is in fact one of her biggest fans and says that when she made the cover of The Post, he made it his MySpace picture. Does he see this as her big scandal-putting-her-over-the-edge chance a lá Paris Hilton?

"Absolutely," says Brennen Cole, a flight attendant from New Jersey. "What happened with Paris, whether it was planned or not, it brought her into the eyes of the public. So I look at it that way, as something that could bring Samantha from the backburner to the front burner."

Cole is also doing a "Naughty Girls" revue described by her agent as Pussycat Dolls-flavored and "vaudeville today."

Does he mean burlesque? "Yeah," he says, "burlesque might be a better word. Burlesque."

On the limo ride to a club in Long Island, Abrams and Cole kid about the amount of ink devoted to the Cook scandal. "He's not the president," Cole says. "It's like, weird."

"You're 74 years younger than Brooke Astor," Abrams says. "She had a long time to earn a cover."

Cole laughs. "I don't even know what that's about. That's what's funny about that. I'm like, 'Who is that and what's going on.'"

When was the last time Cole talked to Cook?

"God, it was probably," she says, "a week and two days ago."

Her music is pumping through the limo, and the current song playing is about a girl who is disentangling herself from a relationship with a married man. "It's funny," she says. "That's why I was laughing."

Has she written any songs about Cook?

"Well my first album, I wrote a few when we were breaking up," she says. "I wrote 'Shadow of Love' and there was actually a song called 'Sometimes' on my first album that was about him."

Would she ever write a song with aspiring singer Diana Bianchi, the 19-year-old who inspired the entire Cook scandal in the first place?

Funny, Hamptons society editor R. Couri Hay, who invited her earlier in the day to a charity event, already made that joke.

"He said I should write a song called 'Scandal,'" Cole laughs. "And then Jason goes, you should duet with Diona or whatever her name is."

When she finally arrives at the Long Island club an hour late, the crowd is pumped to see Cole in action. A man is pouring shots of vodka down club-goers' throats and a midget is "woo"-ing in the corner, vodka still dribbling down his chin. Two girls make out as the club's "unofficial videographer" catches the action. A young lady in a turquoise bikini writhes behind glass in the far corner.

"All right," the promoter shouts into the mic. "We have the legendary superstar model from FHM and Playboy ... .Make some noise out there!"

The crowd makes noise. Cole starts off the song by dancing around and singing, "Uh uh uh uh uh, you're my obsession." For her second number, she brings an elated young man up on stage to paw his chest as he sits in a chair.

After the performance she is surrounded by fans, including one who found her "in Google." The fan went to Google to find models to decorate her MySpace page and came across Cole, who she said is 10 times better than Paris Hilton. On second thought, 20 times better.

At 3 in the morning, the night is called and she leaves the club, but not before helping out some locals with interviews, autographs and pictures. She is gracious. They are thrilled. They are still woo-ing.

Is this the second coming of Samantha Cole?

She smiles from her limo, all sparkle and white.

"No," she says. "Second reminder."
http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/...tadtmiller.htm

[GoldDust77]

Who the heck is this chick Samantha Cole? The article says she's a singer who's had one top-40 hit. Has anybody ever heard of her before this *scandal*? I never have.

[MillionDollarBaby]

this only proves what a total sleaze this cook guy is....he was engaged to that trash! he still is friends with her!!!

she has a rep and a look of pure trash

[Mel1973]

In fact, Abrams says, Cole who has always been ahead of her time and is far beyond her pop peers in terms of musical ability, is advancing women through both her appearances in FHM and Playboy as well as her lyrics.
This skeeve is advancing the rest of us?? Fuck her, leave me where I am. Don't think I'm ready for this woman to advance me anywhere - not with her lyrics/music and not with her "appearances" in Playboy or FHM.
NOW she's writing a book? Based on what I've read here, I like, don't think I wanna read it, ya know???

[LynnieD]

^^Agreed. Just keep your trap shut Samantha and go away already. NO ONE CARES.

[CherryDarling]

God, I hate dumb whores like this.